Anyone that has taken a look at the Chicago Board of Exchange Volatility Index (popularly known as the 'Vix') will know markets have been relatively calm during the past year, save for some election-linked spikes. This hurt trading volumes for contracts for difference specialist CMC Markets (CMCX) during the 12 months to March 2017. Revenue per active client was down 11 per cent to £2,517, denting pre-tax profits.
However, the group made progress elsewhere, signing its biggest ever institutional deal with ANZ Bank in Australia to service its stockbroking business from September 2018. This will mean transferring the bank's 250,000 active clients on to its platform. Institutional partnerships were up 43 per cent in total, to 154. This helped push up the value of client trades in the UK particularly.
Active clients were up in the two other regions, Europe and Asia-Pacific/Canada. This resulted in a 5 per cent increase in client numbers at a group level. The newly opened Poland office continued to grow ahead of management expectations, while France put in a particularly strong performance, increasing the value of client trades by more than a quarter.
Analysts at RBC Capital expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £31m for the 12 months to March 2018, giving EPS of 8.6p (down from £48.5m and 13.6p in FY2017).
| CMC MARKETS (CMCX) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 141p | MARKET VALUE: | £406m | |
| TOUCH: | 141-141.3p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 294p | LOW: 94p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 6.3% | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 68p | NET CASH: | £44.4m | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013* | 128 | -5.4 | -1.4 | nil |
| 2014* | 138 | 32.2 | 8.6 | nil |
| 2015* | 158 | 43.5 | 12.4 | nil |
| 2016 | 186 | 53.4 | 15.1 | 8.93 |
| 2017 | 186 | 48.5 | 13.7 | 8.93 |
| % change | - | -9 | -9 | - |
Ex-div: 3 Aug Payment: 25 Aug *Pre-IPO figures | ||||
