Computacenter’s (CCC) top line surpassed the £4bn milestone in 2018, no doubt contributing to the shares’ decent mark-up on results day. The IT group’s largest market, Germany, enjoyed an 8.3 per cent rise in sales to €2.12bn (£1.83bn), underpinned by growth within technology sourcing (previously known as ‘supply chain’). Meanwhile, services revenue increased by 4.5 per cent to €613m. However, the services margin fell two percentage points, after extra costs were incurred within the managed services sub-segment to “stabilise and resolve technical challenges in new contracts”. Still, Computacenter believes investments made last year should drive “major improvements”.
Elsewhere, the UK’s technology sourcing sales increased by 17.1 per cent to £1.1bn. But services revenues fell 5.6 per cent to £450m. The group blamed this on a flat performance within managed services, and a considerable 17.8 per cent decline in professional services to £116m. The latter suffered from tough comparatives, after “extraordinary volumes” of revenue from a contract that completed in 2017 weren’t replaced. The group also bolstered its stateside footprint during the period – although its acquisition of US-based FusionStorm in October knocked statutory earnings.
House broker Investec forecasts adjusted pre-tax profits of £128m and EPS of 80.3p, against £118m and 75.7p in 2018.
| COMPUTACENTER (CCC) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 1,190p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.36bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,188-1,194p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,632p | LOW: 936p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.5% | PE RATIO: | 17 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 392p* | NET CASH: | £200m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014† | 3.11 | 76.4 | 40.5 | 19.0 |
| 2015 | 3.06 | 127 | 83.9 | 21.4** |
| 2016 | 3.25 | 87.1 | 52.9 | 22.2 |
| 2017 | 3.79 | 112 | 67.3 | 26.1 |
| 2018 | 4.35 | 108 | 71.4 | 30.3 |
| % change | +15 | -3 | +6 | +16 |
| Ex-div: | 30 May | |||
| Payment: | 28 Jun | |||
*Includes intangible assets of £185m, or 162p a share **Excludes special dividend of 71.9p a share †Dividend of 19.8p in 2014 when adjusted for share consolidation in Feb 2015. | ||||
