Shares in London went into reverse this morning as strong employment figures for the UK were offset by disappointing wage growth. Click here for The Trader Nicole Elliott's latest thoughts.
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Focusrite (TUNE), the music and audio products company, published a trading update reporting revenue growth of around £66m for 2017, up from £54.3m achieved in the 12 months ending 31 August 2016. Revenue and profits both grew in the second half relative to the first, thanks to factors including higher product sales, currency benefits and gross margin management. Net cash also improved to £14.2m, up from £5.6m a year earlier. Buy.
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Shares in Wilmington (WIL) fell by 5 per cent, after the information provider reported a 14 per cent rise in revenue for the full year, with growth from risk and compliance and healthcare, but margins “impacted by significant investment particularly in compliance”. The group also expects to increase its operating expenditure in 2017/18, to enable investment in people, IT infrastructure, automated marketing and the digitisation of training programmes. The final dividend rose by 7 per cent to 4.6p. Wilmington also announced that chief financial officer Anthony Foye has informed the board of his decision to step down. While the company looks for a successor, Mr Foye will maintain his position until June 2018.
Statpro (SOG), the cloud-based portfolio analytics provider, announced that a large European asset manager had extended its contract for Statpro’s Delta service by two years, in an agreement valued at £1.5m. Shares rose just over 1 per cent.
SQS (SQS) reported a 90 basis point gross margin improvement, despite a 3.9 per cent fall in the top line. This fall was caused by the loss of one banking client, representing €7.0m. The adjusted cash profit margin also increased. SQS expects revenues in the second half to outperform those of the first, in spite of the currency headwinds currently experienced. Management cites a healthy pipeline.
Shares in homewares retailer Dunelm (DNLM) are up more than 7 per cent following the release of the group’s full year results. The acquisition of Worldstores has weighed heavily on the cash profits, pushing them down 7.8 per cent year on year, but its increased size as a result has led it to aim for a doubling in sales to £2bn over the medium term.
Mattress retailer and sleep company Eve Sleep (EVE) has grown rapidly in the half year to June 2017. Revenues were up 126 per cent to 11.5m, while gross profit climbing 142 per cent. The group has been expanding its range of products and geographies to fuel its expansion, but costs related to its recent IPO have pushed its loss before tax deeper, to £9.1m for the period. Shares are down slightly in early trading.
