ULS Technology (ULS) made better progress in the half year to September 2017 than the headline figures suggest. Underlying operating profit jumped 44 per cent to £2.81m, with statutory figures affected by one-off costs associated with the acquisition of business-to-business (B2B) conveyancing platform provider CAL.
Crucially, ULS continued to increase its market share of property conveyancing in what remains a subdued market. And there is plenty of room for further expansion as it currently has less than 5 per cent of the overall conveyancing market.
The acquisition of CAL gave ULS better exposure to conveyancing work gained through estate agents, and in the first half this resulted in over 10,000 conveyancing completions through estate agents.
ULS is also well placed through its core platform – which aligns property buyers with solicitors – to benefit from government initiatives to make the conveyancing process more streamlined and more transparent. Measures announced in the Budget to help first-time buyers could also boost trade.
Analysts at Numis are forecasting adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to March 2018 of £5.4m and EPS of 6.4p (from £4.4m and 5.4p in FY2017).
| ULS TECHNOLOGY (ULS) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 147p | MARKET VALUE: | £95m | |
| TOUCH: | 147-149.75p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 155p | LOW: 73p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.5% | PE RATIO: | 59 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 13p* | NET DEBT: | 28% | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2016 | 9.78 | 1.74 | 2.18 | 1.1 |
| 2017 | 15.28 | 0.63 | 0.29 | 1.15 |
| % change | +56 | -64 | -87 | +5 |
| Ex-div: | 7 Dec | |||
| Payment: | 22 Dec | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £17.9m, or 28p a share | ||||
