Tracsis’ (TRCS) half-year sales momentum was driven by strong trading across both of its businesses – rail and traffic. Indeed, rail revenue rose by 17 per cent to £9.2m year on year, translating into pre-tax profit growth of 12 per cent for the division, to £3.5m. Rail software generated high product renewal rates, while also reaping the benefits of a recently announced deal with a major UK train operator to use its TRACS Enterprise platform – this could generate further leads across the broader rail sector.
Revenues at the group’s traffic and data systems business climbed 15 per cent to £8.8m, while pre-tax profits grew by a whopping 647 per cent – albeit from a low base – to £0.4m. This growth was buoyed by the traffic data and passenger counts segment, for which sales rose 12 per cent to £6.6m – helped by a major contract win in London. Moreover, a new multi-year agreement with a global engineering company should contribute to divisional income “for years to come”.
Investec forecasts adjusted EPS of 23.7p for the 12 months to July 2018, against 23.3p for the 2017 financial year.
| TRACSIS (TRCS) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 517p | MARKET VALUE: | £146m | |
| TOUCH: | 510-524p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 575p | LOW: 348p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.3% | PE RATIO: | 34 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 129p* | NET CASH: | £18.5m | |
| Half-year to 31 Jan | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017 | 15.6 | 1.8 | 5.1 | 0.6 |
| 2018 | 18.1 | 2.4 | 6.8 | 0.7 |
| % change | +16 | +33 | +34 | +17 |
| Ex-div: | 12 Apr | |||
| Payment: | 27 Apr | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £23.6m, or 84p a share | ||||
