dotDigital’s (DOTD) preliminary results to June added colour to a broadly positive – and reassuring – picture painted within July’s trading update. Why reassuring? In the first half, the marketing automation group had seen some customers lengthen their purchasing cycles as they assessed customer data in the lead-up to GDPR – the EU’s new data privacy rules, which came into effect on 25 May. But sales cycles have “normalised” since GDPR’s implementation, and full-year revenues for the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region grew organically by 11 per cent to £30.4m.
dotDigital’s international operations also gained momentum. Excluding the impact of acquisitions, US sales rose 43 per cent to $7.1m (£5.4m) while the Asia Pacific region enjoyed an 85 per cent uplift – albeit from a low base – to AU$2.1m (£1.1m). Organic growth rates are encouraging, even without the impact of Comapi, the cloud communications business acquired last year. Comapi has now been fully integrated, and is performing in line with expectations – contributing £6.2m to revenues over the seven-and-a-half months from mid-November.
Broker finnCap forecasts adjusted pre-tax profit of £13.3m and EPS of 3.8p for the year ending June 2019 (from £10.1m and 3.1p in FY2018).
| DOTDIGITAL (DOTD) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 88p | MARKET VALUE: | £262m | |
| TOUCH: | 86-90p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 106p | LOW: 70p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.7% | PE RATIO: | 30 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 12p* | NET CASH: | £15m | |
| Year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 16.2 | 3.6 | 1.2 | 0.20 |
| 2015 | 21.4 | 5.2 | 1.6 | 0.36 |
| 2016** | 26.9 | 6.2 | 1.8 | 0.43 |
| 2017 | 32.0 | 8.1 | 2.4 | 0.55 |
| 2018 | 43.1 | 9.2 | 2.9 | 0.64 |
| % change | +35 | +14 | +19 | +16 |
| Ex-div: | tbc | |||
| Payment: | tbc end January 2019 | |||
*Includes intangible assets of £19.4m, or 7p a share **Excludes 0.41p special dividend paid on 31 Jan 2017 | ||||
