Things are looking up for Huntsworth (HNT). Revenues for the year to December 2018 (adjusted for pass-through costs) rose by 14 per cent to £225m, or by 1.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis – beating analysts’ expectations.
This performance was underpinned by growth across the specialist communication group’s healthcare businesses, which enjoyed a 6 per cent like-for-like improvement in combined sales. Indeed, Immersive – which provides events and internal communications particularly pertaining to healthcare – saw a 33.9 per cent increase to £35.4m.
True, marketing – the largest healthcare segment – endured a 3.2 per cent decline in like-for-like sales to £82m. However, this stemmed from pre-disclosed challenges, including tough comparatives, delayed client project expenditure and some drug mandate losses – and these were largely confined to the first half. Moreover, marketing was bolstered by three acquisitions made during the period – AboveNation Media, Giant Creative Strategy and Navience Healthcare Solutions.
Meanwhile, Huntsworth’s communications business saw a 5.1 per cent decline in sales to £73.4m, though this was “expected”, while a drop in operating profits from £7m to £6m reflected around £1m-worth of non-repeating reorganisation costs.
House broker Numis expects adjusted pre-tax profits of £38.3m and EPS of 8.4p for 2019, against £30.9m and 7.1p in 2018.
| HUNTSWORTH (HNT) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 96p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 336m | |
| TOUCH: | 94-96p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 140p | LOW: 78p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.4% | PE RATIO: | 15 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 52p* | NET DEBT: | 39% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 206 | -59.6 | -17.6 | 1.75 |
| 2015 | 209 | -39.8 | -12.3 | 1.75 |
| 2016 | 216 | -16.5 | -5.6 | 1.75 |
| 2017 | 260 | 22.9 | 4.8 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | 352 | 28.6 | 6.4 | 2.3 |
| % change | +36 | +25 | +33 | +15 |
| Ex-div: | 23 May | |||
| Payment: | 04 Jul | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £287m or 82p a share | ||||
