- Revenue seen in line with guidance
- FY EBITDA margin above first half
- US asset manager takes a punt
Shareholders in knocked-down FTSE 250 fintech Auction Technology (ATG) were waving their arms in the air after the firm posted a positive update on trading for the full year to the end of September.
Having slowly but steadily lost more than three quarters of their value since their highs above £16 in 2021, the shares jumped as much as 12% to 460p taking them to the top of the mid-cap leader board.
IMPROVED MOMENTUM
In its statement, the group said it had made ‘good progress’ against its strategic initiatives including growing the take-up of its added-value services and rolling out its new cross-listing tool atgXL.
More pleasing for investors was the news GMV (gross merchandise value), or the total value of the goods sold across auction sites using its technology, showed ‘significantly improved momentum’ in the second half of the year.
On a year-over-year basis GMV was still slightly negative, but the exit rate in September was clearly positive and the company expects to post a 5% increase in revenue to $174 million, in line with market forecasts.
Most pleasing of all, cost performance was in line with expectations so the group is on track to deliver a ‘significantly improved’ EBITDA margin (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, divided by sales) of 45% to 46% compared with 42% at the half-year stage in March.
WELL-TIMED BID
Interestingly, two days ago the company released an RNS (regulatory news service) showing the UK office of Baltimore-based asset manager T. Rowe Price (TROW:NASDAQ) had scooped up just over 5% of the voting rights.
Looking back through the daily trading volumes, depending on how long it took to amass the holding it would appear the underlying shares were most likely accumulated at or around the 400p level either directly or via CFDs (contracts for difference).
