Shares in research and data analytics firm YouGov (YOU) jumped 6% to £12.10 following the announcement of strong results for the six months ended January 2022.
Management have reaffirmed its full year outlook, with trading marginally ahead of management expectations.
The market has been particularly encouraged by the higher visibility of group revenues now that a much larger proportion is emanating from Data Products. This prompted a series of broker upgrades to 2023 earnings forecasts.
Revenues increased by 28% to £101.2 million, and adjusted operating profit was 33% higher at £14 million. The adjusted operating profit margin edged higher to 13.8% versus 13.3% in the first half of 2021.
Adjusted profit before tax increased by 12% to £15.4 million, and adjusted earnings per share moved ahead by 10% to 10.6p.
STANDOUT PERFORMERS
First half organic growth of 25% was predominantly driven by robust growth in both the Data Products and Custom Research divisions.
The former recorded underlying revenue growth of 32% to £34.8 million due to high levels of subscription sales and renewal rates.
America was a particularly buoyant region recording growth of 36%, as was mainland Europe which secured a blistering 44% revenue growth rate.
Custom Research was another source of growth benefiting from the acquisition of Link in December 2021. The division secured organic revenue growth of 28%.
The group continues to place greater emphasis on targeting larger, multi-national tracking studies. In addition the increased phasing of large, custom projects for technology clients helped to boost margins by 300 basis points to 19% in the first half of 2022.
Data Services recorded the weakest sales growth of 9% mainly due to the UK government and the non-profit sector adjusting spending following the pandemic.
The shares trade on 40 times forecast earnings per share for 2022, falling to 32 times in 2023.
Peel Hunt analyst Jessica Pok is positive following today’s results, saying: ‘Our expectation of a higher contribution marigin leads to an increase in our full year 2023 earnings per share of 15%’
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