Shares in global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools RELX (RELX) hit a new all-time high, gaining 2% to £22.58 after the company said it expected full-year revenue and underlying operating profit growth to be above historical trends.
The company noted that underlying revenues grew 6% in the first nine months to 30 September, spearheaded by double-digit growth in the risk division and a bounce back in exhibitions (4% of revenues) as venues gradually reopen.
Over the last five years total revenues have grown by around 3.5% a year while earnings per share have increased by approximately 6.8% a year, according to Stockopedia data.
The risk division (36% of revenues) continued to be driven by demand for fraud prevention and identity solutions and strong new sales in insurance. Meanwhile data services returned to ‘strong’ growth.
LEGAL AND SCIENTIFIC PROFIT BOOST
RELX expects profit growth to match the underlying growth in revenues across most of the group’s activities, except for the legal and SMT (scientific, technical and scientific) divisions where profits are expected to ‘exceed’ and ‘slightly exceed’ underlying revenue growth respectively.
In legal, electronically delivered services continued to grow and now represented 87% of revenues, while the company said that print ‘remained stable’.
Numis said RELX’S positive statement ‘firmly underpins FY estimates with small upside risk’.
