Future Share Discussion Threads

[rimau1] 09/5/2024 08:11

ITV announcing strong Q2 recovery in advertising. After RCH last week i am convinced the bottom of the Ad cycle is in.

[rimau1] 08/5/2024 15:42

Nice recovery from the lows and a well timed scsw update last weekend. Plenty more gas in the tank with a 12 month view imo

[smokeyjohnson] 07/5/2024 09:03

Increased their shareholding but slight decrease in their overall exposure.

[smackeraim] 07/5/2024 08:30

Blackrock increased holding

[smokeyjohnson] 03/5/2024 11:35

The appointment of a CFO should remove one of the bear's arguments

[smackeraim] 03/5/2024 08:42

Appointment of Sharjeel Suleman as Chief Financial OfficerThe Board of Future plc ("Future" or "the Company"), the global platform for specialist media, is pleased to announce the appointment of Sharjeel Suleman to the Company's Board as Chief Financial Officer.Sharjeel is currently Chief Financial Officer at ITV Studios, a role he has held for the last five years. Before this, he held a variety of senior finance roles at ITV plc including Director of Group Finance and Director of Investor Relations. Sharjeel started his career at KPMG, where he qualified as a chartered accountant.

[smackeraim] 02/5/2024 13:27

Big trades there!!

[smackeraim] 02/5/2024 10:54

Quite incredible the web properties these own. I think Gocompare and Marie Claire cost them more than the current m/c alone The Company's brands include Tom's Guide, Marie Claire, PC Gamer, Homes & Gardens, GO.COMPARE, Cyclingnews, Country Life, Space.com, Guitar World, Advnture, Fit&Well, FourFourTwo, Practical Boat Owner, CinemaBlend, TV & Satellite Week, TV Times, Creative Bloq, ImagineFX, Newsarama, Bass Player, and Computer Music, among others.

[smackeraim] 02/5/2024 09:36

Yeah, ad rates seemed to bottom out in 2023. Probably not be a mega fast recovery to higher levels but green shoots etc

[rimau1] 02/5/2024 09:13

Reach gave a positive update on advertising spend. Bottom of the cycle hopefully in

[smackeraim] 02/5/2024 09:11

Heading up now it seems

[smackeraim] 01/5/2024 16:08

Filled the gap up from trading statement morning, a couple days back. Hopefully that's it sorted and can gain some ground now.

[red ninja] 26/4/2024 15:09

Investors's Champion tip sheet comment 4/4/24

hxxps://www.investorschampion.com/channel/blog/an-interesting-business-lurks-in-the-wreckage

Future: why so cheap?
Future (AIM: FUTR), which calls itself the global platform for specialist media and also combines Go.Compare, the financial services comparison company it acquired in 2020 for £594m, updated on trading for the six months ended 31 March 2024.

Future owns more than 230 well-known brands such as Country Life, Homes & Gardens, Decanter, Money Week and plenty of technology and gaming titles. It acquired Money Week through the acquisition of Dennis Publishing for £300m in 2021.

The return to growth in the current year has been driven by a strong performance in Go.Compare, alongside good growth in B2B, and a resilient performance in Magazines. This has been offset by a more challenging performance in affiliate products and digital advertising.

There is lots of marketing speak in the update around the “reorganisation to accelerate the Growth Acceleration Strategy”, which means little to us, and plenty more marketing speak to enjoy in the investor relations section of their website here.

They also stated how “cash conversion in the half has been strong” but gave no indication of what this is and indeed the period end net debt position, which was £327m at the 30 September 2023 year end.

Despite the lack of detail, the market was clearly reassured with the news that Future is “on-track to deliver on expectations for FY 2024”, pushing the shares up 16% to 695 pence and market capitalisation to £800m.

By our reckoning statutory free cash flow in the financial year to 30 September 2023 was £159m (the results gave adjusted free cash flow as £253m, which conveniently ignores interest and tax!), which equates to a highly attractive free cash flow yield of c16% based on an enterprise value of £1 billion.

Forecast adjusted earnings of 121 pence for the year to September 20204 result in a PE ratio of only 5.7x, which suggests the market has little faith in forecasts and indeed the longer term outlook.

The shares are 80% down on the highs hit in August 2021, when the market capitalisation was over £4 billion, as it basked in the glory of an acquisition boom under former CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne, who stepped down in 2023.

If the future isn’t half as bad as the market clearly fears, there could be another good recovery story here and as we commented in our earlier article here, with appealing brands and cash flow it certainly looks vulnerable to a bid.

[northwards] 25/4/2024 09:18

Bounce ahead of results. ?

[smokeyjohnson] 19/4/2024 13:44

Will the gap from the 4th April be closed here? Shorts seem to have increased slightly. Perhaps taking advantage of the middle east worries.

[rimau1] 04/4/2024 09:10

I also firmly believe that GoCompare is worth the entire marketcap. Thats all from me.

[rimau1] 04/4/2024 08:38

I very prudently have revenue FY revenue growth of 1percent which is low single digits organic H2. Net profit i assume flat on 2023 so around 140p eps trading under 5x - they should outperform this. The free cash flow is crazy and debt should be down to under 1x so expect acquisitions in H2 once our new CEO is happy advertising has bottomed

[alotto] 04/4/2024 08:22

what is the "expectations for FY 2024" in terms of revenue and net profit then?

[northwards] 04/4/2024 08:16

Feels that way.

[rimau1] 04/4/2024 08:12

Yes, returning to net growth in H2 as forecast. This is very good news, the price action here recently clearly showed the market did not believe that futr would return to growth in 2024. The golden nugget in todays update is the recovery in US direct advertising squirrelled away towards the end. This update could not have been much better IMO. Ridiculous valuation priced for failure.

[alotto] 04/4/2024 08:10

Revenue improvement, ok, what about the bottom line?
Trading update is confusing. The market opened well though

[valhamos] 04/4/2024 08:06

"The expected revenue improvement to the Q4 2023 exit rate has continued, resulting in a return to organic revenue growth in Q2 for the Group."

​

[northwards] 04/4/2024 08:05

Looks like the MMs are trying to figure out what the update means ...

[alotto] 04/4/2024 08:00

Does this mean that there is no net growth?

"The return to growth has been driven by a strong performance in Go.Compare,

alongside good growth in B2B, and a resilient performance in Magazines. This

has been offset by a more challenging performance in affiliate products and

digital advertising as macroeconomic pressures and low visibility continue to

impact the wider sector."