Pearson Share Discussion Threads

[gateside] 15/10/2008 08:09

Pearson sales edge ahead

Pearson said today in the first nine months of 2008 sales were up 8% and operating profit up 11%.

The international education and information publisher said 2008 adjusted EPS is expected to be toward the top end of current market estimates.

Pearson said it continued to perform well in the third quarter. For the first nine months, sales are up 8% and operating profit up 11% at constant exchange rates.

Marjorie Scardino, CEO, said: 'Pearson's strong performance continues. We're naturally cautious about the global economic conditions, but we have good trading momentum, innovative products, resilient businesses and a strong balance sheet. With those advantages, we believe we are in good shape to prosper and strengthen our company, even through these turbulent times.'

Education business is trading in line with expectations, with sales up 10%.

The integration of 2007 acquisitions is progressing well and margin guidance is unchanged with 2008 margins expected to be similar to the 2007 levels, even after significant expensed integration costs, with margin improvements in 2009 and beyond.

In North American Education, sales are up 11%. The fourth quarter is an important selling season in higher education, but we expect our full-year sales to grow by around 10% (or by 2-4% in underlying terms).

In International Education, sales are up 10%, with full-year sales growth of around 10% (or in the low single digits in underlying terms) expected.

Professional Education business is trading in line with expectations, with sales 1% lower after nine months, but expected to increase in the low single digits for the year as a whole.

At the FT Group, sales are up 11%. At FT Publishing, sales are up 14% with advertising revenues 1% ahead of 2007. The Financial Times and Mergermarket are continuing to increase their content revenues and build their audiences through the volatility in global financial markets. Mergermarket is achieving good sales growth and strong renewal rates. Operating profits continue to show good growth, as expected, and for the full year we expect FT Publishing to increase profits even if there is no growth in advertising revenues. At Interactive Data, sales are up 8%, benefiting from continued new business wins.

At Penguin, sales are up 3% with a strong publishing performance from both new and established authors including Eckhart Tolle (A New Earth), Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), Jamie Oliver (Jamie at Home) and Jane Green (Second Chance). The fourth quarter is an important selling season in consumer publishing and Penguin remains on track to reach its goal of a double-digit margin for the full year with a strong line-up of bestselling authors including Jamie Oliver (Jamie's Ministry of Food), Jeremy Clarkson (For Crying Out Loud), Patricia Cornwell (Scarpetta) and Nora Roberts (The Pagan Stone).

Pearson generates around 60% of its sales in the US, and each five cent change in the average £:$ exchange rate for the full year (which in 2007 was £1:$2.00) has a translation impact of approximately 1p on adjusted earnings per share. The average rate during the first nine months of 2008 was £1:$1.95 (compared to £1:$1.99 in the first nine months of 2007) and the closing rate at the end of September was £1:$1.83).

[bookworm1] 02/10/2008 19:44

Pearsons own Edexcel

[kazoom] 23/9/2008 07:44

bookworm1,

Sorry this is probably a stupid question as I've yet to look at Pearson yet, but what's the link between Pearson and ETS / Edexcel ?

[bookworm1] 31/8/2008 13:32

Exam board Edexcel has been given a contract to provide "back-room" support for the remarking of England's national test (Sats) papers.

[bookworm1] 15/8/2008 10:21

Exams authority the QCA has ended its contract with exams administrator ETS Europe after this summer's marking controversy.

[bull_mega] 03/8/2008 16:55

shorter should be ready

[djderry] 28/7/2008 20:47

Impressive results.Long term holder.(Bought years ago when they were at £10 quid a share).In a couple of years I may break even with dividends!

[chairman2] 28/7/2008 17:37

nice reading - fuel for a takeoff - but when?

[gateside] 28/7/2008 07:48

PEARSON 2008 INTERIM RESULTS (unaudited)


Sustained growth
· Sales up 14%* to £1.965bn;
· Adjusted operating profit up 38% to £124m;
· Adjusted EPS up to 5.6p (from 3.1p in H107);
· Interim dividend raised 6.3% to 11.8p.

Long-term investment strategy paying off
· Education sales up 17% and first-half profit of £14m with rapid growth in digital
learning services and continued international
expansion;
· FT Group sales up 11% and profits up 21%, benefiting from shift towards subscription
and digital revenues and focus on global
businesses;
· Penguin sales up 9% and profits up 22%, with strong publishing and innovation in all
markets.

Healthy outlook
· Full-year guidance confirmed; on track for further progress in all businesses.

Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "Our momentum is strong, even in these tough
economic conditions. We have leadership positions
in good markets and an effective growth strategy based on quality content, digital innovation
and international expansion. That strategy
makes us confident that 2008 will be another record year, and that we will continue to grow."

[chairman2] 22/5/2008 23:13

share is totally rangebound

and the chart signals dont seem that
fantastic - at least to me

[kiwi2007] 06/5/2008 08:50

Nice overseas earner.. jumped in this a.m.

[tourist07] 15/4/2008 17:10

Starting to look very attractive at the moment ... only thing holding me back is that I think we are going to see further market falls this month and a target of £6.25 doesn't look as ridiculous as it might have done a couple of weeks ago ...

[gateside] 08/4/2008 22:37

Ex-div in the morning.

20.5p

So expect a drop!

[chairman2] 25/3/2008 22:45

at least one can say all takeover rubbish is out of the share price now??

[tourist07] 09/3/2008 18:38

Questor .... horse .... stable door ... added midweek at £6.46. Real opportunity here.

[gateside] 09/3/2008 13:28

Tipped in The Sunday Telegraph



'Recession-proof' Pearson can teach market

Edited by David Litterick
Last Updated: 12:03am GMT 09/03/2008

Pearson
Price 689.5p
Questor says Buy



Pearson marked just under 10m GCSE and A-level papers in 2007, and half of those were scrutinised by examiners on screen rather than with pen and paper. On results day, for 100,000 British students the ritual of crowding around bulletin boards in school corridors was replaced by a few keystrokes as they checked their marks online.

That is the result of the vision of chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino, who has been relentless in her desire to transform Pearson into an education business, and invested lavishly in digitising it.

As a result, the owner of the Financial Times now derives less than 5 per cent of sales from advertising. Over 60 per cent of revenues and profits now come from education, a market which Scardino says is far more recession-proof than the media sector, as Johnston Press's rather gloomy outlook statement later in the week proved only too well.

Although schools have been slow to embrace the digital future, education has so far proved a safe haven. In the US, spend on school books has grown for 10 consecutive years, unaffected even by the 2002 crash.

Scardino is predicting this year's economic crisis, triggered by mortgage defaults, will have an equally negligible impact with the market expected to grow between 3 per cent and 4 per cent in 2008.

Nonetheless, Pearson has been penalised after sounding a note of caution about the performance of its schools business, which it said would see sales grow in the low single digits during the coming year.

The shares fell sharply over the week as Pearson said it would be bidding for fewer state contracts than in previous years and losing income with the end of a UK testing contract.

We feel this was overdone. Pearson expects to hold margins at 13.2 per cent in the schools division this year despite the cost of integrating the sizeable Harcourt business which it bought from Reed Elsevier. In 2009, it predicts margins will rise to 15 per cent as it improves the performance of Harcourt and continues to reap the rewards of diversifying its education business in terms of services, technology and geography.

In the meantime, while Scardino admits that the visibility of advertising revenues at the FT is poor, such revenues account for a decreasing portion of the division's sales - down from more than a half in 2000 to less than a third last year.

Pearson is still a media company, and as such remains exposed to the vagaries of the cycle, but as far as the sector goes, it stands at the more resilient end with any decline in revenues over the next few years more than offset by improvements in margin.

Certainly the board is confident and has proposed a dividend increase of 7.8 per cent to 31.6p in May, subject to shareholder approval next month, which gives the shares an attractive dividend yield of about 5 per cent.

Questor agrees with Citi, which believes the current weakness in the share price, and particularly any further falls, presents a good buying opportunity.

[gateside] 03/3/2008 08:20

I take it the Market was expecting better results.

Most frustrating.

[james dean] 03/3/2008 08:17

....and where is the sp?

Regards.

DYOR

[gateside] 03/3/2008 07:51

PEARSON 2007 PRELIMINARY RESULTS


Record profits, earnings, cash and dividends. Adjusted operating profit up 14%
to £634m; adjusted earnings per share up 8% to 46.7p (up 15% at constant
exchange rates); operating free cash flow up 23% to £533m; dividend up 7.8% to
31.6p.


Faster growth. Underlying sales growth of 6%, with strong competitive
performances and every business growing at or above 2006 levels.


Higher margins and returns. Margins up 1.1% points to 15.0% with substantial
progress at School (up 0.6% pts), Penguin (up 0.9%pts), Interactive Data (up
1.4% pts) and FT Publishing (up 6.7% pts). Return on invested capital up 0.2%
points to 8.2% (a 1.0% point underlying improvement).


All-round progress. Strong profit growth in all continuing businesses: Education
up 9% to £404m; Penguin up 20% to £74m; FT Group up 30% to £153m.


Sustained growth. Good start to 2008; further financial progress expected in all
businesses.


Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "This is another record set of results
and an excellent performance from every part of Pearson. We continue to reshape
Pearson into a more digital, more international and more efficient company, and
those changes make us confident that 2008 will be another good year."

[james dean] 29/2/2008 21:58

What an ugly figure to end the week on.

Regards.

DYOR

[gateside] 23/1/2008 09:11

No Problems James.

Pearson are tipped as a HOLD in The Times

[james dean] 22/1/2008 19:25

Gateside -

Thanks.

Regards.

DYOR