Sophos Share Discussion Threads

[bazboa] 26/6/2015 19:12

Great company

[rivaldo] 26/6/2015 11:11

IPO'd today at 225p with a m/cap of just over £1 billion:



Following Admission (and assuming no exercise of the Over-allotment Option):

o The Apax Funds will hold 40.1% of the Shares
o The Founders will hold 18.9% of the Shares
o Investcorp will hold 2.5% of the Shares
o The Directors will hold 1.7% of the Shares

From Intention to Float RNS:



"Sophos is a global provider of cloud-enabled enduser and network security solutions, offering organisations integrated end-to-end protection against known and unknown IT security threats through products that are easy to install, configure, update and maintain. Sophos has over 30 years of experience in enterprise security. The Group has built a portfolio of products protecting over 200,000 organisations and over 100 million endusers in 150 countries across a variety of industries.[1]

The Group sells its products to enterprises of all sizes but its development, sales and marketing efforts are primarily focused on the mid-market, defined as comprising enterprises with between 100 and 5,000 employees. Sophos believes that this market, worth US$18.0[2] billion in 2014 and representing approximately 72 per cent. of total IT security spending, has historically been underserved by IT security vendors due to their focus on either large enterprises or consumers. Mid-market enterprises face the same IT security threats as larger enterprises but have less resources, capacity and fewer personnel to address these threats.

In the year-ended 31 March 2015, the Group generated billings of US$476.0 million, an increase of 22.6 per cent. as compared to billings of US$388.1 million in the year-ended 31 March 2014, and generated strong Cash EBITDA of US$101.4 million in the year-ended 31 March 2015 with an average Cash EBITDA margin of 23.7 per cent. for the years-ended 31 March 2013, 2014 and 2015. Furthermore the Group's unlevered free cash flow generated from operations was US$65.3 million in the year-ended 31 March 2015."

[phaedrus] 10/11/2002 16:11

All a bit of a balancing act and we need to think of the future also.

Housing is often a problem for youngsters starting out. Clearly it is great to own ones own house. With interest rates lower, that has allowed buyers to borrow more so sellers have asked more. Thinking that the situation will get even worse with time, buyers have stretched themselves more. I think I saw that Wrigglesworth guy suggesting going round to the relatives with a begging bowl. Surely now a risky time for first time buyers. They could be burdened for life with high debts, little pension provision and on top of that property could tumble forcing them into negative equity.

Property could be toppy and risky.

A share revival?

Have shares bottomed?

They have seen a better patch recently but have fallen away a little again. Longer term, the global corporate situation will need to be seen to be getting back on track. Shares with better dividend prospects are probably the best current bet.

Bonds

have the attraction of providing higher yields than deposit accounts but with a greater risk to capital. Their traditional weakness has been inability to cope with inflation. But in these times of low inflation and low interest rates, they may offer an attractive opportunity

Pension

schemes seem to be getting considerably less good these days. Even if they are inflation linked, that's little comfort when inflation levels are so low. So a real chance of ending ones days in poverty or working 'til we drop? Possibly so I would have thought, unless money set aside for saving and investing which is more difficult to where every penny is needed for overvalued housing.

Such are the considerations we have to address

Phaedrus

[red hat] 10/11/2002 01:03

Or at any rates less of the brain dead approach

A few years back it was this wonderful tech which would quadruple your money in minutes
then we had, short this dog, can't lose

Now with the fine house price and deflation threads, it is clear that investors are taking more account of basic asset class ie not just equities but bonds, property etc and inflation (or lack of it) unemployment, pensions, cycles and currency . . . (and what I haven't remembered to include)

Imho there is little point agonising about which share would have lost you less when clearly an investment in domestic property a few years ago would have done you very nicely

In other words, to heck with stock picking it is more important to be in the

APPROPRIATE ASSET CLASSES AT APPROPRIATE TIMES

which at the moment . . .

Step back think objectively

Ideally we should be in the out of favour asset ready to bounce back because we have divined that economic circumstances will make asset class favourable again

But of course trends can persist for quite a while and clearly there is money to be made by getting on fairly early and out not to late

OK that's my attempt to get a few thought ideas in motion. If I have no replies I shall feel mortally wounded.

R H