Sophos Share Discussion Threads

[liquidkid] 01/12/2015 15:00

But it has only been listed for 5 months and Private Equity founder wants out.

Apax Sells 13.3% of Sophos Stake, Still Has 21.8%
vehicles owned by Apax funds, said they have sold the 60 million shares in Sophos

J.P. Morgan agreed to waive the Sellers' lock-up restrictions which otherwise apply to such shares.

[masurenguy] 01/12/2015 07:51

It won't be "dilutive" since no additional shares are being issued by the company. It's impact upon the shareprice is more likely to be negative but this still remains to be seen. The positive is that they have quickly placed these shares with one or more institutions at circa 10% below yesterdays closing price. The worst case scenario would be if the Seller subsequently continues with this process after 90 days with additional potential share sales constituting an overhang until completed. That would negatively impact upon the shareprice until completed.

[flyposter] 30/11/2015 21:03

Hi good folks of the Sophos bb, can anyone shed some light on what effect the recent news will have on the sp?


I am fairly new to trading, thanks in advance.

"Pentagon Lock Monday said it plans to sell around 60 million shares in Sophos Group PLC, equivalent to around a 13.3% stake in the company, through a secondary placing."

From what I have gleaned from Google, this won't dilute the shares, just concerned if it will have an effect anyway.

[the_alchemist] 25/11/2015 17:08

Decided to pick up a small tranche of Sophos shares today. I like the look of this company.

[flyposter] 24/11/2015 13:04

A bit late in here, but just bought on the dip, I like the look, nearly bought before, wish I had.

[rivaldo] 11/11/2015 11:50

Peel Hunt have reiterated their Buy and 330p target this morning.

The respected Techmarketview have this to say:



"Wednesday 11 November 2015

Sophos raises full year guidance

Having undertaken its IPO in June (see here), provider of cloud-enabled end user and network security solutions, Sophos, has continued to please shareholders today with its H1 results announcement. Following a strong Q1 (see Sweet Q1 for secure Sophos), the situation improved further in Q2 resulting in results ahead of internal expectations. Shares have opened up 7%.

At constant currency, year-on-year growth was 17%, though currency headwinds resulted in reported revenue growth of 8.9% to $234.2m. The adjusted operating profit was up 26.7% to $14.7m, while Cash EBITDA increased from $41.8m to $45.5m. Sophos’ results display strength across all major regions and product categories (network and end user). In EMEA, like-for-like revenue growth was 19%, predominantly driven by network growth in new customer business. The strengthening US dollar dragged down the reported EMEA growth rate to 1.4%; fortunately the currency movement impact is likely to moderate in H2.

In the period, like-for-like billings growth was an impressive 24% reflecting both strong new customer wins as well as an improvement in the retention rate of existing customers. For the full year Sophos has upgraded its outlook for billings growth (to the high teens to 20%). A focus on the principles of “security made simple” and “channel first” is paying dividends for Sophos. The company has made considerable strides in improving its brand awareness resulting in increased industry recognition. It has also continued to pursue its innovation strategy of both internal product development and selected strategic acquisitions (like Reflexion Networks in June). All this is ensuring that Sophos is ensuring it is well positioned to take advantage of a dynamic IT security market."

[interceptor2] 11/11/2015 09:48

Must hold my hands up to selling my holding here this morning.

The more I tried to workout the P&L and sort out the exceptional figures to arrive at the adjusted cash ebitda, the more unsure I became. Some exceptionals like IPO cost were fair, other like amortisation of intangibles and plant and equipment cost seem less than fair imo. Yet they have fully expensed their research and development costs, which is a good sign.

Sophos operate in a sector that is heating up, so will keep an eye on them going forward.

[interceptor2] 11/11/2015 08:13

Say no more?

Just to add.

"After this strong start to the year, the Group has improved its outlook for FY16 like-for-like billings growth, to now be in the range of high teens to 20 percent."

Outlook statement for 2016 seems rather upbeat.

[rivaldo] 11/11/2015 08:04

Interims out, and....

"Trading ahead of management expectations in the first half; with an upgrade to both the full-year like-for-like1 billings growth and cash EBITDA2 margin outlook"

Say no more.

[rivaldo] 03/11/2015 14:55

Good news today - 330p price target:

"Peel Hunt Starts Sophos At Buy

0912 GMT Peel Hunt starts coverage on cybersecurity company Sophos Group with a buy rating and 330p target price. Notes Sophos is the only cybersecurity company solely focused on medium-sized customers and that it trades at a discount of about 20% discount to the average among peers, including Symantec. Also sees cross-selling opportunities as some customers only take a limited portion of Sophos's offering. On the negative side, Sophos's competitors have deeper pockets and better brand visibility. Shares up 0.7% at 256p."

[1861andy] 29/10/2015 11:52

I am very much thinking the same way these have risen back strongly over past few weeks (since a drop back to offer price) hopefully as people are expecting some excellence results on the 11th!

If they are good and the future growth is also strong i can see these getting to 300 fairly quickly.

[interceptor2] 29/10/2015 11:38

Cyber Security sector very much in the news at this time, OPAY issued an RNS statement today about some historic breaches. I would think that all companies are reviewing their security, which could be very good news for companies like SOPH.

Interim results are to be released 11th November and will be keenly anticipated.

Noticed they they are expecting 15% growth this year, would have been 24.7% without adverse FX movement, but FX affect anticipated to reduce during second half of the year.

I did buy in here yesterday.

[liquidkid] 22/10/2015 11:32

PFPT numbers were exceedingly good up 15% AH
Threat Response Tapped the black hats over the quarter
weaponised documents leveraged the cloud

enterprises around the world today are woefully behind in building out the appropriate infrastructure to protect themselves from today's threat landscape
still actually multiple years away from a moderated spending environment

[liquidkid] 16/10/2015 11:47

Correction: Intel Security was formerly McAfee so Intel is the major player.

hxxps://blogs.mcafee.com/business/intel-security-positioned-leader-gartner-2014-endpoint-protection-platform-magic-quadrant-seventh-consecutive-year/

MDP is an attractive complement to the endpoint protection product (EPP) suites
In the Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms
Sophos is ranked 5 in the "Leaders" Quadrant

Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Services Worldwide
Sophos positioned 3 in the Leaders' Quadrant for 2007 Endpoint Protection Platforms Magic Quadrant
behind Symantec & Mcafee ahead of Kaspersky

Magic Quadrant for Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
Sophos/Astaro IPS doesn't appear?
Again McAfee/Intel is positioned as a Leader 1

And...
Magic Quadrant for Unified Threat Management (UTM)
Sophos is ranked 5 in the "Leaders" Quadrant

[por997] 15/10/2015 12:21

Sophos had nothing special to offer that is not already out there.

[liquidkid] 15/10/2015 10:49

I am partial to a bit of magic but Intel as leader in Mobile data protection?
What was the market share in mobile chips? about 6%
Completeness of vision, Ability to execute. - There's the magic.

[izztre] 13/10/2015 09:27

Seems like yesterday was a tree shake to enable large end of day purchase

[1861andy] 08/10/2015 10:08

This share appears to be in a freefall now today looks to be dropping below offer price.

Needs good update soon or can see £2 on its way

[shammytime] 05/10/2015 11:24

Here we go. Unfortunately LiquidKid almost always incorrect in his calls. I had three monster buys in KAZ, TED and SOPH last week and I will sell them all this week making mega money profit. I have the sharedealing maestro

[liquidkid] 02/10/2015 12:11

Ay Shammy I tink your calls need a pinch of salt. There may be a pot o gold at the end of the rainbow, but it's guarded by a herd of unicorns. Frankly there is no 'analysis' from any of you. Most of the posts on here are just wild stabs at a number £10 - £3 - £2.60 while the industry's only bet is a constant ramping of this supposed future $20 bilion+ market to evolve into.

I could pull one out and show you a number. and it is lower than 1.

A billion pounds for some 20 year old Anti virus software that should be free? I'll probably get an 'attack' for this.

[b1ggles] 02/10/2015 11:49

Apart from thinking they'd never go below 250p again, presumably? ;-)

[shammytime] 02/10/2015 10:34

I told you all. This will be 260 in no time. I am never, ever wrong in my analysis.