Polar Capital Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 27/6/2023 07:26

Polar Capital to benefit from market turnaround

Polar Capital (POLR) has suffered a difficult year, but the asset manager is set to benefit when market sentiment improves, says Peel Hunt. Analyst Stuart Duncan retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 610p on the investment group, which rose 0.7%, or 3.3p, to 497.8p on Monday. Core operating profits were in line with expectations at £47.9m at final results following a ‘difficult year characterised by outflows’. "Market conditions remain difficult but assets under management have increases to £19.9bn and Polar Capital saw net inflows in April. Polar Capital is still making progress with the strategy to grow through diversification, although market conditions remain a headwind. With the stock trading on an enterprise value/Ebit multiple of just eight times, we remain positive, as Polar Capital should benefit when conditions improve." said Duncan.

[diviincomesearch] 26/6/2023 17:16

Yup mngf, not many fixed costs in the business because a lot of remuneration is geared to performance fees. Also, asset managers are very asset light so don’t have the same inflation worries.

benefitted from the tech rally in recent months too.

£150mn in cash and investments with a market cap of £500mn and eps of £46mn. Still very, very cheap. I’ll just keep enjoying the dividends!

[mngf] 26/6/2023 17:00

Have a look at the cost control. Great business

[edmonda] 26/6/2023 07:27

"Tough FY23, outlook improving for flows & returns"

Detailed new note from Equity Development - report & audio summary here:

In FY23 (to 31 Mar 23), market conditions created strong headwinds for asset managers, especially those with a growth equities bias like Polar. AUM declined 13% from £22.1bn to £19.2bn, with net outflows of - £1.6bn (FY22: + £0.4bn), investment performance of - £0.9bn (FY22: +£0.9bn); and fund closures of - £0.5bn. However, the story of the year was certainly not entirely negative, but mixed, with an improving picture towards year-end and also post-year-end (although we caution that economic and market conditions remain uncertain).

The strength of FY22, buoyed by the bull market of calender-2021, makes FY23 results look comparatively weak. Gross income fell 18% from £226m to £186m. However, performance-tilted variable pay structures resulted in operating costs reducing by 16% from £141m to £119m, which limited margin impact. So, while core operating profit fell 31% y-o-y from £69m to £45m, core margin fell from 37% to 31%. Statutory PBT fell from £62m to £48m, and PBT margin fell from 28% to 24%.

Polar maintains a strong balance sheet, with cash of £107m (down from £121m), and no debt. This strength has given the board confidence to maintain a full-year dividend of 46p, a yield of 9.3%.

We forecast AUM growth in FY24 based on an improving outlook, although revenues are expected to fall in FY24 (lower ave. AUM), before recovering in FY25. Our fundamental value is 625p per share, 26% above the share price, and we see potential for a company and sector re-rating.

[mister md] 09/6/2023 14:39

I knew this would eventually come good - just need a bit of patience and collect dividends along the way ...

[boozey] 26/5/2023 16:56

Results about a month away...

[brucie5] 26/5/2023 14:07

Thanks, diviin,
This is pretty much my thinking. It's an interesting, relatively risk averse way of gaining income exposure to tech upside.
I also hold quite a few.

[riverman77] 26/5/2023 12:30

Yes tech got to about 50% exposure at one point (now around a third I think). They've also got a big insurance fund, although their other financial funds are quite small so bank sell off shouldn't have had much of a direct impact.

[diviincomesearch] 26/5/2023 12:15

Brucie, technology fund and trust at one point were a huge percentage of the AuM when tech motored on in 2021. The balance now is more reasonable (albeit due to outflows and performance), if you compare the percentages to then and now.

Agreed the US tech news has pushed on that, polar doesn’t have any bond funds apart from the convertibles fund so we’ve avoided the worst of that.

Financials fund and trust have taken more of a hit of late though.

[riverman77] 26/5/2023 10:10

I believe Polar's tech funds are overweight semiconductors and have a decent exposure to Nvidia. All good news for the AUM recovery.

[riverman77] 19/5/2023 09:54

Worth noting that Polar's tech and healthcare trusts (PCT and PCGH) both up strongly since last AUM update at end of March. Would imagine their funds would have seen similar increases although not checked. Given that tech and healthcare makes up a significant chunk of Polar's AUM, we should hopefully see a decent uplift in AUM at the next udpate.

[melloteam] 17/5/2023 12:53

Just to let shareholders and prospective investors know that Polar Capital will be presenting & exhibiting on the 23rd of May next week at Mello2023.

We have created a two day physical investor conference (23rd & 24th May) at the Clayton Hotel and Conference Centre in Chiswick that will include 15 top quality keynote speakers, 12 educational workshops and panel sessions, 50 exhibiting companies plus over 80 company presentations for investors to evaluate and understand their current or future investments. For a £25 bonus add-on price delegates at Mello2023 are also invited to make it a three day visit and join us for the Mello2023 Virtual event the day after, Thursday 25th May.

Tickets are still available and if you would like one at half price then enter the code MMTADVFN50.

[mister md] 15/5/2023 14:05

One of my largest holdings so not complaining

[brucie5] 15/5/2023 14:03

Must have been the sound of me adding.
Or not.
;)

[mister md] 15/5/2023 13:34

+ 4 % outperforming the market today ...

[masurenguy] 05/5/2023 08:35

Large spread here at the moment with Buyers paying 489.5p and Sellers 471.7p

[brucie5] 01/5/2023 13:23

diviincomesearch1 May '23 - 13:21 - 444 of 445
0 0 0
Bit more of an AuM split than there used to be.

Biotech,EM, health and global insurance provide a good slug of Polar.
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Just seen your post, diviincome, thanks: - to which, yes, but can you quantify that?

[brucie5] 01/5/2023 13:22

Thanks Ken, but my question is really as to how much of a proxy this can be considered to be for tech in general and the NAS in particular - two related aspects, which I've just tended to assume are at least significant parts of the POLR recovery story.

[diviincomesearch] 01/5/2023 13:21

Bit more of an AuM split than there used to be.

Biotech,EM, health and global insurance provide a good slug of Polar.

Tech still is a key component and until sentiment swings to ‘risk-on’; growth assets, I think Polar’s share price will tread water along. Still pays a good divi, and is asset light, so less to contend with in terms of inflationary etc aside from wages.

[kenmitch] 01/5/2023 12:46

Here’s the list of Polar’s Unit Trusts. If the link doesn’t work just go to Trustnet website and key in Polar.

[mister md] 01/5/2023 12:14

ASHM is the only one of those I don't yet own but looks good value so may buy a few

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EDIT: Reading through the ASHM thread it seems extremely high risk so will avoid !

[brucie5] 01/5/2023 10:37

That's a good question, Mister MD, so let me know when you find out. But I have a hunch that it's not a bad way of gaining exposure to the NAS while taking advantage of the rock bottom UK financial sector income stock.
Likewise ASHM for emerging markets.
And CLIG (ITs) and M&G (funds) for money flows in/out of market atm.

[mister md] 28/4/2023 17:52

I like the investments held by Polar Capital Technology (PCT) but is it worth buying that separately or is the value included here in POLR ? The big dividends are paid out by this one too...
Most of AuM are in Technology funds here, right ?

[masurenguy] 17/4/2023 08:14

Big firms a lot more confident about the future

Confidence among finance chiefs at the UK's biggest companies has seen its sharpest rise since 2020. The Deloitte survey of chief financial officers showed sentiment rebounded as their concerns about energy prices and Brexit problems eased. There were 25% more chief financial officers feeling better about the future than worse, compared to 17% more feeling the opposite three months ago. Not since the Covid vaccine rollout has there been such a swing in confidence.

Ian Stewart, chief economist at Deloitte, attributed the bounce back to improvements on several fronts at once. "Since the beginning of the year, energy prices have fallen, inflation looks to have peaked, relations with the EU have improved since the Windsor framework and there has been a period of comparative political calm after the turmoil of last year."

The survey was conducted from 21 March to 3 April, which was in the aftermath of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the US and the forced merger of Credit Suisse with UBS.