Sophos Share Discussion Threads

[metis20] 08/2/2018 07:51

My understanding is that it is the accelerating demand, with its associated up front costs including investment in new product releases, that has prevented SOPH from going into profit. Billing happens when the projects are complete?

Billings1 for the nine-month period (year-to-date: "YTD") increased by 21%, or 20% at constant currency ("CC")

Further acceleration in revenue with growth of 19% YTD (18% CC), and 23% in Q3 (19% CC)

"The strong demand for our industry-leading cybersecurity solutions continued in Q3. Customer reaction to XG Firewall v17 has been very positive, and we are delighted to have recently launched a major new release of Intercept X, incorporating for the first time our neural network-based deep learning technology into our leading endpoint product. Consequently, as our business continues to post strong growth the Board is confident both in the outlook for the full-year and the longer-term prospects of the Group."

[fuji99] 08/2/2018 07:14

A bit surprised that free cash flow & EBITDA dropped slightly when compared to previous Q3 2017 quarter. Operating profit from Q3 2017 of +1.7m became a loss of (2.8M) in Q3 2018. But this will improve with time as demand accelerates but not sure now it will become fully profitable in 2018/2019.

[fuji99] 07/2/2018 11:01

Q3 tomorrow then. Wonder what's in the bag and how the turbulent market will take it.

[mfhmfh] 06/2/2018 15:10

NASDAQ has opened positively with SOPH share price bouncing at 14.30 when US markets opened.

Q3 update on 08.02.18.

[curriedquaker] 31/1/2018 10:09

Sorry Dan but I disagree. At 10.30am yesterday the share price was 635, within 10 minutes it rose to 645, a jump of 1.5%. During that 10 minute window Sophos released a number of press releases including the Gartner analysis. Regardless of what you think about Gartner they still hold a big sway with CIO’s, especially in USA.

[dan_the_epic] 30/1/2018 22:51

Lol Sophos has not risen because of a Magic Quadrant junk from Gartner

[curriedquaker] 30/1/2018 22:11

To get into FTSE100, share price will need to be close to £9.00. That’s pushing it a bit for 2018, maybe 2020.

[karateboy] 30/1/2018 21:23

Well , Soph will be taken over soon. It is also good candidate to move to Ftse 100 this year, if market cap get closer to £4b.

[curriedquaker] 30/1/2018 20:48

Released today, therefore reason for the share price jump.

Sophos Positioned as a Leader in Gartner 2018 Magic Quadrant for Endpoint
Protection Platforms

Sophos One of Three Vendors Placed as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant

OXFORD, United Kingdom, Jan. 30, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sophos (LSE:SOPH), a
global leader in network and endpoint security, today announced that Gartner,
Inc., has positioned Sophos as a Leader in its 2018 Magic Quadrant for
Endpoint Protection Platforms^1 . Sophos has been positioned as a Leader in
all of these reports since they were first published in 2007.

In the report, Gartner states that the definition of an Endpoint Protection
Platform (EPP) has been updated: “In September 2017, in response to changing
market dynamics and client requirements, we adjusted our definition of an EPP.
An EPP is a solution deployed on endpoint devices to prevent file-based
malware, to detect and block malicious activity from trusted and untrusted
applications, and to provide the investigation and remediation capabilities
needed to dynamically respond to security incidents and alerts…Organizations
are placing a premium on protection and detection capabilities within an EPP,
and are depreciating the EPP vendors' ability to provide data protection
capabilities such as data loss prevention, encryption or server controls.”

“The threat landscape is evolving at an astonishing rate,” said Dan Schiappa,
senior vice president and general manager of products at Sophos. “During the
last 12 months alone we have seen repeated ransomware attacks that traditional
endpoint protection alone cannot adequately protect against. To stay at the
forefront of endpoint protection, vendors must continually analyze the
landscape and innovate the approach to protection faster than cybercriminals
can innovate their attack techniques. We believe Gartner’s continued placement
of Sophos in the Leaders quadrant in the Magic Quadrant for Endpoint
Protection Platforms demonstrates that Sophos is able to innovate and deliver
solutions that organizations of all sizes can use every day. Predicting future
threats is the future of security protection and the deep learning
capabilities we have added to our portfolio is enabling us to do just that,
more effectively than any other next-generation vendor.”

Further strengthening the advanced levels of protection within its endpoint
portfolio, Sophos also announced today that it has added deep learning neural
network and advanced anti-exploit technology to the newest release of its
next-generation Intercept X. Intercept X can be installed alongside any
traditional endpoint protection from any vendor, immediately boosting
detection speed and accuracy. Sophos believes that its next-generation
enduser, server, and network protection technologies will further its
leadership and continue to keep customers protected as threats evolve. The
advanced machine learning technology has been further developed by Sophos to
enhance Sophos Sandstorm capabilities and is powering automated threat
analysis in SophosLabs facilities worldwi

[karateboy] 26/1/2018 13:21

I call it share price is consolidating.

[wintokall] 26/1/2018 08:12

anyone any news as to why this is dropping?

[karateboy] 23/1/2018 20:38

Soph is moving in the right direction to be listed in the FTSE 100.

[dan_the_epic] 22/1/2018 20:22

No. If you could, you'd be rich

[wintokall] 22/1/2018 09:30

any chartist watching today?
a couple of times in last few months - price has shot up only to drop back quite abit - can you anticipate this if you can read charts??

[fuji99] 09/1/2018 08:34

Pleased I kept a chunk as I am convinced the share price will reach £10+ at some point by 2019/20 maybe earlier. It will also start delivering profit earlier than expected due to high demand of its products.

[3rd eye] 05/1/2018 15:06

Sophos Group

Protects small and medium sized businesses against cyber hacks

Market worth £40bn and growing quickly

Over 100m users in 150 countries

[3rd eye] 05/1/2018 12:20

SOPH Sophos.....Hargreaves Lansdown tip 4 of 5 for the top 2018......

Investment idea #4

Sophos Group - benefit from the cyber threat

A string of high-profile hacks mean the consequences of not investing in cyber security are all too evident.

Perhaps no surprise then, that companies are scrambling to shore up their cyber defences. Sophos Group, a company providing software to protect small and medium-sized businesses, should benefit from this.

The group uses a network of over 30,000 independent partners to sell and distribute its products. Over 100m users in 150 countries now rely on it for IT security and Sophos says the market is worth in the region of £40bn, and growing quickly.

It is the only company to offer a high standard of both network and end user protection. This means customers benefit from a joined up service under a centralised system.

Contracts run for up to five years, retention rates are impressive and last year Sophos generated an average of 29% more business from contracts up for renewal.

At present, the company is focused on investing in this opportunity rather than paying dividends, meaning the prospective yield is just 0.8%.

With impressive growth, Sophos's potential hasn't gone unnoticed by the market though.

The shares have enjoyed a strong run recently, and trade on a premium valuation of 85 times expected earnings. We’re not put off by the high rating, but it certainly adds a layer of risk. If the company fails to deliver on the market’s high expectations, the share price could suffer.

Part of the reason the rating is so high is that accounting convention means Sophos's near-term earnings look artificially low. The costs of winning a contract are accounted for up-front, but the revenues are spread over the life of the deal. For example, the group generated $133m of free cash flow last year, compared to adjusted profits of $38m.

We often look at a company and say profits look great, but where is the cash? With Sophos, in the short-term at least, it's the other way round. Given the choice, this is how we'd like it. After all, it's not without justification they say cash is king.

[3rd eye] 05/1/2018 11:57

SOPH Sophos...

SOPH..Sophos taken a big long position here.
Cyber security.The market for this work must be enormous.
In a rising trend on retracement from the top.
up nr 2% currently

Keep on your radar!! 😃😎

Sophos Group broker views

Date Broker Recommendation Price Old target price New target price Notes

09 Nov 17 JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 613.25 630.00 690.00Reiterates
09 Nov 17 Jefferies International Buy 613.25 850.00 865.00Reiterates
09 Nov 17 Deutsche Bank Buy 613.25 650.00 790.00 Reiterates

[lupins2] 01/1/2018 10:13

Have just opened Investment Times-Hargreaves Lansdown Issue 135- December 2017 but it arrived on Xmas eve, Sophos is one of their five shares for 2018. Happy days-- We should get off to a good start when the market reopens tomorrow. As mentioned above also a daily mail tip too !!! I topped up recently so feeling quite pleased. GLAH and happy new year to all Sophoooos.

[bazboa] 30/12/2017 12:14

Our City team pick their top stocks for 2018

[chasbas] 18/12/2017 13:22

She bought on 21 March 2017 at 264p

[chasbas] 18/12/2017 13:20

I remember earlier in the year when Vin Murria was appointed non-exec director she bought 750,000 at 264p!!!. She has partly cashed in at 531p but still owns 307,272. Smart cookie.

Q3 results on 8th Feb.

IMHO share price not cheap but strong momentum so I'm a holder.

[fuji99] 18/12/2017 07:36

Any reason behind the successive directors sales ?
Now almost half a million shares offloaded.