The Sage Share Discussion Threads

[amt] 29/7/2021 06:46

Good update.onwards and upwards

[nhb001] 20/7/2021 08:55

Has the trader working the buy back gone on holiday or has he spent his budget? Anyone know?

[spacecake] 01/7/2021 19:05

I was quite disappointed with the effort Sage is putting into FutureMakers programme.
They could become a Raspberry Pi corporate partner.


They could become a supporter


Who would have thought the humble £35 to £73 credit card sized board could be built into a web server platform.

[p1nkfish] 24/6/2021 06:14

SAGE - GREAT TO SEE UK REGION SPECIFICALLY ASSISTED.
There's a need to invest here and promote opportunitry here.
You get my support.
More UK companies need to be doing this and do it properly, with commitment.

"Sage aims to tackle economic inequality by supporting people from underrepresented communities around the world to start or grow their own business. Initiatives include partnering with social enterprise MyKindaFuture and JobCentrePlus to provide mentoring and training support to disadvantaged people in the UK to start their own businesses, and partnering with non-profit lending platform Kiva to improve financial inclusion in communities that find it hard to start or grow businesses. 

Sage is also dedicating its technology, time and experience to supporting digital equality and diversity, by providing 10,000 children in deprived areas in the North of Tyne Combined Authority with access to STEM skills education, and through further investment in its FutureMakers programme to give young people access to Artificial Intelligence education and awareness."

[techno20] 20/6/2021 09:57

Buy recommendation in today’s Telegraph.

[maddox] 02/6/2021 22:16

I listened to the Fundsmith AGM and whilst obviously disappointed by the share price performance their discussion of the pluses and minuses was inconclusive. They tend not to run away at the first signs of a problem; and to back managers that are doing the right thing. In fact, Terry Smith is very opportunistic and will often buy a 'quality' company when the share price is depressed due to a short-term difficulty.

I think that due to the repeated AGM questions about SGE Terry decided to exit in the opportune circumstance of the buy-back programme. A rare example of Terry playing to the gallery.

FWIW I think he should have bought more SGE and that he'll regret it. And as a Fundsmith investor I might be penning a question for the AGM.

[I do very much admire Terry Smith - I have a signed fist addition of his book 'Accounting for Growth' ('the book they tried to ban') and Fundsmith is my only fund investment.]

[spacecake] 02/6/2021 10:57

Write up in the Telegraph today + SGE came up in the Fundsmith AGM Q&A so it's no surprise to Fundsmith Equity holders who watched the virtual AGM.
Surprised SGE has not attracted an activist investor by now.

[p1nkfish] 02/6/2021 08:38

Since about July 19, quick glance, it's still making lower highs. Turning, but slowly.

[p1nkfish] 02/6/2021 08:35

No surprise if he made intentions clear to SGE management so exit could be orderly for the benefit of everyone. Value elsewhere in his eyes.

[maddox] 02/6/2021 08:08

Thanks Spacecake

So basically, Terry Smith has taken advantage of the share buy-back programme to sell out without depressing the price too much.

Considering Fundsmith has held onto SGE for a long period selling when the green shoots are starting to appear is a bit surprizing.

[spacecake] 01/6/2021 18:22

see: - Portfolio comment for May 2021

[nhb001] 01/6/2021 17:06

Spacecake : Can you share where you saw that?

[spacecake] 01/6/2021 15:09

Fundsmith has sold out of SGE, no longer in Terry's worry box.

[nhb001] 19/5/2021 22:06

Interesting that there have been no buyback RNS's for a few days. I thought there was a problem with my data feed but one today states only ~6K shares bought. Obviously they are not buying while the share prices rises significantly. I note that they started buying at the low today.

[fuji99] 19/5/2021 16:33

For those who love tech stocks and want to complete their portfolio by adding a cutting edge technology player, take a look at DarkTrace [DARK] an internet security firm using Artificial Intelligence protecting thousands of blue chip companies (70% of business in the US and expanding)."Founded in 2013 by mathematicians and cyber experts from government intelligence backgrounds, Darktrace was the first company to apply AI to the challenge of cyber security." - - -

[grafter] 19/5/2021 00:45

Roland Head's UK Pick -

One UK tech stock I've been buying in recent months is FTSE 100 software group Sage (LSE: SGE). Although I wouldn't put my whole portfolio into any single stock, I think this business offers a decent mix of safety and long-term growth potential.

I see this as an opportunity to buy into a quality business at a reasonable price. But I could be wrong -
Sage might be left behind by smaller, more nimble competitors.

[blackdown2] 18/5/2021 19:03

A good finish to the day.

[spacecake] 15/5/2021 08:30

Following on from my earlier comment that the share price has gone nowhere in 5 years, looking at a longer timeline such as 20 years back the weird and wonderful days of the new millennium dot com boom and the share price has fared no better, unless I'm missing some share splits.

Over the same period the ftse mid cap (MCX) has more than doubled and the FTSE 100 (UKX) would have returned you about the same as SGE - nothing (but with less volatility )

[maddox] 15/5/2021 00:10

Boxall is talking out of her backside. Firstly, SGE are not losing customers to competitors. Secondly, the margin narrowed due to planned investment in product development, Sales and Marketing.

Unfortunately, the Investors Chronicle has moved to a journalistic style where the facts are bent to fit the chosen eye-catching narrative. That is, it has ditched the high quality 'analysis-led' approach where the narrative emerges from what is revealed by the analysis of the business results.

This leads to pat statements such as: "Sage also hinted that pandemic uncertainty had prevented its customers from making decisions about software investment. Revenue in the first six months of the 2021 financial year rose just 1 per cent. But blaming poor performance on the pandemic - something that these two companies are not the first to do - is lazy." ​

Um, no they didn't, it's the journalism that's lazy.

"Meanwhile Sage has spent almost five years battling to shift its customers to its cloud-based services, which still account for just 65 per cent of the revenues."

Note the emotive language, I doubt Sage ever contemplates 'battling' with its customers. The fact is that SGE from a standing start has now achieved 91% recurring revenue, 68% subscription adoption and 65% Sage business cloud adoption overall. In North America cloud adoption has reached 73% and 85% in Northern Europe.

"It is true that the quality investment case remains intact, but there are signs of fragility in these numbers. Operating margins dipped to 20 per cent as the cost of expanding the business increased. Customer retention by value fell below 100 per cent. Sage is still struggling to get moving in a dynamic, fast-moving market. Its moat may no longer be enough to protect it from attackers."

Yes, churn led to a 97% renewal rate by value, perhaps nor surprising due to the stress on their customers. However, this was balanced by 7% increase in revenue from new customer acquisitions - so 104% overall or more precisely a 4.4% growth in annual recurring revenue.

Every week I read this sort of pap and wonder why I bother to pay for an Investors Chronicle subscription.

[spacecake] 14/5/2021 13:07

They maybe the largest technology company in the UK, but globally there just a tiddler.

Don't little fish like SAGE Group in the global pond get gobbled up ?

[grafter] 14/5/2021 11:45

Shaky Sage fails to inspire confidence -

The subscription model adds to the stickiness - anyone with a Netflix account should know that. But digital accounting and payroll solutions are becoming easier to use, meaning the difficulty of transitioning to a new provider is not as hard as it used to be. Sage's competitive moat might be being breached.

And while the quality investment case remains intact, there are signs of fragility in these numbers. Operating margins dipped to 20 per cent as the cost of expanding the business increased. Customer retention by value fell below 100 per cent. Sage is still struggling to get moving in a dynamic, fast-moving market. Its moat may no longer be enough to protect it from attackers.

Boxall - IC

[julcester] 14/5/2021 11:42

Yeah, the share price is disconnected from its fundamental's, definitely. It confuses me, how can Silicon Valley tech firms get valued at crazy multiples, but Sage doesn't. I think the majority of people still view Sage as a boring pack of CD Roms that your local book keeper uses.Compare it to Intuit, a market cap 15 times higher than Sage, PE ratio 2.5 higher than Sage, a dividend 1/5 of Sage!!!

[spacecake] 14/5/2021 11:15

AMT, how is it nonsense, the share price is the same as it was 5 years ago. Patience is required.