damn good bet |
Yeah. Seems to be heading that way. |
You mean £3.00 surely? ;-) |
Another attempt at passing 400 maybe |
This seems like a pretty good bet for a turn around play. Back to growth and costs cut. Although they just binned off their CEO seems like his acquisitions have paid off. Onwards and upwards |
Blackrock reduced their short to 0.66% on 04.02.25. |
 Berenberg spies pick-up at YouGov
YouGov (YOU) has delivered year-on-year revenue growth, a trend which Berenberg believes the survey and data group can continue to deliver.
Analyst Ciaran Donnelly retained his ‘buy’ recommendation but reduced the target price from 810p to 760p on the group, which was trading up 3.6% at 375p on Tuesday. Its shares are down 69% over the past year.
In a trading update up to the end of January, the company revealed revenue had grown modestly in what Donnelly described as ‘challenging conditions’, with the data products division returning to underlying growth. The company also confirmed chief executive Steve Hatch will step down and current chair and co-founder Stephan Shakespeare will take on the role in the interim.
‘The outlook points to a continuation of modest year-on-year revenue growth in the second half,’ he said.
‘In terms of forecasts, we reduce our full-year 2025 revenue forecast by 1.5% and adjusted EBIT by 4%.’
Donnelly said the shares are trading on a full-year 2025 price-to-earnings of 11 times and a 50% discount relative to the two-year average |
Blackrock reduced their short to 0.79% on 03.02.25. |
Octopus adding. |
Interesting OIH bght almost 7m shares yesterday |
A return to growth is positive. The founder knows the business better than anyone. This was 1200p not long back! |
If the board has buckled to pressure from a sub 5% holding, you have to question their competence. Not sure why Hatch, who has only been there 18 months, should be the fall guy for a market slowdown and the acquisition (the decision for latter pre dated his arrival), which took management’s eye off the ball. I saw Shakespeare speak at the investor presentation and his grasp of language made me think he was hung over or cognitively impaired. This business needs someone young and vital not an older man in his 60s. What a shame if they succumb to Gatemore and sell this business on the cheap and there is not the opportunity to realize the long term potential. |
Good to see a return to growth. Update a bit light on numbers though which doesn't help with transparency. Will get a better idea of how they are doing on the 31st of March |
Strange reactionShld be in the 4s by now |
Gatemore got what they wanted. |
Very good news that he has gone |
He was 💩
Good riddance. |
CEO gone. What a mess. |
Nice rise today. Maybe some opportunistic traders coming in before results next week |
YouGov (YOU) chief executive Steve Hatch has only been in the hot seat for 18 months, but a already scathing shareholder letter has called for his removal in a bid to revive the Aim-traded data company's ailing share price. Is the current boss set for the chop?In the letter to YouGov's board last week, activist investor Gatemore called Hatch's tenure "a disaster" and argued that "the market has lost faith in his leadership". Gatemore, which bought into the company last year, had already called for a strategic review adn possible sale of the business last November. The company's shares are heavily trailing the wider Aim market after plummeting by two-thirds over the past year (and have now lost almost 40 per cent over five years). The board has struggled to reassure the market about YouGov's long-term potential. Return of the king?Gatemore is now calling for former chief executive and co-founder Stephan Shakespeare to return as interim boss to oversee a strategic review that could result in YouGov leaving the public market. Shakespeare has previously suggested that a US listing could make sense for YouGov after its January 2024 acquisition of GfK's consumer panel services (CPS) significantly increased the size of the business. But Gatemore thinks YouGov should ultimately be taken private, and it believes that a new management team could deliver a sale at a roughly 85 per cent premium to the current share price.Shakespeare remains a notable shareholder in YouGov with his 1.53 per cent stake. Hatch, who was given options in December equivalent to 220 per cent of his base salary as part of a long-term bonus plan, has only a 0.04 per cent beneficial interest in the company's shares. Part of the problem for YouGov of late inconsistent as Gatemore points out has been financial guidance. The shares lost almost half their value in a single trading day last June when the company posted a profit warning. Guidance was then revised up just six weeks later and came in slightly higher still at the October results. But the shares are now sitting lower than the June level after a brief rebound in the third quarter of 2024. Analysts at Peel Hunt said late last year that the current management team "is taking the right actions and is on track to meet its cost-savings target". But they noted that "evidence of growth is needed" in the half-year trading statement scheduled for 4 February after a "crucial" budgeting period for the company's clients. Gatemore is a relatively small institutional shareholder in YouGov, with a 1.3 per cent holding through its Special Opportunities Fund. But the company should be concerned about its statement that it has received support for its position from "significant shareholders and industry participants".YouGov did not respond to a request for comment on the new Gatemore letter. A data products problemAt the heart of YouGov's woes is a slowdown at its data products unit, its highest-margin business, which generates a greater adjusted operating profit than each of the other two businesses (research and CPS). Central to improved cash flow growth hopes and market sentiment is the company getting to grips with issues around price competition and demand. Slower than expected revenue and pressure from competition (such as Morning Consult in North America and GWI in the UK) at the unit has dented investor confidence, while the narrative turned from growth to action on costs.Revenue at the unit fell 2 per cent in the latest year, while operating profit tumbled by over a quarter and the margin plunged by 10 percentage points. The company anticipates improved sales momentum in the second and third quarters of this year. But analysts expect muted single-digit sales growth for data products until at least 2027. Taking a step back, YouGov has managed company-wide revenue growth of 17 per cent and operating profit growth of 28 per cent on a 10-year compound annual growth rate basis.The FactSet consensus is for revenue and operating profit growth of 16 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, in the year to July 2025 on the back of a full year for CPS. Further out, the company's unchanged medium-term targets of £650mn of revenue and an operating profit margin of 25 per cent suggest that it remains confident of significant growth ahead, though Gatemore has asked for more detail on the plans being put in place to achieve these goals. The share price crash has left YouGov trading on 10 times forward consensus earnings, half the level of last spring.The company has notable financial and strategic strengths and a significant market opportunity. But Hatch should perhaps muse upon UBS's comment that "one way to accelerate the rehabilitation process is full and transparent communication with investors and analysts". A more robust approach is clearly needed. |
2 big buys today. |
Acting like a dogg again |
I see that Gatemore , an "activist investor" has been calling for the CEO to be replaced by the former boss and for the sale of the company. But as they only hold 1.3% I suspect the BOD won't even reply. I wouldn't!
Though will they admit their bad decisions? |
The budget has killed any hope of recovery for every industry in the UK.
High taxes = redundencies = less spending = recession = Labour will be kicked out for another 50 years. |
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