Final results from London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE:LSEG) on Thursday 27 February come three weeks after the shares hit an all-time high, with investors and analysts seemingly confident that growth can accelerate in 2025 and beyond.
For the past year, organic revenue is expected to have grown 7.4%, according to the City consensus, with growth in the fourth quarter slowing from 8.7% in the third quarter but above the 7.1% in the first half of the year.
Management's guidance on profit margins and a potential share buyback will be the main items in focus in the results, according to RBC Capital Markets, which envisages earnings growth accelerating, "which should further strengthen the re-rating argument to catch up with data provider peers".
"Strong" numbers are expected, showing better-than-originally guided group income growth, reflecting strong execution from the Data & Analytics arm, washed down with "outstanding" Tradeweb growth due to cyclical factors.
Anual subscription value growth guidance of 6.0% is "well understood", RBC added, looking for further colour from management on cost initiatives to fill in the gaps on EBITDA margin growth for 2025 and beyond.
"Given strong expected cash generation and leverage at the middle of the target range, we also can envisage a further capital return of circa £1 billion in buy-backs."
LSEG's 10-year strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp will also be a subject that investors want to hear more about, including any update on proposition rollouts.
RBC increased its price target to 12,500p from 11,600p and also flagged a new "upside scenario" of 15,800p if LSEG can migrate to a similar valuation multiple as its peer group.
Other analysts have also tweaked their outlook for the company in recent weeks, with UBS hiking its earnings forecasts 4% to 421.5p for 2025 and share price target by the same percentage to 14,000p, while those at Deutsche Bank felt that the shares were looking toppy in the short term after EPS downgrades throughout 2024, but upgraded outer years estimates at LSEG on the back of currency tailwinds and Tradeweb, resulting in a new share price target of 11,500p, up from 10,000p.