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Ascential upped to ‘buy’ by Liberum following bullish 2019 results

Published: 21:43 25 Feb 2020 AEDT

Ascential - Ascential upped to ‘buy’ by Liberum following bullish 2019 results

Ascential PLC (LON:ASCL) has been upgraded to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ by analysts at Liberum following what the broker said was a “solid set” of full-year results on Monday.

In a Tuesday note, analysts also hiked their target price for the FTSE 250 exhibition specialist to 420p from 380p, saying they had “confidence in the integration efforts of the group” despite previous caution around the company’s sales division.

READ: Ascential upbeat as sales power ahead

“With Marketing returning to growth, [global forecasting service] WGSN outperforming expectations and most importantly, Sales integration still on track to complete in H1 2020 (proforma growth of 11% for FY19), we see sufficient evidence to upgrade to buy”, Liberum said.

The broker added that Ascential’s sales division was “a future key catalyst for medium to long-term growth” as it was “well-positioned to benefit from increasing competition in online marketplaces, which in turn will drive demand for analytics products to optimise performance”.

The company also had “further opportunity to build capabilities” across the Chinese market following its acquisition of e-commerce analytics business Yimian, Liberum said.

In its results for 2019, Ascential reported that underlying revenues had risen 19% to £416mln in the year just ended while underlying profits climbed 8.5% on a proforma basis to £128.5mln.

Shares in the company were down 1.3% at 363p in mid-morning trading.

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