Insights on Three FTSE100 Stocks: Barclays Plc, Bunzl PLC and Sage Group Plc

Barclays Plc

Barclays Plc (BARC) is a global financial services provider offering personal and business banking, wholesale and commercial banking, private and investment banking solutions to individuals, SMEs, corporates, and high-net-worth clients. It offers deposits and accounts, cards, loans, and investment solutions. The bank also offers services such as foreign exchange, transactional lending, mobile banking, premier banking, international banking, and online banking.

BARC-Financial highlights for H1 FY19 period ended 30^th June 2019

The company’s net interest income (reported) stood at £4,618 million in H1 FY19 as against £4,378 million in H1 FY18. The company’s total income stood at £10,790 million in H1 FY19 as against £10,934 million in H1 FY18. The company’s profit before taxation stood at £3,014 million in H1 FY19 as against £1,659 million in H1 FY18. The company’s profit after taxation stood at £2,469 million in H1 FY19 as against £1,015 million in H1 FY18. The company’s diluted earnings per share stood at 11.90 pence per share in H1 FY19 as against 3.20 pence per share in H1 FY18.

BARC-Share price performance

While writing (before market close GMT 9:01 AM) on 2 October 2019, Barclays Plc shares were trading at GBX 147.72 per share; down by 1.28 per cent as compared to the previous day closing price level. The company’s market capitalisation was ~ £25.84 billion.

BARC shares have registered a high of GBX 181.00 (as on 02 November 2018) and a low of GBX 131.04 (as on 12 September 2019) in the past year.

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Bunzl Plc

Bunzl Plc (BNZL) is London, United Kingdom-headquartered specialist multinational distribution company, which is engaged in supporting businesses by distributing non-food consumable products to various markets in 31 countries. The group offers customised solutions to B2B customers to help increase efficiency and improve the competitiveness of its customers. The operations of the group are differentiated in four operating segments, namely North America, Continental Europe, UK & Ireland, and Rest of the World.

BNZL-Financial highlights for H1 FY19

Reflecting the benefit of acquisitions and underlying organic growth of 0.8%, revenue rose to £4,528.4 million (IAS 17 basis) (2018 H1: £4,343.7 million), up by 4.3% at actual exchange rates and 1.2% at constant exchange rates. Operating profit of the company (on an IAS 17 basis) was £239.0 million and adjusted operating profit was £302.7 million. On an IAS 17 basis, operating profit was £228.1 million, which indicated an increase of 5.7% at constant exchange rates (up by 8.2% at actual exchange rates), while adjusted operating profit increased to £291.8 million, an increase of 0.3% at constant exchange rates (up by 2.4% at actual exchange rates). Profit before income tax (on an IAS 16 basis) was £200.5 million and adjusted profit before income tax was £264.2 million. Due to the growth in adjusted operating profit and the reduction in net finance expense, adjusted profit before income tax rose by 0.8% at constant exchange rates (up by 2.7% at actual exchange rates) on an IAS 17 basis to £264.9 million (2018 H1: £257.9 million), while profit before income tax (IAS 17) was reported at £201.2 million (2018 H1: £197.3 million), up by 1.97% at actual exchange rates). On an IAS 17 basis, profit after tax increased by 2.3% at constant exchange rates (up 4.4% at actual exchange rates) to £155.7 million, while adjusted profit after tax was £201.9 million (2018 H1: £196.4 million), up by 0.8% at constant exchange rates (up by 2.8% at actual exchange rates). Keeping in line with the growth in adjusted earnings per share, interim dividend was increased by 2.0% to 15.5 pence from 15.2 pence in H1 FY2018.

BNZL-Share price performance

While writing (before market close at GMT 9:03 AM) on 2 October 2019, Bunzl Plc shares were trading at GBX 2,080.00 per share; lower by 2.12 per cent as compared to the previous day closing price level. The company’s market capitalisation was ~ £7.16 billion.

BNZL shares have registered a high of GBX 2,554.60 (as on 05 April 2019) and a low of GBX 1,966.50 (as on 27 August 2019) in the past year.

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Sage Group Plc

The Sage Group Plc (SGE) is the UK based provider of integrated accounting, payroll and payments solutions, and is headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. Its accounting solutions are Sage One, Sage Live and Sage X3; its payments solutions are Sage Pay and Sage Payments; and its payroll solutions are Sage One Payroll, Sage 50 Payroll and Sage X3 People. The company is having an employee base of around 13,000 personnel serving more than 3 million customers in 23 countries.

SGE-Trading Update

The company’s organic total revenue for the Q3 surged by 5.3 per cent to £476 million, and for the first nine months, organic revenue increased by 5.9 per cent £1,417 million. The company’s Recurring revenue was up by 11.4 per cent to £405 million in Q3 and 10.6 per cent to £1,183 million for nine months. The company continually focused on new customers and migrated existing customers to the cloud and subscription-based software, which resulted in the software subscription growth of 28.3 per cent to £752 million. The company’s SSRS (Software and software-related services) business revenue dipped by 15.5 per cent for nine months period to £195 million.

The company’s North American business was up by 10 per cent to £471 million. The UKI business showed a revenue growth of 7.2 per cent to £300 million. The company’s revenue from its French business was £206 million.

SGE-Financial Highlights for H1 FY19

For the First half of the financial year 2019, the company’s underlying revenue stood at £957 million as against £912 million in H1 FY2018. The reported revenue for H1 FY2019 was £957 million as against £899 million in H1 FY2018. The increase in revenue was driven by increased revenue from software subscription and recurring revenue. The company’s underlying operating profit stood at £218 million in the first half of the Financial Year 2019 versus £224 million in H1 FY2018. The company’s statutory operating profit stood at £210 million in H1 FY2019 as against £186 million in H1 FY2018. The underlying PBT (Profit before tax) for H1 FY2019 was £205 million as against £208 million in H1 FY2018. The company’s reported PBT stood at £198 million in H1 FY2019 as against £171 million in H1 FY2018. The reported Profit for the period for H1 FY2019 was £154 million as against £135 million in H1 FY2018. The company’s statutory basic earnings per share for H1 FY2019 stood at 14.19 pence versus 12.50 pence in H1 FY2018. The company’s reported diluted earnings per share (EPS) for H1 FY2019 was at 14.12 pence versus 12.48 pence in H1 FY2018.

The company’s top-line and the bottom-line performance had improved for the H1 of the financial year 2019. The company’s revenue for the Q3 and for the first nine months had shown good growth as compared to the FY2018 data.

The company had made good revenue growth from different geographic segments in which it operates. Driven by the strong H1 performance, the group expects organic recurring revenue growth for FY2019 to exceed the set guidance. Sage being an IT company, needs to do innovation to stay on top and failure to bring technological advancement may affect the company’s market share. The company’s success lies in the partnership and strategic alliances it makes, any failure in the development of relationships with third parties will affect the company’s reputation and might negatively impact the financial performance.

SGE-Share price performance

While writing (before market close at GMT 9:07 AM) on 2 October 2019, Sage Group Plc shares were trading at GBX 671.60 per share; down by 1.64 as compared to the previous day closing price level. The company’s market capitalisation was ~ £7.44 billion.

SGE shares have registered a high of GBX 826.00 (as on 3 July 2019) and a low of GBX 491.30 (as on 21 November 2018) in the past year.