Sales and investor momentum gathering at the AIM-listed robotics specialist
Companies: Blue Prism Group Plc
Shares in Blue Prism, the robotic automation specialist, jumped 13% as the market opened on Thursday after the AIM-listed firm announced another sparkling trading update.
Blue Prism, whose stock rose to +19% by midday, reported that sales momentum had helped it secure 151 new software deals in the past five months and that as a result revenue for the full-year will be "significantly" ahead of expectations in its interims.
The Group, which was expected to hit £16.5m in FY17 and £19.7m in FY18, said 87 of its 151 deals were new customers and 60 were upsold across 40 existing customers.
As a result of this sales progress, and the ongoing momentum in the Group's pipeline, the Board now expects revenue to beat expectations significantly.
Investors will still have to wait for profitability, however, as the company has committed to further investment to grow its sales and marketing activities. According to Stockopedia, the company isn't going to deliver a net profit until after 2018 at the earliest.
Whitman Howard reiterated its BUY guidance with an upgraded target price of 650p (from 590p), saying the firm's software deal momentum was very strong, with 151 sales in the five months to March compared to the full year total for FY16 of 189.
"Deal momentum is clearly building. On Feb 22nd PRSM updated the market for its Q1 to end Jan, and they had signed 87 deals in the 3 month period. They have now signed a further 68 deals in the following 2 months, ie 34 per month vs 28 per month in Q1. This clearly represents a significant acceleration in deal momentum."
Analyst Harvey Robinson said his firm were upgrading its revenue numbers to £20m from £17 for FY17, and to £28 from £23.8m for FY18.
CEO Alastair Bathgate said it was encouraging to see good levels of interest in the firm's technology and added that he looked forward to giving investors greater insight of its progress at its interims.
