Today's Q3 17 trading update shows Revenue growth of 50% and Average User Acquisition Cost halved.
Companies: Plus500 Ltd.
Shares in online trading platform Plus500 (LON: PLUS) jumped 5% today off the back of another positive trading update from the Group.
Management reported another "record quarter" of trading which saw Revenues grow 50% to $116.5m when compared to Q3 16. For the nine months to 30 September, Revenues were £305m, representing an increase of 29% compared to the same period last year.
The update went on to say:
"The Board now believes that the Company is ahead of market expectations for the year as a whole."
New customer numbers in Q3 17 jumped 69% compared to Q3 16, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) jumped 11% and the Average User Acquisition Cost (AUAC) was slashed by an impressive 47%.
This lowering of costs to acquire new customers was a key factor to the Group's improved EBITDA which increased from c. $33m in Q3 16 to c. $70m in Q3 17.
Net profit for the nine months ended 30 September 2017 was $143m, up 103% compared to the $71m in the same period last year.
Shares in the Group were up 5% to an all-time high of 1044p in early morning trading, continuing its rally in 2017.
The stock crashed almost 12 months ago after the FCA proposed tightened regulation of CFD platforms, including Plus500. As fear of the regulation subsided over the coming months, the stock rebounded and currently trades at a share price almost double the c. 540p price before the crash.
Liberum released a note on the Group today, which said they continue to "err on the side of caution" with the potential of further regulation from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in 2018.
They have, however, upgraded some of their forecasts, saying:
"The key change to our forecasts is to upgrade the number of new clients to 110,000 for CY17 (from 100,000), a slight increase in ARPU to $2,103 and a substantial reduction in AUAC to $885. This results in revenue increasing to $385m, EBITDA uplifted by 10% to $230.9m and EPS growing to 151.4c (116.1p) and the DPS increasing to 90.8c (69.7p)."
Plus500 was one of the companies which featured in our "8 of the best performing AIM-listed stocks of 2017", with the share price growing 160% in 2017 to the time of writing. Today, that growth is up 165% in 2017.
