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27 Jun 2022
STM in rude health

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STM in rude health
RELX PLC (REL:LON) | 4,026 281.8 0.2% | Mkt Cap: 74,260m
- Published:
27 Jun 2022 -
Author:
Kassab Sami SK -
Pages:
32 -
Reaffirm Top Pick Outperform rating ahead of H1 results
Relx shares have outperformed the MSCI Europe, the Media sector, the Staples sector and its closest peers year-to-date. We expect this solid performance to continue and to be fuelled by H1 22 results on July 28th. The faster-than-expected recovery in Exhibitions and the improvement in organic revenue growth at STM and Legal are the main catalysts.
Deep dive in STM underpins our above consensus view
VA Consensus expects STM top-line growth to decelerate in 2023. We forecast an acceleration to 4%. With our BNPPE OA Monitor we have collected volume, price and quality metrics on 2,000 Open Access journals from the Top 6 OA publishers for the last 10 years. Our work suggests strong upside in Elsevier Open Access revenues as a contributor to faster divisional growth.
STM Databases and Tools growth looks sustainable as focus on RandD productivity increases
Our mapping of Elsevier''s product and competitive landscape supports our view that the growing contribution from fast-growing Databases and Tools and diminishing headwinds from Print will drive stronger divisional growth.
Risk Insurance Transactional revenues likely to prove resilient
With US auto insurance rate increases accelerating, car insurance shopping volumes are likely to bounce. Historically, pressure on US consumer spending led drivers to switch car insurance policies. We expect Risk to deliver on FY22 and FY23 expectations.
Earnings yield gap remains attractive
We raise EPS 22e and EPS 23e by 3% and 4% largely on forex. Relx''s market relative PEs are elevated but defendable given the improving growth profile of the group. The earnings yield gap with US 10Y yields is more attractive than over 1997-2007 when Reed Elsevier had weaker fundamentals. We maintain our Outperform rating on Relx and see a consensus-beating H1 22 orgrev growth as the next catalyst.