Technology

Technology equity research

Explore the most viewed and latest equity research and media content for companies within the Technology sector. Stocks in this sector focus on IT Services, Web Development, Software Development, and IT hardware.

Technology equity research

Stocks in this sector focus on IT Services, Web Development, Software Development, and IT hardware.

22 Jun 17

N+1 Singer - Uncovered Gems - Speed Dating Lunch - Another five sparkling gems

Last Friday we reprised our successful speed dating format with excellent presentations from the CEOs of Access Intelligence, Corero Network Security, LiDCO Group, OrganOx and Yu Group. Each company gave a ten minute overview of its business and the investment case and we had quick-fire Q&A from a group of fund managers. Below we summarise our thoughts on each company, with more details inside, plus we include the slides presented by each management team. We believe all five companies have excellent potential and are happy to arrange further contact. We also look forward to setting up our next speed dating event.

Companies: ACC CNS LID YU/

08 Jun 17

Confidence in ‘continued positive development’

Sopheon’s AGM statement notes that, during 2017, it has continued to advance its Accolade software platform, launching version 11.1 in February. The Group has recently been included in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Project Portfolio Management, a strong validation of its unique position in the enterprise portfolio management, enterprise initiative management, and product development markets. Full year revenue visibility is up, despite a robust prior year comparator. That combines with a strong pipeline to produce a confident statement from the Board on future delivery. We expect that the benefits of Sopheon’s products will continue to drive customer wins as the requirement to manage innovation becomes more fully recognised.

Companies: Sopheon

30 Sep 16

Strong maiden interims. Initiate with Buy and 150p TP

LoopUp’s shares have risen by 23% since the Aug’16 IPO. Today, the company publishes a strong set of maiden interims that leave management confident of meeting FY expectations. LoopUp develops conference-calling SaaS products for remote meetings. Its patented software guarantees ease of use, and its scalable model addresses a £4.7bn market in which it has grown revenues by 36% CAGR since 2013. It has been EBITDA profitable since Q4’13 and serves 1,850+ customers. We initiate with a Buy recommendation and a 150p target price.

Companies: Loopup Group

06 Jun 17

Making waves in Japan

Bango has announced what is, in our view, a significant Direct Carrier Billing (“DCB”) launch with Amazon in Japan. Bango Platform technology is enabling customers on Japan’s two largest mobile operator networks to purchase physical goods from Amazon Japan, charging the cost to their phone bill. We believe this is the first carrier billing payments service for physical goods from Amazon. The announcement contains no details on the terms of the transaction and for now we make no revisions to forecasts. Nevertheless, with the Japanese e-commerce market estimated at US$100bn annually and Amazon the market leader, we expect the deal to be substantial for Bango.

Companies: Bango

08 Mar 17

FY’16 Prelims

EBITDA doubles on 39% organic growth. “Negative Net Churn” beats our expectations materially. Raise target price to 180p.

Companies: Loopup Group

09 Jun 17

Maritime monitoring projects a bright future

SRT develops and supplies technology, products and systems that provide Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), used in marine surveillance, monitoring, command and control, management, safety, and search & rescue applications. In this it leverages its global dominance in Automatic Identification Systems (AIS). This leading-edge vessel identification and information technology is now mission-critical to MDA, and unrivalled expertise and quality place SRT in a strategically key position to win major MDA contracts as the increasingly uncertain geopolitical climate is leading to a rollout of next-gen MDA systems across the globe. SRT’s 2014 acquisition of GeoVS started the transformation into a systems business; providing a platform for displaying and manipulating maritime sensor data. These large, high-margin projects are seeing a step-up in revenue and profit. SRT now has £77m of contracted project work and a validated sales pipeline of £270m. The market is yet to appreciate the MDA opportunity leaving the stock deeply undervalued and we initiate with a 75p TP.

Companies: Srt Marine Systems

23 Mar 17

Stronger and stronger

Sopheon has reported strong prelims in line with the January trading update which had demonstrated that revenue delivery had been achieved on cost underspend, leading to EBITDA (+7% vs FY16E) and adjusted PBT (+22%) outperformance. Strong licence sales, high levels of recurring revenue retention (94% by value), and ever upgrading product portfolio in terms of functionality delivered revenue strength. Gartner recognition illustrates the transition from a product which needed to be described then sold, to a solution set sought by customers to deal with the increasingly acknowledged enterprise problem of efficient product lifecycle management. Sopheon is well positioned for future growth, and board confidence for future growth leads to planned increase in investment, yet still delivering $5.6m ($5.3m pre FX) EBITDA. Having smashed through our FY16 forecasts and target price, we restore FY17 forecasts and lift the 12-month target from 360p to 620p.

Companies: Sopheon

22 Jun 17

N+1 Singer - Imagination Technologies Group - No progress with Apple; Whole group for sale

Imagination has announced that it has initiated a formal sale process for the whole group and is engaged in preliminary discussions with potential bidders. The group has also confirmed that it remains in dispute with Apple, its largest customer. Without Apple we are not convinced of the long term viability of the business model. We believe the PowerVR IP will be attractive to a number of potential bidders, but as a primarily IP based sale it is very difficult to quantify the value. The stock remains firmly in special situation territory, but given the likelihood of an offer emerging we move our recommendation to Hold.

Companies: Imagination Technologies Group

19 Jun 17

Encouraging contract gain

EU Supply, the e-procurement software provider, has announced a 3-year single-source framework agreement with an existing customer, for support and maintenance renewals and customer-paid enhancements. Revenues will depend on services being ordered by the customer over the life of the agreement. Although there are no committed orders at this stage, there are customer discussions for potential call-off orders for delivery over the next few years. This framework agreement is an encouraging development, lending confidence to and suggesting scope for upside potential in our maintained forecasts

Companies: Eu Supply

08 Jun 17

Solid order book growth and pipeline strong

In an in line update, SCISYS reports that its order book grew by 4% over Q1, while net debt fell by £2.4m as at end-April. Cash flow was boosted by the receipt of overdue payments from the MOD and a tax credit from HMRC that were deferred from 2016. All business units have been performing well and we note that this year is likely to be more H2 weighted than is typical due to the acquired ANNOVA. Noting management’s goal to achieve £60m in revenues and double-digit operating margins within three to five years, we believe the stock looks attractive on c 9x our maintained FY18e EPS.

Companies: Scisys

13 Jun 17

“A week is a long time in politics …. now and then”

It was true then and is even more so now: a week is indeed a long time in politics. Now, a minority government in the UK must start Brexit negotiations, which inevitably will have become a more complicated process. This, together with interest rate decisions in the US, UK and Japan this week should point to caution among investors. Yet despite some recent declines, indices remain close to their highs. In Share News & Views we have covered Carclo, Establishment Investment Trust*, Helios*, Northbridge* PCFG* and Tricorn*.

Companies: BMS CRPR ECSC EUSP FDM PCF PPIX QRT SNX SPRP SQS TCN TRI W7L

15 Dec 16

Positioning itself to be a major cyber security company

Since being founded as a cyber security consulting business in 2000, ECSC has delivered profitable organic growth and has built up a blue-chip client list. It has raised £5.9m (£5m new/£0.9m old) with its admission to AIM (at 167p per share) to accelerate sales growth through hiring additional sales and business delivery resource to build up its managed security service clients. After a hiatus in PBT in 2017 due to the investment, we forecast strong growth from 2018. We initiate coverage with a DCF-derived 250p target price and Buy rating.

Companies: Ecsc Group

22 Jun 17

Imagination now officially and entirely up for sale

Imagination has announced the commencement of the formal sale process for the whole group. Having announced in May the intention to sell the MIPS and Ensigma businesses, it has now announced that preliminary discussions are engaged with several potential bidders. The company also said that it was still in dispute with Apple.

Companies: Imagination Technologies Group

10 May 17

High margin growth strategy accelerated

RedstoneConnect (Redstone) has acquired Anders & Kern for £1.4m and raised further funds to accelerate the development and market penetration of OneSpace. It has raised £6.5m at 1.5p, a 3% discount to the price on 8th May. We are leaving our FY18 PBT unchanged at £2.2m, but have increased our FY19 PBT forecast by 19% to £3.6m. For FY20 we expect a PBT of £4.1m implying a 3yr (2020-2017) CAGR for PBT of 49%. Moreover, we calculate the acquisition creates shareholder value with a ROCE of 30%. We increase our price target from 2.2p to 2.5p and maintain our buy recommendation with Redstone now trading on a PE rating of 16x and 12x for the year’s ending January 2018 and 2019.

Companies: Redstoneconnect

22 Mar 17

iRobot

We are positive on the impact of software bots on productivity, and therefore long term GDP. We are buyers of Blue Prism, one of the clear world leaders in this emerging high growth space.

Companies: Blue Prism Group

02 Feb 17

FreeAgent - Company update 2017

05 Jun 17

Dillistone Group - Trading and New Product Update

27 Mar 17

Executive Interview - IQE

22 May 17

Executive Interview - Reworld Media

14 Mar 17

Bango Final Results

26 Apr 17

Dillistone Group - Full Year Results 2017

29 Sep 16

Executive Interview - IQE

04 Apr 17

Nanoco - Interim Results

11 Apr 17

Accesso Investor Overview

15 Mar 17

Executive Interview - EMIS Group

03 May 17

Proactis (PHD) H1 Results investor presentation April 2017

08 Mar 17

ATTRAQT Group - Fredhopper acquisition

24 May 17

Executive Interview - Reworld Media

07 Mar 17

SQS - Full Year Results 2016

21 Nov 16

Defenx - Update at 121 Tech Investment

Latest Content

MARS BLUR ABZA

N+1 Singer - Morning Song 23-06-2017

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23 Jun 17
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Blur Group

N+1 Singer - blur Group - Update on financing, business plan and current trading

With blur’s cash at 31 May 2017 standing at $1.14m, the group conducted market soundings with new and existing potential cornerstone investors to see if it can secure additional funding. On conclusion of some of these initial discussions, the proposed investment terms included a number of onerous conditions which the board considered to be not in the best interest of shareholders. As such, it is currently evaluating alternative sources of near-term funding, which may or may not be forthcoming within four to six weeks. blur is continuing to execute on its enterprise customer strategy, remains engaged with a number of customers, continues to control costs with Q1 performance in line with expectations; however, it is clear that protecting/shoring up the equity value can only be achieved by securing additional funding.

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23 Jun 17
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Flowtech Fluidpower Srt Marine Systems

Morning Note

Flowtech Fluidpower* (FLO): Acquisition of Hi-Power (CORP) | SRT Marine Systems* (SRT): Somalia contract underpins forecasts (CORP)

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23 Jun 17
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Imagination Technologies Group

Imagination Technologies up for sale amid Apple dispute

Apple cancelled its contract with Imagination earlier this year in a surprise move that Imagination has since challenged

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22 Jun 17
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ACC CNS LID YU/

N+1 Singer - Uncovered Gems - Speed Dating Lunch - Another five sparkling gems

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22 Jun 17
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Imagination Technologies Group

N+1 Singer - Imagination Technologies Group - No progress with Apple; Whole group for sale

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22 Jun 17
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IMG CIFU ACC CNS LID YU/

N+1 Singer - Morning Song 22-06-2017

Carador Income Fund (CIFU LN) Level of refinancing and reset activity remains high | Imagination Technologies Group (IMG LN) No progress with Apple; Whole group for sale | Uncovered Gems - Speed Dating Lunch Another five sparkling gems

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22 Jun 17
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Imagination Technologies Group

Imagination now officially and entirely up for sale

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22 Jun 17
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K3 Business Technology Group

Fundraising to support new strategic decisions

K3 recently announced a Placing and Open Offer at 140p to raise £8.5 million before expenses. The Placing is subject to shareholder approval. The proceeds will be used to strengthen the Group’s balance sheet and provide additional working capital to give the management team flexibility as it makes strategic decisions (a further review of Group resources and operations was announced in May). The fundraising is also key to securing certain amendments to the terms of the Group’s existing facility agreement with K3’s lenders. Several Board changes have been announced and K3 will recruit a new Chairman. The trading comment in the announcement anticipates an operating loss of between £0.4 million and £2.4 million. We reintroduce estimates for FY 2017E (a 17 month period) and 2018E which reflect the change to a November year end. Meanwhile, management again underlines the positive momentum in the profitable business units.