Ebiquity

LN: EBQ

Market Cap£41.2m

Last Close 52.5p

Ebiquity is a world leader in media investment analysis, harnessing data to provide independent, fact-based advice, enabling brand owners to perfect media investment decisions and improve business outcomes.

Investment summary

Ebiquity had a good first half, with a 20% uplift in revenues and a return to operating profit, with an underlying operating margin of 7%. Expectations for the full year and for FY22e were edged up, although there remained notes of caution around prospects in some sectors in H2. Ebiquity is making good progress with its digital activities and product solutions, which we expect to support the medium-term growth. The group has recently set-up an Indian office to take advantage of that large and dynamic market. The share price performance year-to-date has been strong (up 173%), but the valuation remains at a sizeable discount to peers.

Y/E Dec	Revenue (£m)	EBITDA (£m)	PBT (£m)	EPS (p)	P/E (x)	P/CF (x)
2019A	68.1	8.6	4.7	2.9	18.1	11.6
2020A	55.9	1.8	(1.3)	(1.9)	N/A	119.7
2021E	63.0	5.6	3.2	3.1	16.9	13.3
2022E	69.3	7.7	5.3	4.9	10.7	10.6

Industry outlook

Ebiquity’s reconfigured Digital Innovation Centre, built on Digital Decisions, looks to be achieving its goal of providing a more comprehensive and integrated digital media offering. Although Google’s withdrawal of support for third-party cookies has been pushed back to FY23, the direction of travel remains the same and the need for advertisers to optimise and benchmark their digital media spend in a complex ecosystem is unlikely to diminish.

Last updated on 01/12/2021