YouGov

LN: YOU

Market Cap£1612m

Last Close 1450p

YouGov is an international research data and analytics group. Its data-led offering supports and improves a wide spectrum of marketing activities of a customer base including media owners, brands and media agencies. It works with some of the world’s most recognised brands.

Investment summary

YouGov had a strong H2, delivering underlying revenue growth of 18% for the year and lifting adjusted operating margin from 14.3% to 15.1%. The progress in the key US market is particularly encouraging. Strong cash generation (123% cash conversion in the period) continues to fund innovation and investment, including building a broader range of touchpoints with the public to knowingly share their data with YouGov (especially important with global data privacy rules tightening). This is bringing down data acquisition costs and should allow the group to scale further and faster. Management reports that the good momentum has continued into FY22 and that there continues to be a healthy sales pipeline. The 20% uplift in proposed dividend to 6.0p is a sign of that confidence.

Y/E Jul	Revenue (£m)	EBITDA (£m)	PBT (£m)	EPS (p)	P/E (x)	P/CF (x)
2019A	136.5	31.7	20.4	13.8	105.4	40.2
2020A	152.4	39.2	24.7	15.7	92.7	40.4
2021E	170.0	47.9	30.6	17.4	83.6	34.3
2022E	185.0	54.3	37.0	21.3	68.3	29.8

Industry outlook

TThe group is making good progress across all geographies, but notably in the key US market. The increasing emphasis on data privacy and the forthcoming changes to third-party cookie usage (despite the delay) highlight the benefits and value inherent in permissioned, first-party data. YouGov’s developments, particularly those such as YouGov Safe, sit well in this shifting environment.

Last updated on 12/01/2022