With one of the world’s largest research networks YouGov (LON:YOU) will certainly have gained more credence and business, especially as the world seems to be going in and out of Elections. 

However, the recently issued Current Trading Update noted that following its H1 results it has been seeing lower sales bookings than had been previously anticipated. 

The Business 

YouGov is an international online research data and analytics technology group. 

With operations in the UK, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India and Asia Pacific, it is certainly one of the world’s largest research networks. 

The £532m capitalised group considers that its mission is to offer unparalleled insight into what the world thinks. 

YouGov’s innovative solutions help the world’s most recognised brands, media owners and agencies to plan, activate and track their marketing activities better. 

Shares Collapse 

The day before the Update was released, on 20^th June, the group’s shares were trading at around the 820p level. 

The unexpected news saw them being almost halved in price in reaction, falling 380p to close that day at 440p. 

Within a week they had eased even further to 402.63p. 

Insider Dealings 

Since the Update it has to be noted that a number of the group’s Directors have been buyers of the shares. 

They have a very short period of ability to deal in the stock because the company will be announcing its Year End Trading Update on Thursday 1^st August. 

Market View 

A couple of weeks ago analyst Jessica Pok at Peel Hunt chopped her Price Objective for the group’s shares, from her previous aim of 1,500p a share to just 630p. 

At that time, she noted that she disagreed with the market view that the business is broken. 

The shares have fallen since its full-year profit warning led Pok to reduce her full-year 2024 and 2025 earnings per share targets by 44% and 39%, respectively, with conservative growth assumptions built in for next year.  

“The shares (then 420p) are currently trading at 11 times full-year 2025 price to earnings, which is near YouGov’s lowest rating in over a decade. 

The market is pointing to a broken business, which we do not believe is the case.  

However, we expect the shares to trade sideways until investors have more confidence in the future strategy and gain further insight into management’s plan of action at the prelims.” 

On the professional investor front Julian Fosh and Anthony Cross, Managers of the Liontrust GF Special Situations Fund, which is valued at some £80m, consider that it will take time to rebuild investor confidence in the company after its profit warning, but they remain invested. 

My View 

It will be more than interesting to see just how the group’s shares perform in the next couple of weeks up to the Year End Trading Update being announced on Thursday 1^st August. 

The very point that ‘insiders’ took advantage of the collapsed share price is perhaps predictive, so one might hope that there is good news in the offing. 

The shares have already started to show some signs of price recovery, currently trading at around the 460p level. 

The group describes itself as the #1 most-quoted market research source worldwide, being trusted to provide unparalleled into what the world thinks. 

I wonder what the world thinks about YouGov’s shares right now? 

The FTSE 100 fell on Friday as the world was hit by widespread technology outages that disrupted trade on the LSE, grounded planes and prevented some bankers from logging into their systems.

Many investors were experiencing difficulties placing trades with orders being rejected and some brokers issuing notices warning of disruption to their service.

The London Stock Exchange’s RNS system was out of action on Friday with corporates unable to login to publish regulatory news. FTSE price feeds were also disrupted in the early minutes of trade, but this was quickly rectified.

“The world grinding to a halt because of a global IT meltdown shows the dark side to technology and that relying on computers doesn’t always make life easier,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

“Countless industries, from airlines and trains to banks and media, face disruption to earnings if they cannot do their job. Workers cannot get from A to B and that will have a knock-on effect for industries across the board if staff aren’t there to perform important functions or systems are offline.

“The severity of the problem boils down to how long it lasts. A few hours’ disruption is unhelpful but not a catastrophe. Prolonged disruption is another matter, potentially causing damage to companies and economies.”

The FTSE 100 was down 0.4% to 8,171 at the time of writing and was recovering from the worse levels of the session as the initial panic subsided.

Notwithstanding the hysteria surrounding the breakdown in technology systems, the European equity space was set for a softer session after another drop in US tech shares overnight that hit futures.

With companies facing difficulties issuing news, the macroeconomic environment was in the driving seat on Friday when it came to FTSE 100 stocks.

Mounting concerns about the health of the Chinese economy was reflected in another weaker session for the miners as Glencore, Anglo American, and Rio Tinto trading negatively.

Burberry continued its dismal run with a 3% decline. Shares in the luxury brand are now worth less than a third of its 2023 high.

Beazley was the FTSE 100’s top faller presumably on concerns about the fallout of the technology sector disruption and potential claims. Beazley shares were down 7% at the time of writing.

Netflix released second-quarter earnings on Thursday and highlighted another period of growth for the streaming company with revenue hitting a quarterly record and EPS beating estimates.

The standout metric was the number of new subscribers added. The company added 8.2m subscribers during the period compared to estimates of just 5m.

Revenue rose to $9.6bn during the period, beating estimates of $9.5bn and a small increase on the prior quarter’s $9.4bn in revenue.

Netflix’s growth has been consistent and steady, but it is slowing. Shares were flat in the premarket as investors reacted to softer revenue projections in the coming quarters.

Once known for a blowout revenue increases, Netflix is becoming more of a utility company than a racy technology stock.

“Netflix is once again showing why it’s king of the streamers. Second quarter results were impressive, and subscriber growth shot the lights out once more. The ad-supported product is proving more popular than many could have hoped. It allows Netflix to penetrate new markets geographically and taps into users who are priced out of the fully paid service,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“But this is a new challenge for Netflix; you can’t simply chuck a load of non-tailored adverts into your product to keep users happy, even if that’s what they signed up for. Squeezing every possible dollar from the new ad-watching user base is proving a challenge, and with users growing so fast, it’s struggling to fill all the ad slots it has at its disposal. Now, that’s a pretty good problem to have, and Netflix has so much user data that it’s better placed than any of its peers to provide relevant, tailored, ads to its subscribers. But markets will want to see Netflix take full advantage of this new revenue stream, and fast.”

SEGRO is offloading Italian warehouse assets to focus on other developments and investment opportunities.

A portfolio of four logistics warehouses in Italy has been sold for €327 million in cash, according to an announcement made today. The disposal was carried out by the SEGRO European Logistics Partnership (SELP) joint venture, with SEGRO acting as the venture adviser.

The transaction involves two warehouses in Milan and two in Rome, totaling 338,745 square meters of floor space. All four facilities were originally developed by Vailog SEGRO and are currently fully leased to three different customers in the online and traditional retail sectors.

The portfolio generates an annual passing rent of €19 million and boasts an average weighted unexpired lease term (WAULT) of 10.5 years, indicating its strong potential for long-term returns for the purchaser.

“We developed and delivered these modern, highly sustainable warehouses for some of our largest customers in Italy to support their expansion plans,” said Luca Sorbara, Co-Head of Italy at SEGRO.

“This disposal has enabled us to divest some assets with long-leases and limited asset management potential, allowing us to recycle capital into other attractive development and investment opportunities.”