22-11-2006 - Printing.com - Printing.com Interim Results - Aim & OFEX Newsletter
PDC £22.4m 50p BUYInterim results
Specialist retail printer Printing.com's interim results continued to show solid progress. The interim period, which covered the 28 weeks ending 15th October saw pre-tax profits climb by 0.7% to £1,026,000. Total retail sales increased by 15.9% to £10,879,000, providing some sort of measure for transactional volumes. Turnover marginally decreased by 3.4% to £6,187,000 reflecting the change in ownership of several stores and, significantly, the legacy 'Agency' division. In previous periods these were company owned and Total Retail Sales were included in turnover.
The balance sheet remains robust, and at the close of the interim period, the company had cash-in-hand of £3,223,000. During the period, working capital increased by £543,000 and the company paid dividends of £559,000. Capital expenditure in the period amounted to £3,285,000 of which £2,955,000 was lease financed. The interim dividend payout was 0.6p, which will be paid out of earnings of 1.61p per share.
COMMENT
Trading has proved more encouraging since the period end. Specifically, the penultimate and final 4-week trading Periods, ending 17 September 2006 and 15 October 2006, saw volumes inline with the Company's current budget. Encouragingly, the first Period of the second half has also followed this more positive trend. The improving state of printing volumes underpins our confidence in the forecasts for this year and next. Earnings should hit 3.3p this year, climbing to 4p next year. With the international side of the operations set to grow and grow, the 15 times earnings multiple is far from demanding. BUY.