Universe Group PLC (BUY)
Universe Group plc is a United Kingdom-based company. The Company designs, develops and supports point of sale, payment and online loyalty solutions and systems for the United Kingdom petrol forecourt and convenience store markets. The trading segment of the Company is HTEC Solutions (Solutions). Solutions provide hardware, software and service solutions into the United Kingdom petrol and retail markets. The Company also provides deployment, field maintenance, in-house and outsourcing services. The Company's subsidiaries include HTEC Group Ltd, HTEC Ltd and Indigo Retail Holdings Ltd, among others.
• Market Cap is 22.3 million
• Pre tax profit 1.73 million
• P/E 12.9
• No dividends are paid as of yet
• Next preliminary results between the 9th and 13th of April 2016
• Share price has been in an uptrend since September last year and grown 100%
• Net Debt is far less than profit
• Profiting in the last 3 years
• Spread is currently less than 5%
• Rising Profit and Revenue in the last 3 years
• StockRank Score 98
• Quality Score 90
• Momentum Score 83
• Value Score 77
• Health Trend Score 7
• Bankruptcy Risk Safe
• Magic Formula Score A-
• Sector: Technology
• Industry: Software & IT Services
• Index FTSE Intl-aim All share
• Shares in issue: 220,281,758
Introduction
Results for the year show the very encouraging progress we are making as we continue to develop the Group by strengthening and extending its product offering and broadening its customer base. Sales have increased by 31% to GBP20.75m and operating profit rose by 28% to GBP1.73m. These pleasing results reflect both the benefits of the two acquisitions we made in 2013 and strong organic growth of 16% in the core business.
The Group continues to generate high levels of recurring income, from hosted data services and maintenance contracts, as well as strong cash flows. The balance sheet remains robust, with cash at the year-end of GBP2.06m
Looking ahead we expect to see continuing progress and remain focused on product development. We will also be aiming at further penetration of the convenience store market, as well as the continuing…
TradeRyder, Universe Group is not a company that I'm familiar with. However I am familiar with XN Checkout and Torex Retail - who seem to have operated in similar areas. Torex was a full-scale fraud and several directors are now where they should be, behind bars.
I'm not for one minute saying that Universe is the same, just be wary of such companies in that industry, and be watchful of what development spend they capitalise to massage the P&L.
Software companies (previously mentioned) plus Marlborough Sterling, SSA Aclaim and a few others - I took a bath on them all earlier in my investing career and now would never touch them!
Best of luck though.
