GlobalData – this group could shortly be moving from AIM up to the Main Market, which will bring in a new wave of investors, its shares are now 198p, with analyst price aims up to 300p

10.02.2025

This business intelligence group is shortly to move from AIM up to the Main Market.

That progression for GlobalData (LON:DATA) could well mark an important stage in the group’s growth, while at the same time focus new investor attention to its attributes, which in turn should improve its rating.

The process could take up to three months from now, but in the meantime the group will be declaring its 2024 Finals on Monday 10th March, when we could expect to hear news of the switch.

The Business

Capitalised at £1.6bn, this London-based group is a leading data, analytics, insights and technology platform for the world's largest industries.

Its declared mission is to help its clients decode the future, make better decisions, and reach more customers.

The company’s One Platform model is the foundation of its business and is the result of years of continuous investment, targeted acquisitions, and organic development.

The model governs everything that it does, from how it develops and manages its products, to its approach to sales and customer success, and supporting business operations.

It integrates the group’s unique data, expert analysis, and innovative solutions into an integrated suite of client solutions and digital community platforms, designed to serve a broad range of industry markets and customer needs on a global basis.

The operational leverage this provides means it can respond rapidly to changing customer needs and market opportunities, and continuously manage and develop products quickly, at scale, with limited capital investment as well as providing unique integration opportunities for mergers and acquisition.

The group’s four strategic priorities are: Customer Obsession, World-Class Product, Sales Excellence and Operational Agility.

Latest Trading Update

On Tuesday 14th January this year, the group provided the market with its Trading Update for the end-December 2024 year.

It noted that the group after a good first half, it had continued to deliver strong, profitable growth throughout the second half of the year.

Within the range of market expectations for the year, the company guided to expect revenues of some £286m (£273m), up 4% on an underlying basis.

Its adjusted EBITDA is expected to be within the range of market expectations showing 6% growth, with a sustained margin of 41%.

The year closed with underlying Contracted Forward Revenue growth of 4%, which provides strong visibility into the current year.

Last year was a significant year of investment across the group’s Growth Transformation Plan initiatives.

It continued to invest in its Artificial Intelligence capabilities, delivering demonstrable client impact with a 60% increase in AI Hub usage, as well as launching its new client solutions offerings.

The Management is confident in the group’s outlook for 2025, underpinned by high levels of revenue visibility, good execution of the Growth Transformation Plan and a strong financial position that allows continued investment in strategic growth opportunities.

Management Comment

CEO Mike Danson stated that:

"2024 has been a year of investment for GlobalData and we have made significant progress in our first year of executing the Growth Transformation Plan 2024-26.

Our mission-critical data and insights remain vital to our global customers, demonstrated by our strong, profitable growth in 2024, delivering an EBITDA margin of 41%.

Our AI advancements have transformed how customers access insights.

With our platform's generative AI capabilities, customers can now access trusted, actionable intelligence with the touch of a button, giving them the information they need to make informed decisions, navigate complexity with confidence, and achieve measurable business success.

Following the arrangement of new £340m financing facilities in December, we have substantially bolstered our ability to execute our ambitious M&A strategy.

Four strategic acquisitions have been completed during the second half with expertise spanning healthcare, financial services and media.

Integrating these businesses into our platform will enhance our capability to deliver even better service and valuable insights for our clients.

In addition to strategically deploying capital to advance our world-class products through M&A, we remain focused on actively pursuing organic growth opportunities.

We enter 2025 from a position of strength with good revenue visibility and the firepower to execute on our strategy. 

We continue to progress towards our targets of 45% margin and £500m revenue by the end of the three-year growth plan." 

The Equity

There are some 833.53m shares in issue.

The largest holder is CEO Michael Danson with 57.30% of the equity.

Other larger holders include Liontrust Asset Management (6.94%), the GlobalData EBT (4.64%), Investec Wealth & Investment (1.38%), Canaccord Genuity Wealth (1.38%), Abrdn Investment Management (1.29%), Royal London Asset Management (1.22%), Chelverton Asset Management (1.08%), Rathbones Investment Management (0.76%), BlackRock Investment Management (0.58%), FIL Investment Advisors (0.56%) and Herald Investment Management (0.41%).

Analyst Opinions

There are some six broking firms that follow the group, with their analysts calling the group’s shares as a Buy.

The Lowest Target Price is 215p, the Highest being 300p, while the consensus average is 265.50p a share.

Analyst Johnathan Barrett, at Panmure Liberum, currently has a Buy rating while looking for 288p as his Price Objective.

His estimates for 2024 are for £286.0m (£273.0m) sales, with adjusted pre-tax profits of £95.9m (£77.0m), lifting earnings to 7.3p (6.7p), but with a halved dividend of 2.3p (4.6p) per share.

For the current year he goes for £345.0m revenues, £123.6m profits, 8.6p earnings and just 1.3p dividend per share.

The 2026 year to end-December, he sees £365.0m sales, £139.7m profits, with 9.8p earnings and just 1.4p dividend per share.

In My View

Ahead of its 2024 Final Results next month, together with details of its switch to the Main Market, I take the view that this group’s shares offer some useful upside at the current 198p, with 250p being an easy short-term Target.