Sophos Group plc is a security software and hardware company. Sophos develops products for communication endpoint, encryption, network security, email security and mobile security as well as unified threat management. Sophos is focused on providing security software to organizations, businesses, and individual users. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange 1 July 2015
LSE: SOPH

Have this company as an entry in the uk stock challenge.

http://www.stockchallenge.co.uk/

11 Jan
Credit Suisse
700.00
Outperform

Edit/ cleared Teach me to read it more. Cheers Harry.

No problem!

Trading statement

Financial and operational highlights

· Billings1 for the nine-month period (year-to-date: "YTD") increased by 21%, or 20% at constant currency ("CC")
- Continued strong growth in Q3, with billings +19% (+14% CC), as we lapped the anniversary of the launch of Intercept X
- Subscription billings increased by 25% YTD, with growth of 20% in Q3
- Sophos Central and Enduser Security remained the principal drivers, with Enduser billings +34% YTD and +27% in Q3
- Network security billings +12% YTD and +15% in Q3
- Good growth across all regions, with Americas and EMEA +22%, and APJ +14% YTD
· Further acceleration in revenue with growth of 19% YTD (18% CC), and 23% in Q3 (19% CC)
- Driven by subscription element of prior-period bookings, with subscription revenue +23% YTD and +27% in Q3
- Deferred revenue increased by 33% year-over-year to $687.6 million
· Strong cash flow performance, with net cash flow from operations up by 21% to $98.2 million and an improvement in unlevered free cash flow2 YTD to $88.2 million, following planned investment in recent new product releases

Sophos operating profit slides 20%
StockMarketWire.com
Sophos, a provider of cloud enabled enduser and network security solutions, made an adjusted operating profit of $30.4 million in the nine months ended 31 December 2017, a decrease of 19.6% from the same period a year ago.

Billings increased by 21%, or 20% at constant currency (CC), with subscription billings up by 25%.

Sophos Central and Enduser Security remained the principal drivers, with Enduser billings up 34%. Network security billings rose by 12%.

Group revenue increased by 19% (18% CC), with subscription revenue 23% higher and deferred revenue 33% higher at $687.6 million.

Kris Hagerman, chief executive officer, said: "The strong demand for our industry-leading cybersecurity solutions continued in Q3. Customer reaction to XG Firewall v17 has been very positive, and we are delighted to have recently launched a major new release of Intercept X, incorporating for the first time our neural network-based deep learning technology into our leading endpoint product. Consequently, as our business continues to post strong growth the board is confident both in the outlook for the full-year and the longer-term prospects of the group."

At 8:14am: (LON:SOPH) Sophos Group Plc share price was -78.5p at 543p


Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

all sounded quite good, but market very unimpressed and shares down 17.5%+

Morgan Stanley today reaffirms its overweight investment rating on Sophos Group Plc (LON:SOPH) and cut its price target to 705p (from 780p).

Ameet Patel of Northern Trust:
"We’d been buyers of Sophos since IPO in June 2015 all the way up to their latest update on 8 Feb – it is an easy story to understand and buy into as Europe’s only mid-cap pure play on the cyber security mega theme. That’s all very well as long there is no change in the narrative and strong growth momentum – but the slowdown in growth reported in Q3 rang alarm bells for us. Yes, management was keen to point out this was in-line with expectations, had been flagged as potential consequence of new product launches, and would be reversed in Q4. Perhaps – we’ll see at the FY release in May. But in the meantime, we think at the very least the bare bones investment case could come under increasing scrutiny – and then a few things add to our concerns. First, it’s another roll-up/leverage combo (net debt/FY18 consensus EBITDA is a punchy 4x, $244M cumulative spend on acquisitions to date on cumulative FCF of $151M) – that alone could get investors thinking, especially after Micro Focus this morning and Sophos’s top line wobble in February. Second, there’s plenty to dig into on the accounting front – not least the reliance on prepayments, high ratio of deferred revenues/revenues, and the company’s definition of ‘cash EBITDA’. And more generically, although demand growth remains strong, this is a competitive space and any sign of intensifying pressure (pricing or otherwise) could trigger fears re top line momentum – if Sophos has for any reason struggled to recover from the sales disruption experienced in Q3 and Q4 ends up disappointing, we’d expect serious capitulation.
On balance, we think there’s enough here for investors to question at least in the near term, especially with valuation at a level which could make the stock particularly sensitive to any cracks in the story (EV/Sales 5.4x, EV/EBITDA 57x on FY18 consensus numbers). We initiate with a Trading Sell."

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Jefferies International today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Sophos Group Plc (LON:SOPH) and cut its price target to 750p (from 865p).

Final results

Financial highlights

· Billings1 grew by 22% to $769 million, an increase of 18% at constant currency
· Revenue increased by 21% to $641 million, reflecting constant currency growth of 18%, driven by 26% growth in subscription revenue in the period
· Cloud subscription billings continued to grow strongly, with Sophos Central up 112% to $186 million, from $88 million in FY17
· Total subscription renewal base has now surpassed the $1 billion milestone
· Net renewal rate, including cross-sell and upsell, improved to 140% from 129% in FY17
· Adjusted operating profit2 increased by 20% to $46 million, from $38 million in the prior-year
· Loss before taxation increased to $52 million, from $49 million, despite the increase in adjusted operating profit, after the negative impact of financing foreign exchange losses
· Strong growth in new business with over 300,000 customers at the end of the year, from 260,000 in FY17
· Final dividend of 3.5 cents per share, an increase of 6.1% over the prior year; total dividend for the year of 4.9 cents, an increase of 6.5%

Numistoday reaffirms its hold investment rating on Sophos Group Plc (LON:SOPH) and raised its price target to 580p (from 570p).

14 Jun
Deutsche Bank
N/A
Buy

Credit Suisse today reaffirms its outperform investment rating on Sophos Group Plc (LON:SOPH) and raised its price target to 750p (from 700p).

Q1 FY19 Update
RNS
RNS Number : 6558T
Sophos Group Plc
05 July 2018


Sophos Group plc
Q1 FY19 Update
Oxford, 5th July 2018. Sophos Group plc (the "Group" / LSE: SOPH), a leading provider of cloud-enabled enduser and network cybersecurity solutions, provides the following update in advance of publishing its scheduled trading statement for the quarter ended 30th June 2018.
Trading Update
The Group expects to report Q1 billings growth of approximately 6% (2% at constant currency), with a strong performance in revenue and cash flow. We continued to see a strong demand environment and expect to report mid-teens growth in new customer and network security billings in the period.
The lower than anticipated billings growth in Q1 was primarily driven by our Enduser security business, which faced a particularly challenging comparable. Underlying Enduser billings growth in Q1 FY18 was in excess of 50% at constant currency, after adjusting for the previously disclosed material contract in FY17. The significant increase in demand for our Endpoint protection solutions in the first-half of FY18 was driven by high-profile global ransomware attacks such as WannaCry, with the additional contribution from Intercept X, our new next-generation endpoint solution, included in the H1 FY18 billings mix for the first time. These factors will also apply to the second quarter of the current fiscal year, albeit with a somewhat easier prior-year comparable. As the prior-year comparators normalise, we expect a return to mid-teens constant currency billings growth in the second half of the year. Our long-term outlook remains unchanged.
Sophos is scheduled to publish its full Q1 trading statement on 26th July 2018.

UBS today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Sophos Group Plc (LON:SOPH) and cut its price target to 645p (from 675p).

Deutsche Bank today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Sophos Group Plc (LON:SOPH) and cut its price target to 630p (from 700p).

StockMarketWire.com
Sophos reported cash earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell from $27.3m in the first quarter of FY18 to $20.3m in the first quarter of FY19.

The company said this reflected both lower than expected billings growth and a planned increase in annualised R&D and sales and marketing expenses.

HIGHLIGHTS:
- As previously announced, Q1 FY19 group billings growth of 6%, (or 2% constant currency), was lower than anticipated

- Overall the group continued to see a strong demand environment, with a double-digit increase in billings from new customers, and Sophos Central and Intercept X both continued to show good momentum in the quarter

- Enduser security billings declined by -1% (or -5% constant currency) versus the prior-year period, after a particularly challenging prior-year comparable, where billings growth was over 50% constant currency in Q1 FY18 after adjusting for the previously disclosed material contract in FY17

- Network security billings grew by 12% (or 7% constant currency) versus the prior-year period, and within this UTM growth was 19% (or 14% constant currency)

The net renewal rate was 114% in Q1 compared to 141% a year ago. This level was below what we believe are sustainable norms, and was principally caused by two factors:

- In Enduser security, we saw relatively lower levels of cross-selling activity than expected, in part due to accelerated demand in FY18 that resulted from the global Wannacry ransomware outbreak

- In Network security, the renewal rate was affected by a legacy product transition, as the migration from Cyberoam to Sophos XG Firewall nears its conclusion

Revenue increased by 24% (or 19% constant currency), principally driven by a 27% increase in subscription revenue.

Adjusted operating profit increased almost six-fold from $3.7m in Q1 FY18 to $21.9m in Q1 FY19, driven by strong revenue growth, demonstrating the operating leverage of the Sophos business model.

Cash generation in the period continued to be strong, with a 33% increase in net operating cash flow and a 31% increase in unlevered free cash flow compared to the prior-year period.

Proactive investor - Sophos's plunge prompts upgrade from Numis Securities
Share
12:06 30 Jul 2018
The price target stays the same but with the share price more than a quid lower than it was a month ago, Numis moves to 'add' from 'hold'

Renewals and up-selling account for about two-thirds of annual billings
There’s nothing like a share price plunge to get investment analysts to revisit a stock recommendation, as has happened with Sophos Group PLC (LON:SOPH).
Numis Securities has moved to it to ‘add’ from ‘hold’ after the July 5 trading statement from the cyber-security firm that prompted a fall from 615p to 486p in a single day.

READ: Sophos Group's warning catches market on the hop
The profit warning on July 5 meant that the scheduled trading update on July 26 contained few surprises.
For Numis, the key question is: how fast will billings recover?
“Management remains confident that easier End-user comparables will allow group billings growth to re-accelerate to low teens in H219. Estimating the precise pace of recovery is difficult, as demonstrated by Q1's guidance failure, but we expect this to be a material effect,” Numis said.
“Management also noted that the run-off of Cyberoam (now c.5% of Network billings) had a material effect on Network renewals in Q119, although we are unclear if there are other issues holding Network back. The release of XG v17.2 during FYH219 is seen as significant, adding Sophos Central cloud management and reporting from the firewall, which may help to improve renewal rates in time,” the broker added.
Numis is now projecting year-on-year billings growth of 8% on a constant currency (c/c) basis for the year ending March 31 of next year (FY19), down from its previous forecast of +13%.
It expects cost growth to match this, and has accordingly reduced its FY19 cash EBITDA (underlying earnings) forecast to US$209mln from $229mln.
Numis said the acceleration in billings growth from fiscal 2015 means there is potentially a boost on the way from renewals and up-selling.
Renewals and up-sells account for about two-thirds of annual billings, Numis noted.
Shares in Sophos currently trade at around 487p; Numis values them at 580p.