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

Cybersecurity is going to be even bigger business in the future after the furore surrounding the TalkTalk hack recently.

That’s the view of broker Peel Hunt, which has put forward its view on how investors should best play the trend.



microfocus-and-sophos-among-peel-hunt-s-cybersecurity-winners

5 Nov Liberum Capital 290.00 Buy

Sept 2015, FY interim results ]

· H1 like-for-like billings growth of 24.2 percent year-over-year ("YOY") with growth across all major regions and product categories

· Reported billings grew 12.8 percent YOY, reflecting significant currency headwinds including the devaluation of the Euro and Sterling against the US Dollar

· Billings growth driven by both strong new customer wins and an improvement in the retention rate of existing customers

· Reported revenue up 8.9 percent YOY, estimated 17 percent YOY growth at constant currency

· Twelve months to September weighted average contract length6 consistent YOY at 27.9 months

· Reported Cash EBITDA up 8.9 percent, 23.0 percent YOY growth at constant currency

· Operating (Loss) / Profit lower YOY mainly reflecting $17.6 million of exceptional items connected with the Group's initial public offering of shares and a YOY variance in unrealised foreign exchange gains of $7.6 million

· Unlevered Free Cash Flow lower YOY due to phasing of capital expenditure, but above internal expectations

· Net Cash Flow from Operating Activities lower YOY mainly reflecting the $17.6 million of costs incurred on the Group's initial public offering of shares

· Interim dividend of 0.7 US cents per share; the Group is targeting a full year dividend payment of 20 percent of free cash flow



Operational Highlights

· Continued market share gains as Sophos outperformed industry market growth rates in both network security and enduser security

· Robust product delivery in H1 of new products and major version and feature upgrades across the Group's network and enduser security portfolio, as well as adding support for the latest operating system versions of Windows, Mac, Android and iOS

· Early November release of Sophos XG Firewall delivering a Unified Threat Management ("UTM") / Next Generation Firewall product that combines the best of Sophos and Cyberoam; and delivery of Sophos Security Heartbeat™, part f our synchronized security strategy (Project Galileo) to actively share valuable security intelligence between Sophos endpoint and network security products.

· Drove increased brand awareness via continued channel-oriented sales and marketing events, social media initiatives, and extension of Sophos' successful free tools program, including releasing a free Linux server protection pool and a public beta of Sophos Home, a cloud-managed, easy-to-use, no-hassles anti-malware and web filtering solution for PCs and Macs that will be free for home users and families

· Acquired Reflexion Networks Inc., a SaaS-based offering providing security, archiving, encryption and business continuity for email, adding more than 17,000 customers and over 2,200 partners/ managed service providers ("MSPs") to the Sophos ecosystem

· Placed in the "Leaders" quadrant for both UTM and Mobile data protection in latest Gartner Magic Quadrant reports

· Finished first in all three security-related categories, Client Security Software, Network Security Appliances, and Network Security Software, at the Computer Reseller News (CRN) Annual Report Card (ARC) awards for the second straight year

11 Nov Peel Hunt 330.00 Buy
11 Nov Liberum Capital 290.00 Buy

12 Nov JP Morgan... 330.00 Overweight

/share-week%3A-second-leg-sophos-rally

Sophos Acquires SurfRight
RNS
RNS Number : 9736I
Sophos Group Plc
14 December 2015



Sophos Acquires SurfRight to Strengthen and Accelerate

Next-Generation Endpoint Protection Leadership



Oxford, UK. Dec. 14, 2015 - Sophos (LSE: SOPH), a global leader in network and endpoint security, today announced the acquisition of SurfRight, an innovator in signature-less next-generation endpoint threat detection and response (ETDR) and advanced threat prevention.



Based in Hengelo, the Netherlands, SurfRight has developed a portfolio of technologies that prevent, detect and remediate zero-day and sophisticated attacks by interrupting malware and advanced persistent threat (APT) vectors. SurfRight's real time anti-exploit technology focuses on detecting and preventing the memory manipulations and abuses that allow malicious code to run in the first place. Generic prevention of exploits at this early stage in the attack chain is a key enhancement to endpoint security mechanisms and can help thwart malicious code in the processor and memory. The portfolio also includes anti-espionage technology and enhanced protection against ransomware attacks such as CryptoLocker.



Sophos is recognized as a leader in endpoint protection today, with a growing set of next-generation technologies such as behavior-based analytics, Malicious Traffic Detection that monitors attempted outbound connections to known bad URLs, and Application Reputation which leverages a crowd-sourced big data warehouse managed by SophosLabs to determine whether a downloaded file is known to be good or bad and prompts the user to take appropriate action. This acquisition will further strengthen Sophos' leading endpoint protection technology, by adding complementary new defense tactics, delivered either on premise or in the cloud.



"SurfRight is a growing, profitable business with an established customer base and proven security capabilities. The team has engineered powerful, innovative next generation endpoint technologies that provide multiple advanced protection and mitigation elements, and yet are simple to use," commented Kris Hagerman, CEO at Sophos. "SurfRight's products embody the same product vision we have at Sophos - that even the most advanced IT security products should be simple to deploy and manage by organizations of any size. We are excited to welcome SurfRight to Sophos and look forward to introducing the benefits of this leading-edge technology to our global customer and partner base."



Sophos will immediately work to integrate the SurfRight technology into its line of endpoint security solutions. Once the integration work has been completed, Sophos will make the technology acquired from SurfRight available via its global network of more than 15,000 channel partners.



"Sophos offers SurfRight the opportunity to be part of a high-growth industry leader with a world-class channel and specialized product development teams to accelerate the delivery of our technology into IT organizations of all sizes," said Mark Loman, CEO at SurfRight. "We built this new technology from the ground up to address every vector of an APT attack in an auto-responding, coordinated manner, thus enhancing the speed of detection and response. SurfRight's unique next generation endpoint security software complements Sophos' offerings and delivers advanced security capabilities to better protect businesses worldwide."



SurfRight's technology will also further enhance the effectiveness of Sophos' synchronized security strategy, in which multiple components of security protection, including network security and endpoint security, actively and continuously communicate with each other. This innovative approach leads to faster threat detection and a dramatic reduction in the time and resources required to investigate and address security incidents.



"The team at SurfRight has developed cutting-edge technology that interrupts and mitigates even custom-made malware and exploits unknown to traditional antivirus or network-based intrusion detection systems," commented Dan Schiappa, senior vice president of Enduser Security at Sophos. "We recently announced the first delivery of our synchronized security strategy with the next generation XG Series Firewall, and this enhancement to our next generation endpoint solutions further strengthens the 'better together' approach as a key advantage for our customers."



Sophos will continue development and support for SurfRight's existing product line including its popular HitmanPro malware scanning and removal tools, used by more than 20 million users worldwide. Sophos acquired SurfRight for a cash consideration of $31.8 million and will retain all SurfRight employees and the company's office in Hengelo. SurfRight CEO Mark Loman will join the Sophos Enduser Security Group, reporting to Dan Schiappa.

Capital Markets Day and Q1 Trading Update

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RNS Number : 5653C

Sophos Group Plc

29 June 2016




Sophos Group plc

Capital Markets Day and Q1 Trading Update





Oxford, 29 June 2016. Sophos Group plc (the "Company" or the "Group" / LSE: SOPH), a leading provider of cloud-enabled enduser and network security solutions, is today hosting a Capital Markets Day for analysts and investors in London.



Capital Markets Day

The event will be hosted in London by Kris Hagerman, chief executive officer and Nick Bray, chief financial officer, alongside other members of the senior management team.



The materials to be presented at the Group's inaugural Capital Markets Day later today will be available on the Group's website at: https://investors.sophos.com/. The meeting will also be available as a live webcast and as an audio playback.



Trading update

· Sophos has continued to enjoy strong trading, with Q1 billings expected to be above the Board's expectations

· Q1 FY17 Like-for-like billings growth is expected to be in the range of 20 percent to 23 percent year-over-year

· Billings assisted by a material contract with an existing customer

· Sophos re-confirms FY17 outlook



About

The Sophos Group is a leading global provider of cloud-enabled enduser and network security solutions, offering organisations end-to-end protection against known and unknown IT security threats through products that are easy to install, configure, update and maintain. For further information please visit: www.sophos.com. The Group has over 30 years of experience in enterprise security and has built a portfolio of products that protects over 220,000 organisations and over 100 million endusers in 150 countries across a variety of industries.



Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Group's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include: general economic and business conditions; changes in technology; timing or delay in signing, commencement, implementation and performance or programmes, or the delivery of products or services under them; structural change in the security industry; relationships with customers; competition; and ability to attract personnel. You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement. The Group undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances.

First quarter results

Highlights

· Billings1 grew 25.2 percent year-over-year ("YOY"), with growth across all major regions and product categories; 23.0 percent on a like-for-like2 basis

· Revenue3 grew 12.2 percent YOY; 11.9 percent at constant currency; the subscription component of revenue grew 14.5 percent at reported exchange rates

· Cash EBITDA4 grew 55.2 percent YOY driven by the improvement in billings; 48.6 percent at constant currency

· Unlevered free cash flow5 of $28.8M (Q1 FY16: $3.7M out flow); significantly improved YOY due to stronger cash EBITDA and the normalisation of working capital

28 Jul Peel Hunt 360.00 Buy

29 Jul JP Morgan... 320.00 Overweight

15 Aug Deutsche Bank Buy 247.80 290.00 290.00 Reiterates

6 Sep Deutsche Bank 290.00 Buy

Litigation Ruling
RNS
RNS Number : 5429K
Sophos Group Plc
22 September 2016
 
Sophos Group plc
Litigation Ruling
 
 
London, 22 September 2016. Sophos Group plc ("Sophos" or the "Company") announces that the jury in the lawsuit brought by Finjan, Inc (Finjan) asserting certain patent claims against Sophos has found that the Company infringed on five of Finjan's patents, and has awarded Finjan a one-time damages payment of $15 million. This verdict represents the next step in an ongoing legal process and Sophos is considering all options including an appeal of the verdict.
 
Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Group's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from those projected in the forward-looking statements.  These factors include: general economic and business conditions; changes in technology; timing or delay in signing, commencement, implementation and performance or programmes, or the delivery of products or services under them; structural change in the security industry; relationships with customers; competition; and ability to attract personnel.  You are cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement.  The Group undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances.
 

Sustained momentum in Q3

13:30 13/02/2017
Director Deals - Sophos Group Plc (SOPH)
Nick Bray, Financial Director, sold 46,209 shares in the company on the 10th February 2017 at a price of 281.65p. The Director now holds 1,315,320 shares. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com Director deals data provided by www.directorsholdings.com
13:25 13/02/2017
Director Deals - Sophos Group Plc (SOPH)
Kris Hagerman, Chief Executive Officer, sold 112,853 shares in the company on the 10th February 2017 at a price of 281.65p. The Director now holds 1,897,289 shares. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com Director deals data provided by www.directorsholdings.com

Trading Update and Notice of Final Results
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RNS Number : 4486B
Sophos Group Plc
04 April 2017
 
This announcement contains inside information within the purposes of article 7 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014
Sophos Group plc
Trading Update and Notice of Final Results
Oxford, 4 April 2017.  Following a very strong end to the fourth quarter, Sophos Group plc (the "Group" / LSE: SOPH), a leading provider of cloud-enabled enduser and network security solutions, is pleased to provide a trading update in advance of announcing its final results for the year ended 31 March 2017.
The Group expects to report fourth quarter constant currency billings growth of approximately 27%, excluding any benefit from the recently announced acquisition of Invincea.  Full year constant currency billings growth is expected to be approximately 20%.  Reported billings, allowing for the currency headwind, are expected to grow approximately 18% to $630 million from $535 million in the year-ended 31 March 2016, ahead of the consensus range of $610 million to $617 million.  Consequently, Cash EBITDA and unlevered free cash flow are also expected to be ahead of the consensus range.
Notice of Results
Sophos will be announcing its final results for the year-ended 31 March 2017 on 17 May 2017.

5 Apr
Deutsche Bank
N/A
Buy
5 Apr
Citigroup
380.00
Buy

Final results due on Wednesday.

Even after the very bullish update on 4th April there could be scope for further upgrades after the worldwide cyber attack yesterday.