I'm not sure if there is much interest for these on here - but I've been following them this year. They have had a rapid climb recently - is it time to take profits?

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Pearson Fundamentals (PSON)

Questor share tip: education provides the answer for investors in Pearson

Telegraph staff, 7:16, Tuesday 13 December 2011

Pearson (EUREX: PSOF.EX - news) 's sale of its 50pc stake in indices provider FTSE International for 450m appears to be a good deal.

Pearson 11.28 -16p Questor says HOLD

"The valuation of FTSE International is quite significantly above our expectations," said Thomas Singlehurst, an analyst at Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) .

Indeed, the transaction implies that the London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE.L - news) (LSE) is paying 22.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (ebitda) to take full control of FTSE International. "Nobody thought it (FTSE International) made that much money or that it would command that sort of multiple," said Mark Braley, an analyst at Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) .

But is Pearson's new-found deal-making prowess a good reason to own the shares?

Financially, the transaction will initially be dilutive to earnings per share, according to Citigroup. However, the broker believes "dilution is only half of the story" because the company now has an 800m war chest to use on future acquisitions, which may be significantly accretive to earnings.

Still, the deal raises questions about Dame Marjorie Scardino's strategy for the rest of the company's financial information businesses, such as the Financial Times , and how they fit in the education publishing giant.

Pearson said the FTSE International sale "marks Pearson's exit from companies that are primarily providers of financial data and strengthens the FT Group's focus on global business news, analysis and intelligence, increasingly delivered through subscription models and digital channels."

However, that line of argument appears somewhat muddled given that some of the FT Group's divisions rely on generating subscriptions by providing financial data combined with news to the financial services industry.

Other potential areas of concern include The Daily Telegraph's exposof exam standards and education business practices in the UK. Broker Panmure Gordon noted that one of the exam boards under scrutiny is Edexcel, which is wholly-owned by Pearson.

Alex DeGroote, an analyst at the broker, said: "It remains to be seen what the outcome of the investigation is, but Ofqual the UK regulator could in theory disqualify a failing exam board."

Edexcel, though, only comprises around 5pc of Pearson group profit, according to Panmure Gordon, and Mr DeGroote concluded that in this context, the fallout from this investigation is unlikely to be "material" to forecasts.

Given that education accounts for around 80pc of Pearson's operating profits, investors really need to base their investment decisions and keep an eye on what is happening in this market, especially in the US as the country provides a large amount of Pearson's revenues and profits.

However, fears about cutbacks in US state spending on education have been lingering for the last four years and analysts do not believe there is any particular catalyst in the near future to trigger significant reduction on educational spending.

On that note, investors should hold on to their shares given they currently trade on a 3.6pc dividend yield and are a relatively low-risk investment.

15 Dec Goldman Sachs Buy Old TP 1,267.00 New TP 1,345.00 Upgrades

Thursday 19 Jan

Pearson (EUREX: PSOF.EX - news) 's update will shine a light on Penguin (SES: E2:P13.SI - news) 's performance in the run up to Christmas, and on whether the crucial festive sales period was sufficient to lift the year-on-year decline in sales seen in

the first nine months of the year.

Investors will be keeping a sharp eye on revenues at the North American education business, which has been hit by cuts in public spending and a slowdown in college enrolments. On a more positive note, however, Pearson's professional and international education units are expected to continue their strong performances, bolstering confidence in the company's ongoing expansion into emerging markets.

Press Release
19 January 2012

PEARSON TRADING UPDATE

Strong competitive performance in tough markets;

2011 adjusted EPS growth of approximately 10%

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, is today providing its regular January trading update. We will report preliminary results for 2011 on 27 February 2012.

In the context of significant structural industry change and generally weak market conditions, Pearson performed well competitively through the important year-end selling season. We continue to benefit from rapid growth in digital services, our expanding position in developing economies and the continuing transformation of our business portfolio. For the year as a whole, Pearson generated approximately GBP2bn ($3bn) of digital revenues and approximately GBP600m ($1bn) of revenues in emerging markets. We now expect to report 2011 adjusted earnings per share growth of approximately 10% (compared to 77.5p per share reported in 2010), ahead of our previous guidance of approximately 83p per share.

In North American education we have continued to gain market share and grow rapidly in digital learning. These strengths, together with a resilient performance from our education technology and services businesses, have enabled us to offset weak market conditions in the school and higher education publishing industries. In International education, we continued to Perform well in developing markets, digital learning, assessment and English Language Teaching, while macroeconomic pressure in developed markets resulted in school publishing remaining generally subdued. Our professional education business grew in the fourth quarter, with good growth in Professional Testing and digital publishing.

At the Financial Times Group, we expect to report good growth despite weak and volatile advertising market conditions. Our digital and subscription-based revenues at both the FT and Mergermarket continued to climb.

Penguin's publishing performance was strong in our key trading season and we will report solid results despite rapid industry change and tough conditions in the physical book retail market. Penguin continues to benefit from its Innovation and scale in the fast-growing digital books market.

Across Pearson, we are benefiting from recent portfolio changes, using the proceeds from disposals to invest in fast-growing businesses in developing economies and digital services. The 2011 results will show a good contribution from new bolt-on acquisitions even after expensed integration costs. Late in 2011, we completed the acquisitions of Connections Education in the US and Global Education in China, and we will therefore expense further integration costs in our education business in 2012. We also completed the sale of our 50% stake in FTSE International Limited for GBP450m in December 2011, providing additional headroom for further bolt-on acquisitions.

For the full year, we expect our total interest charge to adjusted earnings to be approximately GBP55m and our effective tax rate to be around the low end of our guidance of 22-24%. As previously stated, our interest and tax charges both contain one-off benefits in 2011.

Pearson generates approximately 60% of its sales in the US. The average GBP:$ exchange rate during 2011 was 1.60. The year end GBP:$ exchange rate was 1.55. A five cent move in the average GBP:$ exchange rate for the full year has an impact of approximately 1.3p on adjusted earnings per share.

ENDS

Well I didn't think the statement was that bad - but I guess its had another healthy run of late.

A balanced view :-)

JP Morgan Cazenove reiterates Overweight TP 1,425.00

UBS reiterates Buy TP 1,450.00

Credit Suisse reiterates Outperform TP 1,210.00

Exane BNP Paribas reiterates Neutral TP 1,200.00

Nomura reiterates Reduce TP 1 ,200.00

Final Results.

PEARSON 2011 PRELIMINARY RESULTS (UNAUDITED)

Financial performance
· Sales up 6% at CER in spite of tough trading conditions in many markets.
· Adjusted operating profit up 12% to £942m with growth in all businesses.
· Adjusted EPS up 12% to 86.5p (headline growth).
· Cash conversion remains strong at 104%; operating cash flow of £983m (£1,057m in 2010, which benefited from an unusually high working capital contribution).
· Return on invested capital of 9.1%, above Pearson's cost of capital; ROIC lower than in 2010 largely due to significant acquisition spend and higher cash tax.

Growth markets
· Digital revenues up 18% in headline terms to £2bn, now 33% of Pearson's sales. Substantial digital growth in all parts of Pearson including:
o Students using our digital learning programmes up 23% to 43m.
o Penguin eBook revenues up 106%; now 12% of total Penguin revenues.
o FT digital subscriptions up 29% to 267,000; approximately 44% of total paid circulation.

· Developing markets revenues up 24% in headline terms to $1bn ($834m in 2010), now 11% of Pearson's sales.

Efficiency
· Operating margins reach 16.1% (up 1.0% points)
· Average working capital: sales ratio improved to 16.9% (20.1% in 2010).

Investment
· Sustained organic investment of approximately £500m in new products and technologies.
· £896m invested in acquisitions including Schoolnet and Connections Education in North America and Global Education in China.
· Strong balance sheet (net debt of £499m) and approximately £1bn of headroom available for bolt-on acquisitions.

Dividend
· Dividend raised 9% to 42.0p, representing Pearson's 20th consecutive dividend increase.

Outlook
· Pearson expects to achieve continued sales and operating profit growth in 2012, in spite of tough trading conditions and rapid industry change.
· Revenues from digital and services businesses expected to exceed revenues from traditional publishing businesses in 2012.


Marjorie Scardino, chief executive, said: "The external environment provides a testing backdrop for these results, and all our industries face some degree of turbulence. But our strategy and long-term planning for change have helped us to another good year to add to our record of persistent out-performance. We believe those qualities, combined with the commitment and innovation of our people, will continue to serve our customers and our shareholders well."

Monday night's Panorama not helping here.

27 April 2012

AGM AND INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, is today holding its Annual General Meeting and providing an interim management statement for the first three months of 2012.

Pearson is trading in line with the expectations set out in our full-year results announcement on 27 February. In the first three months of the year, we increased sales by 11% at constant exchange rates to GBP1.16bn (an underlying increase of 3% and a headline increase of 12%). Though the external environment remains challenging and we are yet to see signs of improvement, we continue to expect Pearson to achieve growth in sales and operating profits for the year as a whole. This guidance is struck at an exchange rate of GBP1:$1.59. Pearson's profits are heavily weighted to the second half and, as a result of the phasing of revenues, organic investment and restructuring, and the sale of our stake in FTSE International, we expect our first-half operating profits to be lower this year than in 2011.

In education, we have made a good start to the year. Though the US education market remains generally weak, we continue to benefit from our strong position and the rapid growth in our digital and services businesses. International Education is growing well, particularly in developing markets and helped by recent acquisitions and sustained organic investment. Our professional testing and publishing businesses continue to perform well but our UK training business has been adversely affected, as expected, by change in government funding policy related to apprenticeships. We are planning on the basis that trading remains weak in this business and we are taking appropriate steps to change our services and our business model.

Despite the tough environment for corporate advertising and deal-making, the Financial Times and Mergermarket are showing good sales growth. The FT's paid print and digital circulation was 605,000 in the first quarter of 2012, including 285,000 digital subscribers, and the FT is taking further actions in the first half to accelerate its shift from print to digital formats and from advertising to subscription revenues. The FT Group's profits in 2012 will also reflect the sale of our 50% stake in FTSE International in December 2011.

Following several years of particularly strong performance relative to the overall consumer books market, we expect Penguin to perform in line with its industry this year. It will benefit from its consistently strong publishing schedule, which is more concentrated in the second half this year, and its strong position in the fast-growing market for digital books. The industry continues to face significant structural change and, as one example, we intend to mount a robust defence of our actions in the civil proceedings recently announced by the US Department of Justice against Apple and several consumer book publishers including Penguin.

At the end of 2011, Pearson's net debt was GBP499m, giving a net debt/ EBITDA ratio of 0.5x and interest cover of 18.1x. Our net debt increased during the first quarter by GBP206m to GBP705m, level with the first quarter of 2011, as a result of the normal seasonal build-up of working capital ahead of our key selling periods in education and acquisition spend. That strong balance sheet gives us headroom of approximately GBP1bn available to invest in bolt-on acquisitions.

At our AGM today, we are proposing a final dividend of 28.0p, giving a total dividend for 2011 of 42.0p, up 9%. For the 20th consecutive year, Pearson has declared a dividend increase above the rate of inflation.

Pearson generates approximately 60% of its sales in the US. A five cent move in the average GBP:$ exchange rate for the full year (which in 2011 was GBP1:$1.60) has an impact of approximately 1.3p on adjusted earnings per share.

Pearson's AGM takes place today at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, 2 Savoy Place, London WC2R 0BL at 12 noon.

ENDS

Publishing group Pearson was a heavy faller on Monday, extending its losses following its first-half results on Friday. Sentiment has been dampened today after Nomura reiterated its 'reduce' rating on the stock, saying that shares are 'richly priced'. The broker noted in a research report that group organic growth was just 0.6% in the first six months of the year, "unfeasibly low" given that the shares are trading at 14.4 times earnings. The broker has maintained its 1,200p target price on the stock

Publisher Pearson launches UK degree course

Pearson, the major international publisher and education firm, is to become a for-profit private higher education provider in the UK.

The firm is opening Pearson College, teaching a degree course validated by existing London universities.

The business and enterprise degree, taught in London and Manchester, will have about 40 places this year.

The college says it will be for "students who are serious about succeeding in business".

Exane BNP Paribas Upgrades Outperform TP increased from 1,200 to 1,450p.

Pearson CEO Scardino to step down after 16 years

LONDON | Wed Oct 3, 2012 7:47am BST

(Reuters) - Pearson Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino is to step down after 16 years in the job in which she transformed the group from a diverse set of assets into an educational and media powerhouse.

Analysts said the departure of the 65-year-old had come sooner than expected and could lead to further change at the firm, including the possible sale of the Financial Times group which could result in a return of cash to shareholders.

Scardino, who will step down at the end of the year, will be replaced by John Fallon, the chief executive of Pearson's international education division since 2008 and a former head of the group in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Sale of Non-core Subsidiary

AEC is pleased to announce that it has agreed the sale of its non-core examinations subsidiary, Educational Resources Pte Ltd ("ER"), which provides London Chamber of Commerce & Industry examinations in Asia, to Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd ("Pearson") for a total consideration of £2.5 million cash upon completion and a deferred payment of an amount equal to the net consideration received by Pearson Education Limited (a company owned and controlled by Pearson plc) for the sale of 3,000,000 shares it holds in AEC. The sale is expected to complete before the end of October*.

The sale is in line with the Board's view expressed in the Company's 2011 Annual Report & Accounts that the Group's examination activity was becoming less of a strategic focus as its college activities grow.

For the financial year ended 31 December 2011, ER contributed revenues of S$3.92 million (equivalent to approximately £2 million), representing 10.5% of overall Group revenues. EBITDA was S$205,651 (equivalent to approximately £0.10 million) and its total assets as at 31 December 2011 amounted to S$6.54 million (equivalent to approximately £3.27 million).

The sale proceeds will be used by AEC to expand its core businesses.

AEC Education plc

("AEC" or the "Company" and together with its subsidiaries the "Group")

Completion of Sale of Non-core Subsidiary

Further to the announcement made by AEC on 4 October 2012, AEC is pleased to announce that all of the conditions relating to the agreed sale of Educational Resources Pte Ltd ("ER") to Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd ("Pearson") (the "Sale") have been satisfied and that the Sale has now completed.

As previously reported, the sale of ER, the Group's examinations subsidiary, is in line with the Board's view that the examinations activity was becoming less of a strategic focus as its college activities grow. The sale proceeds (£2.5 million cash on completion and a deferred payment of an amount equal to the net consideration received by Pearson for the sale of 3,000,000 shares it holds in AEC) will be used by AEC to expand its core business.

Penguin and Random House owners in merger talks

Publisher Pearson has said it is holding talks with German media group Bertelsmann about combining their Penguin and Random House businesses.

Pearson, which owns Penguin and the Financial Times, said there was no guarantee a deal would be reached.

Re Joint Venture

Press release

29 October 2012


PEARSON AND BERTELSMANN AGREE CONSUMER PUBLISHING PARTNERSHIP:
PENGUIN AND RANDOM HOUSE TO COMBINE,
CREATING THE WORLD'S LEADING TRADE PUBLISHER

Pearson and Bertelsmann today announce an agreement to create the world's leading consumer publishing organisation by combining Penguin and Random House.

The combination brings together two of the world's leading English language publishers, with highly complementary skills and strengths. Random House is the leading English language publisher in the US and the UK, while Penguin is the world's most famous publishing brand and has a strong presence in fast-growing developing markets. Both companies have a long history of publishing excellence, and both have been pioneers in the dramatic industry transformation towards digital publishing and bookselling.

Under the terms of the agreement, Penguin and Random House will combine their businesses in a newly-created joint venture named Penguin Random House.

Bertelsmann will own 53% of the joint venture and Pearson will own 47%. The joint venture will exclude Bertelsmann's trade publishing business in Germany and Pearson will retain rights to use the Penguin brand in education markets worldwide.

Interim Management Statement

PEARSON NINE-MONTH INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

· Sales are up 5% and operating profit down 5%*.

· In spite of tough market conditions, Pearson reiterates its full year outlook of growth in sales and operating profits with margins reflecting acquisition integration costs and the FTSE sale.

· Pearson and Bertelsmann agree to combine Penguin and Random House, creating the world's leading trade publisher.

Trading Statement

Pearson, the world's leading learning company, is today providing its regular January trading update. We will report preliminary results for 2012 on 25 February 2013.

In general, Pearson's businesses continue to face tough market conditions and structural industry change which we see continuing into 2013. The company continues to gain share in key markets and to benefit from its investments in digital services and developing economies.

Market conditions remained weak, as expected, in the key fourth-quarter selling season for higher education, consumer publishing and corporate advertising. For 2012 as a whole we expect to report good revenue growth at constant exchange rates, operating profit of approximately £935m (broadly level at CER), adjusted earnings of approximately 84p per share and cash conversion of close to 90%. The 2012 results will reflect the absence of a profit contribution from FTSE International (£20m of operating profit and 2.2p of EPS in 2011) and the impact of the radically-changed trading environment for Pearson in Practice, which led to the recent decision to plan to exit that business.

Our North American education business will report modest revenue growth at constant exchange rates, indicating another year of significant market share gains in North America. 2012 was a particularly tough year for the US educational materials industry, with net sales for the combined US School and Higher Education publishing industries declining by 11% in the first 11 months of the year, according to the AAP. Our services and digital learning revenues continued to grow rapidly and we benefited from a strong performance from recent acquisitions and tight cost control.

Our International education business will report double digit sales growth at constant exchange rates as we continued to perform well in developing markets, assessment and English Language Teaching. School publishing markets remained generally subdued as a result of macroeconomic pressure and weak government funding in developed markets. Margins will be level with 2011 as we continue to invest to build scale, particularly in developing markets.

Our Professional education business will report operating profits significantly lower than in 2011. We have achieved good growth once again in professional testing but our UK adult training business, Pearson in Practice, faced a dramatic fall in demand with changes to the apprenticeships programme. We believe this business no longer has a sustainable model and therefore recently announced that we are planning for the exit or closure of Pearson in Practice. As previously announced, the cost of closure and impairment is expected to be approximately £120m and will be reported as a loss on disposal in Pearson's 2012 statutory accounts.

The Financial Times Group will report good revenue growth for the full year, in spite of a slow fourth quarter caused by weaker advertising sales. Our digital and subscription-based revenues continued to grow well at both the FT and Mergermarket. The FT Group's full-year profits will be significantly lower than in 2011, reflecting the absence of a contribution from FTSE International following its disposal and further actions to accelerate the shift from print to digital.

Penguin benefited from a good fourth-quarter publishing performance and traded in line with our expectations in its key selling season. It will report revenues in line with 2011 at constant exchange rates in spite of rapid industry change and tough conditions in the physical book retail market. Following Pearson and Bertelsmann's announcement of their plans to combine Penguin with Random House, the two companies are seeking clearance for the proposed merger from appropriate regulatory authorities around the world. Though the timing of this process is inevitably uncertain, its completion will prompt significant restructuring as we demerge Penguin from Pearson and integrate it with Random House. We believe that the combined organisation will have a stronger platform and greater resources to invest in rich content, new digital publishing models and high-growth emerging markets.

For the full year, we expect our total interest charge to adjusted earnings to be approximately £50m (including a £12m pensions finance credit) and our effective tax rate to be around the low end of our guidance of 24-26% with our cash tax rate benefiting from the deferral of a tax payment into 2013.

Pearson generates approximately 60% of its sales in the US. The average £:$ exchange rate during 2012 was 1.59. The year end £:$ exchange rate was 1.63. A five cent move in the average £:$ exchange rate for the full year has an impact of approximately 1.4p on adjusted earnings per share.

ENDS

Final Results

Financial highlights*
· Sales up 5% at CER to £6.1bn (with digital and services businesses contributing 50% of sales)
· Adjusted operating profit 1% higher at £936m
· Adjusted EPS of 84.2p (86.5p in 2011)
· Operating cash flow of £788m (£983m in 2011)
· Return on invested capital of 9.1% (9.1% in 2011)
· Dividend raised 7% to 45.0p.

Market conditions and industry change
• Market conditions generally weak in developed world and for print publishing businesses; generally strong in emerging economies and for digital and services businesses.
• Continuing structural change in education funding, retail channels, consumer behaviour and content business models.
• Considerable growth opportunity in education driven by rapidly-growing global middle class, adoption of learning technologies, the connection between education and career prospects and increasing consumer spend, especially in emerging economies.

Strong competitive performance
· North American Education revenues up 2% in a year when US School and Higher Education publishing revenues declined by 10% for the industry as a whole.
· International Education revenues up 13% with emerging market revenues up 25%.
· FT Group revenues up 4% with the Financial Times' total paid print and online circulation up to 602,000; digital subscriptions exceed print circulation for the first time.
· Penguin revenues up 1%, with strong publishing performance and eBooks now 17% of sales.

Accelerated shift to digital & services and to fast-growing economies
· Pearson announces gross restructuring costs of approximately £150m in 2013 (£100m net of cost savings achieved in the year), focused on:
1. significantly accelerating the shift of Pearson's education businesses towards fast-growing economies and digital and services businesses;
2. separating Penguin activities from Pearson central services and operations in preparation for the merger of Penguin and Random House.

· Restructuring expected to generate annual cost savings of approximately £100m in 2014.
· In 2014, £100m of cost savings to be reinvested in organic development of fast-growing education markets and categories and further restructuring, including the Penguin Random House integration.
· From 2015, restructuring programme expected to produce faster growth, improving margins and stronger cash generation.


Outlook
· Pearson expects tough trading conditions and structural industry change to continue in 2013.
· Excluding restructuring costs and including Penguin for the full year, Pearson expects to achieve 2013 operating profit and adjusted EPS broadly level with 2012.