Just wondered if anyone else out there is holding this company. I bought in a while ago just on the principle it would rise on the take-up by tracker fund managers due to its admission into the main market, and it has.

StockMarketWire.com
Animal genetics company Genus saw its share price nosedive Thursday after statutory profit slumped sharply as it wrote down its biological assets.

For the year ended 30 June 2018, statutory profit before tax fell 81% to £7.8m, revenue rose 2% to £470.3m.

The value of the company's biological assets slumped to -£28.7m, from a £1.1m valuation in the previous year. Excluding the adjusted for the write down, profit before tax rose 4% to £58.5m.

The company declared a final dividend of 17.9p a share, taking the total dividend to 26.0p a share, up 10% on last year.

The company said it anticipated further growth in 2019, but warned of short term pain amid a more challenging external environment, owing to growing barriers to international trade and the recent spread of African Swine Fever to China. 'Genus performed strongly in 2018, achieving our financial objectives and making good strategic progress. ABS growth was particularly strong, alongside another good year for PIC,' said Karim Bitar, Chief Executive. 'The successful launch of Sexcel, our innovative proprietary 21st century sexed semen product in September 2017, was a real highlight after many years of pioneering development. It was very pleasing to hear from dairy farmers how the product performance is exceeding their expectations.'

Liberum Capital today reaffirms its hold investment rating on Genus PLC (LON:GNS) and set its price target at 2400p.

Peel Hunt today downgrades its investment rating on Genus PLC (LON:GNS) to hold (from buy) and set its price target at 2600p.

StockMarketWire.com
Animal genetics company Genus reported Thursday lower profits after its porcine business continued to face challenging conditions following the African Swine Fever breakout across China. But the company reassured investors that full-year performance would meet expectations.

'The board currently anticipates that Genus will make further strategic and financial progress and perform in line with its growth expectations for the financial year 2019,' Genus said.

For the four months to 31 October 2018, adjusted profit before tax was lower than the very strong start to the prior year, the company said.

The company's porcine business, PIC, was unable to fulfil some customer orders in China following widespread restrictions on the movement of pigs in the country after African Swine Fever continued to spread across the region with over 50 outbreaks in 14 provinces officially reported.

In ABS, the company's beef and dairy business, increased dairy prices supported profits in Europe, while in the US beef prices stabilised following their fall in the earlier part of the calendar year. Prices and market conditions also improved for Brazilian producers, the company said.

Kepler Cheuvreux today upgrades its investment rating on Genus PLC (LON:GNS) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 2630p (from 2475p).

StockMarketWire.com
Animal genetics company Genus said Friday it had raised gross proceeds of £68m from the placing of shares.

The company issued a total of 3,097,200 shares at a price of 2,200p a share, raising gross proceeds of £68m. The Placing Price represented a 7.8% discount to the closing price of 2,386p on 6 December 2018.