The media giant has been a bit all over the place in 2018. Opening at £1.65, the stock had crept up to £1.75 by the end of February, only to plunge in the aftermath of a poorly received set of full year figures. This sent the company under £1.45 by April, lows not seen since the days that followed the Brexit vote in 2016.
However, May’s trading update – more on that below – helped the stock recover as spring turned into summer, spiking to a 13 month high of £1.83 in early July, as England progressed through the World Cup. ITV PLC (LON:ITV) now sits at a current trading price of £1.73.
For the 3 months to the end of March, ITV posted a 5% rise in total external revenue to £772 million, with a 3% increase in the Broadcast & Online division paired with a promising 11% surge at ITV Studios. As for ITV Family net advertising revenue, that was up just 1%, breaking down as a 3% slide in January, a 2% dip in February and a 7% jump in March.
The company went on to state that NAR had fallen 13% in April, but was set to rise 1% in May and 15% in the World Cup-featuring June, leading to a ‘broadly flat’ performance over the first half of the year. Investors may be looking for even more from those June numbers given the sky-high viewing audiences for Russia 2018, and England’s better than expected performance.
If the company wants to move higher it also needs to avoid the same kind of pre-tax profit decline it posted back in March, when it dropped 6% to £800 million for the full year.
ITV PLC has a consensus rating of ‘Hold’ alongside an average target price £1.90.