It’s been a tricky 2018 for the fast food upstart, its debut year on the FTSE 100 seeing some rather sharp movements up and down. Spiking to an all-time high of £9.05 by mid-February, the stock then plunged in the aftermath of its full year results in early March, investors put off by a £76 million pre-tax loss and plans to invest a further £50 million in its delivery network to compete with Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
This left Just Eat the wrong side of £7 by the start of April, its worst price since the end of September 2017. Yet it managed to bounce from these lows as spring continued, helped out by a well-received Q1 statement in May. There Just Eat revealed a 32% jump in group orders to 51.6 million – breaking down as a 24% increase in the UK and a 46% jump internationally – and a 49% surge in revenue to £177.4 million.
Hitting £8.69 by mid-June, things then began to get a bit rocky once again, the stock tumbling as Deliveroo unveiled a Marketplace+ feature that allows restaurants to sign up to the site without using its delivery network – basically Just Eat’s entire MO. Another fall came at the end of June, as the firm said investment levels would remain high in the next few years, only for the stock recover in July thanks to a consumer survey suggesting an expanded delivery service wouldn’t be the problem investors have treated it as. Just Eat now sits at a current trading price of £8.82.
In terms of Tuesday’s interim results, investors are going to be on high alert for any more comments on investment, given that has been the key issue in 2018. As for the figures themselves, an improvement in Australia – the region which caused the full year pre-tax loss thanks to an £180 million charge – would be welcome.
Just Eat (LON:JE) has a consensus rating of ‘Buy’ alongside an average target price of £8.68.
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