Future PLC (LSE:FUTR), the online and magazine publisher and owner of GoCompare, saw its shares fall after it said trading in recent months has seen a slow start for digital advertising and pressure from currency swings, offset by stronger price comparison trading.
In a trading update on the day of its annual general meeting, the owner of Marie Claire, The Week and TechRadar said the performance in the first four months of its new financial year, October to January, was "broadly in-line with expectations" and its hopes for an improvement in sales trends.
At its final results in December, covering a year when revenues dropped 4%, the FTSE 250 group reported a "stabilisation of trends" that gave management confidence of a return to organic revenue growth in the second half of 2024 and full-year revenue growth of a low single-digit percentage.
Today, it said price comparison had been strong in the past four months, with good growth in its B2B business, offsetting the slower start for affiliate products and digital advertising, which it blamed on "continued macroeconomic pressures and low visibility impacting the wider sector".
Magazines were said to remain "resilient".
Having flagged a 'growth acceleration strategy', where £25-30 million is planned to be invested over two years in improving profit margins, in the full-year results, this was said to be seeing "encouraging progress" from the group's dozen 'Hero brands', which are outperforming the wider brand portfolio.
Future's shares fell over 40% last year to nudge five-year lows below 600p on a weak advertising market and concerns about the impact of AI.
Today, shares were down 3% to 698p in early trading.