Services provided by Keywords Studios are used by 21 of the 25 games developers, so Tuesday's results should give a clue as to the state of the industry.
The February trading update sent the analysts that follow the stock running to their spreadsheets to update their forecasts, as the company said full-year revenues and adjusted profit before tax would be “comfortably ahead” of consensus forecasts.
Broker Numis now expects revenue of around €57.8mln and adjusted profit before tax of €7.8mln.
“We think that Keywords is likely to have generated organic revenue growth of about 20% in the year, supplemented by acquisitions to c.55% total, and to have delivered stable margins,” Numis's Will Wallis said.
“At the time of these results in particular we expect management to have a clearer perspective on major customers’ likely demand through 2016 than was available at the time of the trading update. We model organic growth in 2016 of 10%, alongside stable margins, which we believe is potentially conservative. We also continue to expect material acquisitions in due course, although we have no reason to believe that an acquisition will take place alongside the results,” Wallis added.
Full-year results are also due from Silence Therapeutics, the ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapeutics.
As usual with early-stage drug development companies, the financials won't mean much, and attention will be on the update on the Phase 2a clinical results for Atu027, its lead treatment for pancreatic cancer. There will also be a detailed update on other pipeline projects, technology, intellectual property and patent developments.
Instem, which provides IT solutions to the likes of Silence and its peers, is expected to announce a surge in profit before tax for 2015.
The market is expecting profit before tax of £1.74mln, up from £0.21mln the year before, on revenue of £15.8mln (2014:£13.43mln). Recurring revenue should clock in at £9.6mln or more, up from £9.2mln the year before.
Net cash at the end of the year should be at least £2.1mln, up from £1.7mln a year earlier.
Recent news flow has been good, with the group announcing four new contract wins for its submit solution suite on the eve of the announcement of results, following on from last month's two contract wins.
Significant announcements
Finals: AA plc (LON:AA.), Card Factory PLC (LON:CARD), EKF Diagnostics Holdings PLC (LON:EKF), Hostelworld Group PLC (LON:HSW), Instem Plc (LON:INS), Keywords Studios (LON:KWS), Martinco PLC (LON:MCO) , Moss Bros Group plc (LON:MOSB), Silence Therapeutics PLC (LON:SLN), Thalassa Holdings Ltd (LON:THAL)
Trading statements: International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:IAG), Tate & Lyle PLC (LON:TATE)
Economic: UK – Services PMI; US – ISM Non-manufacturing PMI, JOLTS Job Openings; Trade Balance.