Marketing and media analytics consultancy Ebiquity PLC (LON:EBQ) continues to achieve the milestones outlined in its five-year growth acceleration plan.
Despite weaker performance in the US, results for the first half of 2017 were broadly in line with expectations.
READ: Ebiquity on track after solid start to 2017
Total revenue rose 5.6% to £44.6mln from £42.3mln the year before, although it was down 0.4% like-for-like on a constant currency basis.
Underlying profit before tax fell to £6.2mln from £8.0mln the year before but was in line with expectations. Reported profit before tax eased to £3.2mln from £4.6mln.
The first half saw a significant improvement in underlying operating cash flow conversion to 89.2% from 37.2% in the same period of 2016.
Net debt narrowed to £26.3mln from £28.1mln at the end of 2016.
READ: Ebiquity launches its Total View Attribution service
"The positive momentum from recent client wins, a growing pipeline and product investment is expected to continue across the second half of 2017,” said chief executive, Michal Karg.
“We are operating in a changing marketplace and continue to invest and position ourselves to be a beneficiary of this opportunity. We remain on track to meet our expectations for the year," he added.
Numis reiterates price target
House broker Numis said the results were in line with its expectations; it had forecast normalised profit before tax of £6.1mln, which was a shade below the £6.2mln Ebiquity announced.
“The group made good progress on its Growth Acceleration Plan in the half, including the expansion of Marketing Effectiveness into selected European and Asian markets. As indicated at the pre-close update, operational performance was mixed in the half with a strong performance in Contract Compliance but client reorganisations impacted US MultiChannel Analytics,” the broker noted.
It has left its full-year estimates unchanged and reiterated its price target of 161p.
Shares in Ebiquity were up 1.8% at 116p in the first half-hour of trading.