According to Liberum Informa (INF) could be hit by some of the same problems facing US educational publishers such as Pearson. Analyst Ian Whittaker reiterated his ‘hold’ recommendation and target price of 715p on the stock, which added 6.75p to close 1% up at 680p on Monday following full-year results.
‘Full-year organic revenue growth missed expectations, although earnings were in line, due to weakness at academic and knowledge, and networking in particular, and comments on softness in the academic books market is likely to strengthen concerns that Informa might be facing some of the problems seen at other US higher education publishers such as Pearson,’ he said. ‘Comments on ongoing free cashflow also suggest more investment moving forwards than anticipated. We continue to prefer UBM for exposure to events.’