Wolters Kluwer: 9m growth less than expected

(CercleFinance.com) - Wolters Kluwer has reported lower-than-expected 9m results on Wednesday, a rare underperformance for the Dutch publisher, which resulted in the share only falling slightly on the stockmarket.


Wolters - which publishes professional information in the legal, tax and scientific fields - posted an adjusted operating margin of 26.1% at 30 September, down 1.5 point y-o-y.

Its sales grew by 5% organically over the period, thanks to strong recurring revenues, which now account for 82% of its total business.

Analysts were expecting better, however, with the consensus looking for 6% growth over the first nine months of the year.

In response, UBS teams explain that this disappointing growth is mainly due to a lower-than-expected increase in sales in the corporate performance and ESG businesses.

Wolters Kluwer - which saw its free cash flow fall by 11% in the first nine months of the year - has maintained its outlook for free cash flow of around E1.2bn this year, compared with E1.22bn in 2022.

The group is still aiming for a 5% to 10% increase (excluding taxes) in EPS for 2023, and an adjusted operating margin of 26.1%-26.5%.

At lunchtime Wolters shares were down 3.5%, while the AEX was down 0.2% and European media stocks were down 0.8%.


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