LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Plus 500 posted a jump in full-year sales and profits as it tapped new markets and announced additional share buybacks and dividends.
"We are in an extremely exciting strategic and commercial position, with multiple potential growth opportunities available, particularly in the US futures market, which will continue to drive our growth as a global multi-asset fintech group," chief executive officer, David Zruia, said.

"With further organic investments and targeted acquisitions, we are confident that Plus500 remains well-positioned to deliver sustainable growth over the medium to long-term."

Over the year ending on 31 December,the company which runs its own trading platforms that use proprietary technology saw its revenues jump by 16% to reach $832.6m.

That resulted in a 17% increase in the fintech group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation to $453m, as its operating profit margin widened from 54% to 55%.

Among its performance highlights were record annual revenues per user and a near doubling in the size of the average deposit per active customer to roughly $8,000.

The firm also highlighted how more than 24m clients had registered on its platform since inception with customer deposits growing by approximately 9.5% during the year to $2.3bn.

Its proprietary trading platform TradeSniper was launched in the third quarter of the year and was now available for clients in the US futures market.

Plus 500 had also acquired a regulated entity in Japan to tap the Japanese retail trading market.

That was on top of the roll-out of its share dealing platform across new countries in Europe and new regulatory licences from the Dubai Financial Services Authority and in Estonia.

As well, management called attention to the fact that more than 85% of group Over-the-Counter revenues came from clients using its OTC platform on either mobile phones or tablets with 82% trades being executed through those two types of devices.

During the year, it also launched a new business-to-business line and became a full clearing firm members of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group of exchanges, as well as of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.

Plus 500 also announced a further $100m of shareholder returns, including a final buyback of $42.4m of the company's shares, a special buyback of $27.6m-worth of more shares, a final dividend of $20m and a special dividend of $10.0m.

All combined, the yearly total of shareholder returns rose to over $270m.

For 2023, the board expected Plus 500's performance to be in line with market expectations at the time and continued to expect sustainable growth over the medium-to-long term.

Cash on hand at period end rose by 24% to reach $930.2m with no debts or loans since inception.

Commenting on the company's results, analyst Stuart Duncan at Peel Hunt said: "Management expects FY23 to be in line with current market expectations - we are forecasting $274m against consensus of $271m (although PBT/EPS should move higher with increased interest income).

"Stock continues to trade on relatively low multiples, with the EV/EBITDA of 5.7x not expensive, in our view, given the strong cash generation of the business."

Duncan was at 'buy' on the stock with a 2,000.0p target price.

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