gretel
16 May 2018
Tipped to reach FTSE 100 size Tipped here by Octopus Investments fund manager Richard Power to reach FTSE100 size:[link] StudiosThe final company is gaming service provider Keywords Studios. Originally started as a company that translated games into various languages, the company has expanded since 1998.The £1.3bn firm, which launched in 2013, has since expanded its range through a number of bolt-on acquisitions, working with top 20 mobile game and traditional video game manufacturers.The company has been successful in these acquisitions as it allows the bought firms to retain their brand and has built up a global offering that deals with sensitivities in different regions well, according to Power.It is run by chief executive Andrew Day, who the manager said is a blend of both optimistic and realistic – something that is rare in smaller companies as CEOs are usually one or the other.“I think Keywords could get [to the FTSE 100]. It is such a big marketplace that if they execute well then they have got the opportunity there,” he said."
missmolly
12 May 2018
Re: Electronic Arts smash forecasts And where now for the SP, say in about a months time?(Lost my Crystal Ball )mm
gretel
10 May 2018
Electronic Arts smash forecasts Superb results overnight from Electronic Arts, who beat forecasts and upgraded their outlook for 2019. Which all bodes well for the industry - and suppliers like KWS:[link]
gretel
02 May 2018
Lots of opportunities for growth The latest Edison report notes that KWS are on a PEG of only 0.8 for FY16 to 18.Furthermore, in addition to the high organic growth, KWS have a whopping €95m to deploy for acquisitions. And the cross-selling opportunities for KWS in their core gaming sector are vast.Plus there's the potential in:- AR/VR- e-learning- e-sportsAll of which means that KWS' P/E could drop extremely quickly.Finally there's China. Here's a new article about the huge growth of gaming in China, with a mention for KWS as follows:[link] into ChinaGame localizer Keywords Studios’ mentioned in their 2017 annual report published on April 30, 2018 that China is a market they are interested in. Of course, Keywords also benefits from games going the opposite direction as the company wants to help Chinese publishers going overseas.“The astounding success achieved by battle arena games led by Fortnite and Player Unknown Battleground seem set to continue and we are fortunate to be providing services for those games too,” the report reads. “The mobile games sector continues to grow faster than the other platform types, with much of this growth originating in Asia where we continue to expand and build upon our relationships with the major games publishers in China, Japan and Korea.”Keywords’ revenues in China remain small at EUR 3.68m (USD 4.44m), and was most probably boosted by the acquisition of Red Hot CG and Mindwalk Studios, but the company is keen on expanding in the region as part of their growth strategy."
gretel
23 Apr 2018
Big feature in tomorrow's Mail I assume this will be in tomorrow's Daily Mail - should bring in some interest....[link] a long article, so I thought this extract was the most interesting, with some titbits of info not previously known:"SMALL CAP SHARE IDEAS: Video games outsourcing firm Keywords Studios expands amid growing industryPhilip Whiterow, Proactive Investors, For Thisismoney.co.uk Published: 12:49, 23 April 2018 | Updated: 16:47, 23 April 2018 "Examples of ‘larger purchases’ include North America-focused VMC Consulting, which it bought for $66million last October, financed by an underwritten share placing.The new shares were sold through a book-build exercise and snapped up in about two hours, which underlines how highly regarded is the video games services group at present.Shares over the last three years have rocketed from 153p to 1,746p as the carefully built portfolio, which ranges from translation services through to augmented and virtual reality services, has driven large rises in sales and earnings. VMC looks to be more of the same. Keywords expects the latest addition to be ‘significantly earnings enhancing’ almost immediately.Adjusted revenue of the US group in the year to October was $57.4million and underlying profits an annualised $6.4million.The purchase will more than double Keywords' customer support operation in the North American market as well as growing market share and footprint.Cross-selling has been a fundamental plank of the strategy and the number of clients using three or more of Keywords’ services increased to 93 in 2017 from 64 in 2016 and 51 in 2015.German bank Berenberg, which rates the shares a ‘buy’ and has a price target of 2,060p, sees this trend as evidence that computer games publishers and developers are moving away from ‘tactical outsourcing’ towards strategic arrangements with trusted partners.Crucially, it has made its first inroads into the eSports market, mostly through the provision of its services for game development and in-game support, but also via marketing.ESports – football, rugby, Formula One to name three - are played electronically by teams with increasingly large numbers of people watching.2020, the market is tipped to be generating £1billion annually in revenues and, like video games, there is a requirement for localisation and consistent quality.Keywords highlights that it is continuing to seek out ways to ‘leverage the growth in eSports further,’ Berenberg observed.The most recent acquisitions have focused on adding extra music and audio services to the group’s offering."
gretel
16 Apr 2018
Big expansion in Canada All systems go....[link] "Keywords expands North America HQ in Montreal April 12th, 2018 - 11:33am Craig Chapple, Senior EditorServices provider Keywords Studios is expanding its North American HQ based in Montreal as it prepares for a hiring spree. The company plans to invest $1.1 million on the 17,000 square foot expansion, which will include additional workstations and a new common area. In total Keywords has 75,000 square feet of office space in the city and now has a further 10-year lease on its Montreal HQ. Continued growth The firm said the expansion means the office will become a “single end-to-end solution” provider for its global customer-base. Currently the Montreal team focuses on QA, localisation, player support and UI/UX research. Keywords said it now has the second largest games studio in Montreal, a city also home to Ubisoft.“We look forward to continuing Keywords Studios’ growth within such a creative and innovative community for games makers here in Montreal,” said Keywords Studios Americas MD Nicolas Liorzou.“Importantly, this provides our staff with a superior fit-for-purpose work environment, as we will now have more capacity than ever to solidify our vision for the future of games development.”Keywords has been on a significant acquisition spree over the last few years since it went public. Recently it expanded its audio services with the purchase of Cord Worldwide, Laced Music and Maximal."
gretel
12 Apr 2018
Good new article on KWS Keywords Studios has the firepower to continue its impressive growth rate[link] comment from Berenberg from the article:"German bank Berenberg, which rates the shares a ‘buy’ and has a price target of 2,060p, sees this trend as evidence that computer games publishers and developers are moving away from “tactical outsourcing” towards strategic arrangements with trusted partners.“Keywords also indicated it is seeing some benefits from the rapidly growing eSports market, mostly through the provision of its services for game development and in-game support, but also via marketing and communications management of the events themselves. Keywords highlights that it is continuing to seek out ways to leverage the growth in eSports further,” Berenberg observed."
gretel
10 Apr 2018
Berenberg raise price target to 2060p www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/194618/keywords-studios-up-sharply-after-berenberg-increases-price-target-194618.html"Keywords Studios up sharply after Berenberg increases price targetBerenberg has raised its target price for Keywords Studios PLC (LON:KWS) following the two acquisitions announced by the provider of computer game development services.The acquisitions, both of which were focused on beefing up Keywords’ audio services capability, should enhance earnings, prompting upgrades of 1-3% in Berenberg’s forecasts for fiscal 2018-20 and a 20p increase in the target price to 2,060p.Management has previously indicated it aims to make six small bolt-on acquisitions each year and one or two larger purchases, so “further material accretive M&A is inevitable”, in Berenberg’s view.“We maintain our FY18/19 organic growth forecasts of 12.5%/10%, but acknowledge that if current momentum is sustained that is likely to prove conservative,” Berenberg said.Warming to its theme, the bank noted that the number of clients using three or more of Keywords’ services increased to 93 in 2017 from 64 in 2016 and 51 in 2015. It sees this as evidence that computer games publishers and developers are moving away from “tactical outsourcing” towards strategic arrangements with trusted partners.“Keywords also indicated it is seeing some benefits from the rapidly growing eSports market, mostly through the provision of its services for game development and in-game support, but also via marketing and communications management of the events themselves. Keywords highlights that it is continuing to seek out ways to leverage the growth in eSports further,” Berenberg observed.Shares in Keywords were up 7.2% to 1,736p on Tuesday Morning, still more than £3 below Berenberg’s price target, which is based on a discounted cash flow model that does not take into account future acquisitions.And Peel Hunt reiterate their 1850p target this morning:[link]
gretel
09 Apr 2018
Results ahead of expectations Today's numbers are nicely ahead of expectations for both EPS and revenues per Edison and Finncap.And it seems there are three more acquisitions to boot 
))This new interview with the CEO confirms results "a bit ahead of expectations". VMC is the largest acquisition to date, and its integration is almost complete.Great also to see KWS today entering the music and sound effects sectors, plus "audio branding".More acquisitions to come "across the board" to add further scale - KWS has a "tremendous future":[link]
piw
09 Apr 2018
Video: KWS FY analyst presentation 9.4.18 KWS analyst presentation, this morning:[link] Day (CEO) & David Broderick (CFO) present the Group’s full year results to the 31st of December 2017.KWS video overview – 00:21Andrew Day, CEOIntroduction – 02:22David Broderick, CFOFinancials – 16:53Andrew DayStrategy – 243Q&A – 45:33
II Editor
09 Apr 2018
NEW ARTICLE: Don't forget AIM stocks when building your ISA "The government's decision to allow AIM shares to be included in individual savings accounts (ISAs) back in August 2013 is a major reason behind the surge in trading volume on AIM.Trading levels are always affected by the underlying market ..."[link]
gretel
04 Apr 2018
Great new interview ith the CEO Very long - too long to paste here. I like his comment "The repeat business is very high. There’s a lot of trust in this":[link] highlights:"We’re now 5,000 people around the world in 42 locations. We’re about a third in Asia, a third in North America, and a third in Europe. We have, for instance, about 700 [to] 800 people in China, 250 in Tokyo, 350 in Manila, and 500 in India. Here in North America, we have about 900 people in the U.S. and then about 1,500 in Canada. The U.S. people are in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Raleigh, North Carolina.""If you keep the player longer, you have the chance of getting more revenue. The trend toward games as a service has been very fast, very demanding, adding a lot of complexity to our clients. One way they can manage some of this complexity is to offload some of the services side, which might now look like a distraction.""we can do full game development. We can do co-development projects, where somebody like Ubisoft has five of their own internal studios working on Assassin’s Creed Origins and a Keywords studio working on that game as well.""The good thing about it is that everyone who’s sold their business to Keywords has made some money, but they’ve stayed at Keywords, and they’re probably working harder than they’ve ever worked before. It’s not because we’ve got any handcuffs on them. They’re enjoying it. It’s a very exciting place to be."
dontlikenicknames
03 Apr 2018
Re: SP Slowly creeping up, results 6 day... i had quite a large holding of kws in my sipp and isa but sold the lot for a good profit when the sp spiked and attained a price of 1800p recently.bought back in today after the sp pulled back since then.very confident of the prospects of kws but will take advantage of sp volatility. considered buying zoo a while ago and wish i had now. too late after recent gains?...dunno.
peddlar
03 Apr 2018
Re: SP Slowly creeping up, results 6 days aw... you are correct.fun will start on repot,hope.i bought some this am too.Also bought HCM.They were well sold off.check them out.good luck.
missmolly
03 Apr 2018
SP Slowly creeping up, results 6 days away I think this is a strong buy right now, the forward guidance - such as it is, is good and I'm surprised a little that there is little action on this board, but it's not unusual for iiADVFN and others are very vocal.I bought some more today with IQE profits made a while ago. Not a good day at all for them today...Also newly bought ZOO and glad I did I've done a fair bit of research on KWS and like what I see.Fairly bleak time for tech stocks right now, but not KWS and ZOO.mm
