Xmas cheer from The Motley Fool....17 Dec 2018 23:09
All wrapped up
This is the most wonderful time of year for greetings card and gift wrapping company IG Design Group (LSE: IGR). This AIM-listed £450m company has a large global reach, with operations in the Americas, Europe and Australia. Its products now retail in more than 200,000 stores across 80 countries and it is expanding through acquisition.
It has also been one of the most exciting stocks of the last five years, up an incredible 850% over that time, yet hasn’t attracted the investor excitement you might expect given its soaraway growth. I wrote about this small-cap 12-bagger earlier this year, noting that it has even managed to defy the retail slowdown affecting bricks and mortar retailers on the stricken UK high street.
Christmas on the cards
The group recently announced a reported 23% rise in revenue to £205m, driven by organic growth of 4% and the acquisition of Impact Innovations Inc in the US, while underlying profit before tax jumped an impressive 76% to £18.5m.
Unsurprisingly it isn’t cheap, currently trading at 21.6 times forward earnings, but it isn’t that expensive given such strong growth, with earnings forecast to rise 13% and 17% over the next two years. You even get a small yield, currently a forecast 1.5%, with cover of 1.3x, but this stock is all about the growth. I’m hoping IG will shine at Christmas, and for years to come.