Pearson share price rallies as group posts revenue growth

Pearson’s (LON:PSN) share price has surged in London in today’s session as the FTSE 100 company posted a rise in six-month revenue, with its shift to digital starting to pay off. The blue-chip publisher further lifted its adjusted earnings per share guidance for the full-year.

As of 09:57 BST, Pearson’s share price had added 6.74 percent to stand at 934.40p, lending support to the benchmark FTSE 100 index, along with Vodafone (LON:VOD). The blue-chip publisher’s shares have added less than one percent to their value over the past year, as compared with about a 2.1-percent fall in the Footsie.

Pearson posts results

Pearson announced in a statement this morning that its underlying revenue had grown two percent in the six months to June 30, with growth across all the group’s segments. The company sales meanwhile dipped two percent  in headline terms largely due to disposals of non core businesses. The blue-chip publisher further said that its adjusted operating profit had jumped 30 percent in underlying terms.

“We’ve had a good first half, with underlying growth across all divisions, as we start to benefit from accelerating our shift to digital,” Pearson’s chief executive John Fallon commented in the statement, adding that the group was “on track to at least stabilise revenue this year and return the company to top line growth from 2020”.

Going forward, the company said that it was upgrading its adjusted earnings per share guidance to be between 57.5p to 63.0p reflecting improvements in the finance charge and taxation at exchange rates prevailing on December 31, 2018.

Analysts on publisher

Liberum Capital reaffirmed the FTSE 100 company as a ‘sell’ today, without specifying a target on the Pearson share price. According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip group currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average valuation of 732.33p.