Christie Group – up 62% in three weeks – is there more to come?

20.05.2025

The last three weeks, since the feature article on Monday 28th April, have seen an excellent rise in the share price of the Christie Group (LON:CTG), rising from 85p to the current 138p – a 62% increase in such a short period.

But the question now has to be – is it time to take profits or just sit tight and wait for more to come?

My feature article on the company that day centred upon the company having shown a recovery in 2024 – with revenues up 15.4% at £60.4m helping to swing the business out of its £0.5m loss to a profit of £1.0m for the year to end-December.

The Business

It is a leading professional business services group with 33 offices across the UK and Europe, catering to its specialist markets in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors.

Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional & Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS).

Tracing its origins back to 1896, the Group has a long-established reputation for offering valued services to client companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management.

The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the Group's core agency business.

Analyst View

Rob Sanders, at Shore Capital Markets, considers that the group’s shares are significantly undervalued, giving them a 250p valuation.

His estimates for the current year to end-December 2025 suggest revenues of £65.9m (£60.4m), with adjusted pre-tax profits of £1.8m (£1.0m), generating 5.2p (4.4p) per share in earnings, easily covering a dividend of 2.8p (2.3p) per share.

For the coming year, he sees £71.2m revenues, £2.8m profits, 8.2p earnings and a 4.0p per share dividend.

In My View

Yesterday, there was a dealing volume some nine times the daily average, helping to lift the shares 15% to 138p.

So, looking at the current rating, in my opinion, suggests that the price is running faster than the recovery might indicate.

Much as I like the business model of this £35m-capitalised group, it needs to show a continuation in its profits recovery before affording it a premium valuation.

Ahead of the group holding its AGM on Thursday 12th June, when we should be given a Trading Update for almost its first half-year, I would expect to see some profit-taking clipping the price back somewhat, before edging gently forward over the next year.

However, I now throw in a ‘wobbly’ – could the group be on the predatory list of a Private Equity or other potential bidder?