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PageGroup
(LSE:PAGE)
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Rating:54Neutral
Price Target:
157.00 p
▼(-32.79% Downside)
Action:Reiterated
Date:07/14/26
Overall score reflects a business in a pronounced downturn: contracting revenue, sharply weaker profitability, and deteriorating cash flow weigh most heavily. Technicals add support with strong trend/momentum, but overbought indicators temper that benefit. Valuation is a headwind due to a high P/E despite an attractive dividend yield, while the earnings call points to credible cost and productivity initiatives that may help from 2026 but do not offset weak current conversion and profit trends.
Positive Factors
Scale and Gross Profit Resilience
PageGroup's sizeable gross profit base reflects durable scale across markets and brands. Scale supports client relationships, pricing leverage with large accounts, and fixed-cost absorption, enabling the firm to sustain operations and reallocate resources during cyclical downturns to restore margins over the medium term.
Negative Factors
Sharp Profitability Decline
A ~60% drop in operating profit signals weakened underlying demand and margin compression. Sustained lower profitability constrains reinvestment, pressures returns on capital, complicates dividend policy, and reduces buffer against future shocks unless structural revenue or pricing improvements are achieved.
Read all positive and negative factors
Positive Factors
Negative Factors
Scale and Gross Profit Resilience
PageGroup's sizeable gross profit base reflects durable scale across markets and brands. Scale supports client relationships, pricing leverage with large accounts, and fixed-cost absorption, enabling the firm to sustain operations and reallocate resources during cyclical downturns to restore margins over the medium term.
Read all positive factors
PageGroup (PAGE) vs. iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (EWC)
Market Cap
£506.26M
Dividend Yield7.58%
Average Volume (3M)643.34K
Price to Earnings (P/E)59.6
Beta (1Y)1.56
Revenue Growth-8.19%
EPS Growth-67.95%
CountryUK
Employees6,820
SectorIndustrials
Sector Strength72
IndustryStaffing & Employment Services
Share Statistics
EPS (TTM)0.03
Shares Outstanding328,618,770
10 Day Avg. Volume802,367
30 Day Avg. Volume643,341
Financial Highlights & Ratios
PEG Ratio-1.19
Price to Book (P/B)3.43
Price to Sales (P/S)0.46
P/FCF Ratio18.34
Enterprise Value/Market CapN/A
Enterprise Value/RevenueN/A
Enterprise Value/Gross ProfitN/A
Enterprise Value/EbitdaN/A
Forecast
1Y Price Target
£160.25Price Target Upside-31.40% Downside
Rating ConsensusHold
Number of Analyst Covering6
EPS Forecast (FY)0.05
Revenue Forecast (FY)£1.49B
PageGroup Business Overview & Revenue Model
Company Description
PageGroup plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides recruitment consultancy and other ancillary services in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and the Americas. It provides executive search services,...
How the Company Makes Money
PageGroup primarily makes money by earning recruitment fees from client employers when it successfully places candidates into roles. Its core revenue streams include: (1) Permanent recruitment fees, typically earned when a candidate accepts a perm...
PageGroup Earnings Call Summary
Earnings Call Date:Mar 05, 2026
(Q4-2025)
| % Change Since: |
Next Earnings Date:Aug 06, 2026
Earnings Call Sentiment Negative
The call presented a mixed picture: pockets of strong operational progress (U.S. recovery, Asia Pacific improvement, Enterprise Solutions and Page Executive resilience), meaningful productivity gains from AI, and a clear strategy with cost-savings expected from 2026. However, these positives were overshadowed by significant near-term financial deterioration — a ~60% drop in operating profit, a 7.6% decline in gross profit, depressed group conversion rates (2.7%) and negative underlying conversion in key regions, and a substantial reduction in net cash and net assets. The company is taking structural actions (restructuring, AI, reallocation to higher-value brands) that should benefit medium-term performance, but the short-term financial weakness and conversion challenges dominate the narrative.Positive Updates
Gross Profit and Scale
Group gross profit of GBP 769.5m in 2025, demonstrating scale despite a 7.6% decline in constant currencies versus 2024.
Negative Updates
Sharp Operating Profit Decline
Operating profit fell to GBP 20.9m from GBP 52.4m in 2024, a decline of ~60%, reflecting materially weaker profitability.
Read all updates
Q4-2025 Updates
Positive
Negative
Gross Profit and Scale
Group gross profit of GBP 769.5m in 2025, demonstrating scale despite a 7.6% decline in constant currencies versus 2024.
Read all positive updates
Company Guidance
The call set out clear numeric guidance and targets: 2025 statutory results included gross profit £769.5m (‑7.6% cc), operating profit £20.9m (vs £52.4m), group conversion 2.7%, EPS 2.9p and net cash £31.4m, and the Board proposed a final dividend of 3.21p (interim 5.36p) totalling 8.57p; management flagged one‑off restructuring costs of ~£15m in 2025 (partially offset by ~£5m), delivering annualised savings of ~£15m from 2026; regional underlying conversion rates were EMEA 9.6% (from 13.2%), Americas 4.4%, Asia‑Pacific −1.4% and UK −8.7%; the 2025 tax charge was £7.2m (effective rate 44.4%) with an expected 2026 effective tax rate of ~35%; balance sheet and cash metrics included trade receivables £317m (‑£11.4m vs 2024), EBITDA inflow £81.8m, working capital increase £8.1m, tax & net interest £23.7m, net capex £11.4m (2025) with expected capex c.£10m in 2026 (c.£2m software, c.£8m fit‑out), lease payments £41.6m, shares into EBT £8.3m and dividends paid £53.6m (cash fell £63.9m to £31.4m); capital policy remains threefold (operate/invest, ordinary dividends growing at long‑term group rate, then supplementary returns), target running net cash lowered to c.£25m (facilities: £80m RCF, £50m invoice discount, £20m overdraft), and medium‑term strategic goals reiterated: £400m operating profit, changing 1m lives by 2030 (140k in 2025; 790k since 2020) and NPS >60 (achieved 66 in 2025); other productive KPIs cited included AI updates to >7m candidate records (saving ~2,500 working days) and job ads delivering 48% more applications and 2x shortlist rates.PageGroup Financial Statement Overview
Summary
Income Statement
42
Neutral
Balance Sheet
64
Positive
Cash Flow
55
Neutral
| Breakdown | Dec 2025 | Dec 2024 | Dec 2023 | Dec 2022 | Dec 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Income Statement | |||||
| Total Revenue | 1.60B | 1.74B | 2.01B | 1.99B | 1.64B |
| Gross Profit | 769.52M | 842.59M | 1.01B | 1.08B | 877.72M |
| EBITDA | 78.14M | 117.54M | 187.83M | 257.77M | 222.53M |
| Net Income | 9.02M | 28.44M | 77.07M | 139.01M | 118.36M |
Balance Sheet | |||||
| Total Assets | 575.73M | 650.10M | 704.57M | 794.94M | 724.46M |
| Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments | 31.38M | 95.35M | 90.14M | 131.48M | 153.98M |
| Total Debt | 132.25M | 136.79M | 110.93M | 109.83M | 102.34M |
| Total Liabilities | 361.10M | 387.69M | 398.09M | 442.74M | 384.35M |
| Stockholders Equity | 214.63M | 262.41M | 306.49M | 352.20M | 340.11M |
Cash Flow | |||||
| Free Cash Flow | 40.10M | 110.99M | 121.63M | 152.99M | 120.32M |
| Operating Cash Flow | 50.06M | 126.66M | 153.01M | 184.66M | 148.69M |
| Investing Cash Flow | -11.38M | -13.73M | -28.56M | -29.59M | -25.73M |
| Financing Cash Flow | -103.51M | -106.09M | -156.76M | -183.53M | -131.19M |
PageGroup Technical Analysis
Positive
233.60
Price Trends
121.53
Positive
131.68
Positive
175.68
Negative
Market Momentum
8.71
Negative
78.40
Negative
90.62
Negative
Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For GB:PAGE, the sentiment is Positive. The current price of 233.6 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 120.96, above the 50-day MA of 121.53, and above the 200-day MA of 175.68, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 8.71 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 78.40 is Negative, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 90.62 is Negative, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Positive sentiment for GB:PAGE.
PageGroup Peers Comparison
UnderperformOutperform
Sector (63)
Name | Overall Rating | Market Cap | P/E Ratio | ROE | Dividend Yield | Revenue Growth | EPS Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
69 Neutral | £251.02M | 15.39 | 7.83% | 6.35% | -12.77% | -63.39% | |
63 Neutral | $10.79B | 15.43 | 7.44% | 2.01% | 2.89% | -14.66% | |
63 Neutral | £48.40M | 14.47 | 11.07% | 3.35% | 5.91% | 458.42% | |
56 Neutral | £832.23M | -82.58 | -2.24% | 1.76% | -4.16% | 26.67% | |
54 Neutral | £506.26M | 59.60 | 4.18% | 7.58% | -8.19% | -67.95% | |
54 Neutral | £41.14M | 9.66 | 13.11% | ― | 11.46% | ― | |
52 Neutral | £67.75M | -2.79 | -24.67% | 12.88% | -12.44% | -346.71% |
* Industrials Sector Average
GB:PAGE
PageGroup
163.90
-89.07
-35.21%
GB:GATC
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153.50
74.62
94.60%
GB:HAS
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54.50
-10.31
-15.91%
GB:RWA
Robert Walters
109.00
-59.00
-35.12%
GB:STAF
Staffline
39.60
-7.00
-15.02%
GB:STEM
SThree plc
211.00
-9.34
-4.24%
PageGroup Corporate Events
Business Operations and StrategyFinancial Disclosures
PageGroup holds profit guidance as cost cuts offset uneven recruitment markets
Positive
Jul 13, 2026
PageGroup reported broadly flat second-quarter gross profit at £197.6m, down 0.2% in constant currency versus a year earlier, with about half its markets back in growth and strong contributions from the Americas, Asia-Pacific and its Page Exe...
Financial Disclosures
PageGroup Sets Date for Q2 2026 Trading Update and Investor Call
Neutral
Jul 9, 2026
PageGroup plc has scheduled the release of its Second Quarter 2026 trading update for 7:00 a.m. on Monday, 13 July 2026, providing investors and analysts with fresh insight into its recent trading performance. The update will be supported by an on...
Executive/Board Changes
PageGroup Chair to Join Rathbones Board as Non-Executive Director
Positive
Jun 16, 2026
PageGroup has announced a board development, with its chair, Angela Seymour-Jackson, set to join Rathbones Group as a non-executive director from 1 October 2026. The additional external board role underscores Seymour-Jackson’s standing in th...
Business Operations and StrategyStock BuybackDividendsShareholder Meetings
PageGroup Wins Shareholder Backing for All AGM Resolutions
Positive
May 28, 2026
PageGroup shareholders approved all resolutions put to the vote at the company’s annual general meeting on 28 May 2026, including the directors’ report and accounts, the final dividend and the re-election or election of all proposed bo...
Business Operations and StrategyExecutive/Board Changes
PageGroup Strengthens Board with Appointment of Florence Mélique as Independent Director
Positive
May 7, 2026
PageGroup has appointed Florence Mélique as an independent non-executive director, effective 1 June 2026, strengthening its board with additional international leadership expertise. She will sit on the audit, nomination and remuneration commi...
Glossary
BuyA stock rated as a "Buy" is expected to perform better than the overall market or a specific benchmark over the near-to-medium term. This rating suggests the stock is likely to deliver higher returns compared to other stocks in the same sector or market index. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
HoldA stock rated as a "Hold" is expected to perform in line with the overall market or a specific benchmark. This rating indicates that the stock is neither particularly compelling nor unfavorable for investment. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
SellA stock rated as a "Sell" is expected to perform worse than the overall market or a specific benchmark over the near-to-medium term. This rating suggests the stock may deliver lower returns compared to other stocks in the same sector or market index. Note: This is not investment advice; please consult a financial advisor before making investment decisions.
Disclaimer
This AI Analyst Stock Report is automatically generated by our AI systems using advanced algorithms and publicly available financial, technical, and market data. While the information provided aims to be accurate and insightful, it is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Any content created by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) system may contain inaccuracies and/or contain errors. Investing in stocks carries inherent risks, and past performance is not indicative of future results. This report does not account for your personal financial circumstances, objectives, or risk tolerance. Always conduct your own research or consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. The analysis and recommendations provided are based on historical and current data and may not fully reflect future market conditions or unexpected developments. Neither the creators of this report nor its affiliated entities guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented. Use this report at your own discretion and risk.