Plus500 plots share buyback as profit soars on record performance
After a record performance in 2020, online trading platform Plus500 is planning a further buyback program of up to $25m of its shares.
Plus500 reported a pretax profit of $523.3m up from $189.3m the previous year with revenue rising 146 per cent to $872.5m.
Shares dipped 0.9 per cent this morning.
The FTSE 250-listed company pledged to return at least 50 per cent of net profits to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks as it announced it would pay almost $30m in special dividends.
Online trading platforms have seen a surge in users over the past year as markets were rocked by the pandemic and the Gamestop/Reddit frenzy may see a prolonged increase in activity.
The platform reported “unprecedented levels of platform usage” with 82m customer trades last year, up from 35m in 2019.
“A number of market trends emerged and had an influence on the performance of the company during the year,” Plus500 said in its preliminary results.
“Historically the company has been seen as doing well when volatility picks up in markets, but over the longer term, it may be that volatility is less of an attraction, replaced instead with a reliable technology offering, which Plus has,” Nik Lysiuk, equity research analyst at Finncap said.