LONDON -- To me, capital growth and dividend income are equally important. Together, they provide the total return from any share investment and, as you might expect, my aim is to invest in companies that can beat the total return delivered by the wider market.
To put that aim into perspective, the FTSE 100 has provided investors with a total return of around 3% per year since January 2008.
Quality and value
If my investments are to outperform, I need to back companies that score well on several quality indicators and buy at prices that offer decent value.
So this series aims to identify appealing FTSE 100 investment opportunities and today I'm looking at Capita (CPI 0.91%), an outsourcing specialist working for public and private sector organizations.
With the shares at 957 pence, Capita's market cap. is 6,291 million pounds.
This table summarizes the firm's recent financial record:
|
Year to December |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Revenue (million pounds) |
2,441 |
2,687 |
2,744 |
2,930 |
3,352 |
|
Net cash from operations (million pounds) |
295 |
307 |
340 |
232 |
412 |
|
Adjusted earnings per share (pence) |
33.26 |
38.75 |
44.98 |
48.49 |
53.16 |
|
Dividend per share (pence) |
14.4 |
16.8 |
20 |
21.4 |
23.5 |
At around 5.2 billion pounds, Capita's bid pipeline seems to keep on delivering. Recent wins added 660 million pounds of new contracts with organizations such as the Cabinet Office, Carphone Warehouse, and the University of Strathclyde. Such demand keeps the firm growing its business organically and through acquisitions, spending around 165 million pounds in 2013, so far, acquiring seven companies in areas such as justice and emergency services, customer management, and education and workplace services.
Clients typically outsource "non-core" functions to Capita, like administration, ICT, HR and payroll, strategic development, and business process engineering. It's a popular strategy that can improve efficiency -- outsourcing companies like Capita tend to execute well, as they are focused on the task and not distracted by the exigencies of the client's main business.
I'm optimistic that Capita's steady growth can translate into decent total returns for investors from here, as long as the valuation doesn't get too far ahead.
Capita's total-return potential
Let's examine five indicators to help judge the quality of the company's total-return potential:
- Dividend cover: adjusted earnings covered last year's dividend around 2.3 times. 4/5
- Borrowings: net debt is just under four times the level of operating profit. 2/5
- Growth: growing cash flow supports steadily rising revenue and earnings. 5/5
- Price to earnings: a forward 15 or so looks ahead of growth and yield expectations. 2/5
- Outlook: good recent trading and a positive outlook. 5/5
Overall, I score Capita 18 out of 25, which encourages me to believe the firm has some potential to outpace the wider market's total return, going forward.
Foolish summary
Steady growth underpins strong cash flow that supports interest payments on the firm's debt. Earnings cover the dividend well, and the valuation recognizes an encouraging outlook. I'm watching Capita for an attractive entry point, such as during periods of share-price weakness.
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