Sage posts 6% rise in first half revenue, on track to meet targets

London-listed software company Sage said Wednesday that it’s on track to meet 2015 targets, as it reported a 6.2% rise in organic revenue for the first half of this year.

Organic revenue came in at £682m compared with £642m noted over the same period in 2014, in line with the company’s 6% revenue target for the year.

The group’s organic operating profit margin rose to 28.1% from 27.4% last year, while profit before tax was up 4.9% at £173m.

Chief executive officer Stephen Kelly said: “We have already started making changes to facilitate and underpin our longer-term growth plans. These changes are being carefully introduced to ensure minimum risk to the business.”

“These include organisational and product improvements which will help drive sustainable, profitable growth and build on Sage's existing strengths. We are at the start of this journey which will take a couple of years to fully implement,” added Kelly.

Citigroup noted that organic revenue represented a 5% beat compared with consensus estimates. “We believe the update is directionally supportive of our positive stance on the stock's fundamentals,” it said.