The media sector is a business that is attracting more and more investors from all over the world. In this sense, you too can choose to speculate on a share such as the Lagardère Group, which we will present here in detail. In this article, you will find its live price and a historical analysis of its price before buying or selling, but also some useful information about the activity of this French group.
First of all, we know that Lagardère shares are highly sensitive to airport traffic. The health of the air transport sector therefore has a strong impact on the group's sales and revenues, particularly in France and the USA. The same applies to European and American sporting events, which usually generate additional revenue for the group. It is therefore advisable to keep a close eye on these two points.
The Lagardère group's publishing subsidiary is also expected to increase its business with the renewal of school books. Here again, the achievement of this objective will be closely monitored.
It goes without saying that the results on the annual targets are also of paramount importance with a focus on the operating profit data.
Finally, you will also have to take into account the evolution of the market shares of the large companies that compete with the Lagardère Group in its main activities, particularly in Europe and the United States, which remain the company's two main markets.
Before you launch into a fundamental price analysis or buy or sell Lagardere shares, you should of course ensure that you have all the knowledge you need to anticipate its future reactions to market events. That's why we're now offering you a comprehensive look at the company and its main sources of profit:
The Lagardère SA Group is a French company specialising in the media sector. More precisely, the group is currently positioned among the world leaders in the publishing, production, broadcasting and distribution of content whose strong brands generate and meet qualified audiences through both virtual and physical networks.
To better understand the group's activities, it is possible to divide them into different categories according to the share of revenue they generate, as follows:
It is also interesting to know the geographical distribution of the Lagardère group's activities. At present, only 28% of its turnover is generated in France and 35% in the rest of Europe. The rest comes from the United States and Canada (25%), Asia Pacific (9%) and Africa, Latin America and the Middle East (3%).
The Lagardère Group is best known for its publishing and content distribution activities. But it is also developing its activities in the advertising sector and, as such, it is interesting to compare its results with the major companies in these two fields of activity in order to carry out a quality competitive analysis before even starting to buy or sell this stock online. Here we take a look at some of Lagardère's main competitors.
In the field of content distribution, it is of course the Bolloré group that is Lagardère's main competitor. The two companies have been fighting a real war in this segment for many years.
As far as advertising is concerned, Lagardère faces other serious competitors such as theMediasetgroup or the Publicis group, which is currently the leader in this market.
In 2011, the Lagardère Group became a partner of Aéroports de Paris through its subsidiary Lagardère Services for the merger of Duty Free Paris and Société de distribution aéroportuaire. This transaction enabled both entities to benefit from the increase in air traffic, particularly to and from Asia.
In 2013, Lagardère's Relay subsidiary partnered with SNCF in a joint venture to operate press outlets in French train stations.
In 2015, Lagardère also partnered with Google in the establishment of a long-term strategic partnership and to promote access to diversified content from the Lagardère Active group on the web giant's technology platforms.
First of all, the strong diversification of the Lagardère Group's activities is an undeniable strength to be taken into account. Indeed, the group is first of all active in the media sector with the Active division for the press and audiovisual, Elle magazine, the JDD, Paris Match, Télé7jours or even Europe1 radio and Lagardère Entertainment for audiovisual production. But it is also active in distribution through its subsidiary Lagardère Travel Retail, which is a network of bookstores and press outlets, particularly well represented in airports, in publishing with its subsidiary Publishing, which owns the Stock, Grasset, Astérix and Anaya brands and is the world's third largest publisher in this sector, and finally in the management of sports rights through its subsidiary Unlimited. Lagardère is thus well protected against the risk of exposure to a single sector of activity and can cope more calmly with a drop in activity in one or other of these areas.
Lagardère's corporate profile is increasingly resembling that of a pure media player. Indeed, the group owns 100% of 4 business lines which generate 50% of the group's revenues through the Travel Retail subsidiary, 31% through the Publishing subsidiary and 12% through the Active subsidiary.
The Lagardère group is also praised by economists specialising in this market for its ability to develop internationally. France currently generates around 30% of the group's revenues. The rest of Europe generates 39% of revenues, with 20% of revenues generated in North America and 9% in Asia Pacific. Here again, the interest is a better protection against the economic risks linked to a single geographical area.
We also appreciate the growing success of the Lagardère Group's Publishing subsidiary, which has climbed to first place in the world rankings of bestseller publishers, particularly thanks to general literature in France and the United States. Similarly, the Travel Retail subsidiary has also been very successful thanks to distribution in airports and especially in the American market, where the group is in second place. These activities have recently been refocused on the most buoyant areas, which further increases regular income.
Last but not least, the company's financial situation is very good. Indeed, it is judged as very good by financial analysts with a sustainable and rather high return compared to the rest of this sector.
First of all, let's remember that the Lagardère share has recently suffered a significant discount on the stock market. This is actually due to the lack of visibility on the sale of certain activities considered as not very strategic by the group and which destabilized the investors.
The Lagardère Group's activities are also highly exposed to exchange rate risks, particularly the EUR/USD exchange rate. These exchange rates have had a negative impact on the company's results in recent years.
We can also underline the fact that the Lagardère group is struggling to develop its activities in the field of audiovisual production in Europe. Although the group is currently the leader in this field in France, particularly in the production of series, fiction and current affairs programs, it lacks a presence in other European countries, which could eventually weigh on its overall profitability.
Analysts also note that Lagardère Active's profitability is still considered insufficient and that it will therefore have to stabilize its financial situation quickly.
Finally, the structural loss of market share in the magazine sector in the face of major competitors in the media sector can also be counted as a disadvantage of this value. The group's advertising revenue in this area has indeed been declining significantly in recent years.
As you can see, you need to temper your judgment about the growth potential of this stock and company with the potential threats and disincentives posed by these weaknesses.
It is interesting to analyze the evolution of Lagardère's profitability by comparing its revenue but also its net income over the last two years. For example, in 2018, the group had a turnover of €7,258 million and in 2019, this turnover has slightly decreased to €7,200 million. But the net result showed an even bigger drop from 194 million euros in 2018 to 11 million euros in 2019.
The main current subsidiaries of the Lagardère Group that you should follow are Lagardère Publishing with Asterix, Headline, Anaya, Hatier, Stock, Salvat, Dunod and Little Brown and Company. Then comes Lagardère Travel Retail with Relay, Aelia Duty Free, Discover, Hubiz, Trib's, Rustichelli Mangione. Lagardère Active with Lagardère Studios, Licence Elle, Paris Match, Virgin Radio, Lagardère Publicité News, Le Journal du Dimanche, Europe 1 and finally, Lagardère Sports and Entertainment with Lagardère Sports, Lagardère Plus, Lagardère Live Entertainment, UFA Sports, Casino de Paris, Lagardère Paris Racing.
