LONDON, June 29, 2026, 14:02 BST
- Sage traded at roughly 825p, rising 1% in normal London hours. FTSE 100 slipped earlier.
- The stock is still off roughly 34% for the past year and remains far from last year’s high.
- Sage’s interim dividend set for July 3, plus a recent buyback, mean cash returns are front and center for investors ahead of the Q3 update on July 29.
Sage Group plc (LON:SGE) inched up roughly 1% on Monday. Gains were modest, showing investors are still split on the UK accounting software firm. Sage is generating cash, but shares have yet to reclaim the AI premium they gave up earlier in the year.
Sage was quoted at 825.50p in MarketScreener’s real-time Cboe Europe estimate at 0902 EDT, up 0.97%. Hargreaves Lansdown’s delayed figures showed 824.40p-824.80p, versus a last close of 817.60p and a market cap near 7.43 billion pounds. The FTSE 100 was down 0.2% by 0949 GMT, according to Reuters. UK shares moved lower.
| Market gauge | Latest data | Read-through for Sage |
|---|---|---|
| Sage quote | 825.50p, +0.97% | Edges past a weaker UK market |
| Previous close | 817.60p | Stock gained roughly 8p on Monday |
| Market value | £7.43 bln | March £300 mln buyback figures at about 4% of current market cap |
| 52-week range | 771.66p-1,335p | Shares trade 7% up from the low, still 38% off the top |
| 12-month share move | -34.06% | Main pressure is still the valuation drop |
The math on Sage’s cash returns stands out. The March buyback was 300 million pounds, but by the half-year update, Sage said it had announced 600 million pounds in buybacks in the first half. That comes out to around 8% of the company’s market value as of Monday. Sage also set an interim dividend of 8.05p a share, payable July 3 for shareholders on record as of June 5.
This is important as Sage’s operations are still holding up. For the six months ended March 31, annualised recurring revenue hit 2.73 billion pounds, rising 11%, with underlying operating profit at 326 million pounds, up 15%. Cash conversion came in at 116%.
| Operating metric | H1 FY26 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Annualised recurring revenue | £2.727 bln | up 11% |
| Underlying total revenue | £1.363 bln | up 11% |
| Underlying operating profit | £326 mln | rose 15% |
| Underlying operating margin | 23.9% | up 80 bps |
| Sage Business Cloud revenue | £1.162 bln | up 15% |
| Cloud-native revenue | £518 mln | up 25% |
| Cash conversion | 116% | up 1 ppt |
CEO Steve Hare said Sage posted “double-digit revenue growth, further margin expansion and strong cash flows.” Hare called out finance, payroll and HR, saying those are areas where “accuracy and compliance are non-negotiable.”
Investors want to see AI boost earnings, not just headline products. Florian Ielpo at Lombard Odier Investment told Reuters that “AI-driven productivity” has to show up in European earnings before his team will upgrade stocks in the region. Sage is watching if its AI tools help keep renewal rates above 100% and push cloud-native growth. Reuters
Sage’s latest consensus file, updated June 25, has analysts sticking with calls for high-single-digit growth and a bit more margin. The increase isn’t big, but it’s steady.
| Sage sell-side consensus | FY26 consensus | FY27 consensus |
|---|---|---|
| Organic revenue expected up | 9.7% | 9.2% |
| Recurring revenue estimate | 10.2% | 9.5% |
| Forecast for underlying total revenue | £2.762 bln | £3.015 bln |
| Underlying operating profit seen at | £679 mln | £759 mln |
| Underlying operating margin projected | 24.5% | 25.1% |
MarketScreener had a panel of 19 analysts, with the average view at “Buy” and the consensus price target at 10.79 pounds. The lowest target sat at 8.50 pounds—roughly 3% over Monday’s close. That doesn’t leave much cushion in these analyst targets even after the stock’s drop. MarketScreener
Sage’s next event is its Q3 FY26 trading update set for July 29. The company reports full-year results Nov. 19.
