Broker snap: Gradual recovery not enough at Reed Elsevier

17th Feb 2011 12:30

BarCap has retained its 'underweight' stance on business and academic publisher Reed Elsevier, despite a healthy set of full-year results and a reasonable outlook for 2011.The group reported revenues of £6.06bn, versus consensus of £5.82bn, as underlying growth improved to 2% in 2010, from a fall of 6% in 2009. However, unlike its media peers, Reed's operating fell by 20 basis points year-on-year.Reed may also underperform rivals more highly geared to the advertising market such as Daily Mail, ITV and United Business Media, the broker says.