SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = CHF2.70b | Revenue (TTM) = CHF350.25m
Market Cap = CHF2.70b | Estimated Revenue = CHF374.02m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = CHF2.84b | Revenue (TTM) = CHF350.25m
Enterprise Value = CHF2.84b | Forward Revenue = CHF374.02m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF compares a company’s enterprise value with its free cash flow. The metric therefore shows the multiple of current free cash flow at which a company is valued. EV/FCF ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted version.
🧮 How is it calculated?
EV/FCF ex SBC = Enterprise Value ÷ (Free Cash Flow (TTM) − SBC)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV/FCF provides a valuation based on free cash flow and therefore complements earnings-based valuation metrics such as the P/E ratio. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and provides a more conservative view from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF means that enterprise value is low relative to current free cash flow. The reasons should always be considered in the context of the company and its industry.
- A high EV/FCF means that enterprise value is high relative to current free cash flow. This can, for example, reflect high growth expectations or temporarily weak cash generation.
- When SBC is positive and adjusted free cash flow remains positive, EV/FCF ex SBC is generally higher than the standard EV/FCF.
- The metric is particularly useful for companies with relatively stable and predictable cash flows.
- If free cash flow is negative or very low, EV/FCF has limited usefulness and should not be interpreted like a standard valuation multiple.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 SBC | in % Revenue
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to revenue.
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of Revenue = (SBC ÷ Revenue) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of revenue shows how heavily a company relies on equity-based compensation and how significant this form of compensation is relative to the size of the business.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower figure is generally positive: Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's revenue.
- A high figure can indicate greater reliance on stock-based compensation and a higher potential risk of dilution. However, it is also important to consider whether the company offsets dilution through share buybacks.
- The trend over time should also be considered. A high but declining percentage presents a different picture from a persistently high or increasing percentage.
- A single-digit SBC-to-revenue ratio is not unusual among many growth-oriented and technology companies.
📘 SBC as % of FCF
📈 What is it?
SBC (Stock-Based Compensation) refers to equity-based compensation granted by a company to its employees and executives. The percentage shows SBC relative to free cash flow (FCF).
🧮 How is it calculated?
SBC as % of FCF = (SBC ÷ Free Cash Flow) × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Stock-based compensation is a real cost factor for shareholders. It can increase the number of shares outstanding and therefore dilute existing shareholders. The percentage of free cash flow shows how significant SBC is relative to the cash generated by the company. Since SBC is non-cash compensation, it is typically not deducted as a cash outflow when calculating FCF.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A lower value is generally favorable. Stock-based compensation is relatively small compared with the company's cash generation.
- A high value means that SBC represents a significant portion of the company's reported free cash flow, even though SBC itself is non-cash.
- The higher the value, the more significant SBC can be as an economic cost to shareholders, particularly when it results in share dilution.
📘 SBC Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
SBC Growth 1Y shows how much a company's stock-based compensation has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
SBC Growth shows whether stock-based compensation is becoming more or less significant for shareholders. If SBC increases significantly, it can lead to greater shareholder dilution over time. At the same time, SBC is a non-cash expense that reduces earnings on the income statement but is added back in the cash flow statement.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high positive value is generally negative, as rising SBC can increase the burden on shareholders, particularly through potential dilution.
- What matters is whether the development of SBC is sustainable over the long term. Some level of SBC is common among many growth and technology companies.
📘 Share Count Growth 1Y
📈 What is it?
Share Count Growth 1Y shows how much the number of shares outstanding has increased or decreased over a one-year period.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The number of shares determines how many shares the company's earnings and assets are distributed across. If the share count decreases, existing shareholders' relative ownership increases. If it increases, existing shareholders are diluted. The metric therefore makes dilution and share buybacks directly visible.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A negative value is generally positive, as the number of shares outstanding is decreasing.
- A positive value indicates dilution of existing shareholders.
- A declining share count is not automatically positive: It also matters at what price the shares are repurchased and how the buybacks are financed.
📘 Shareholder Yield
📈 What is it?
Shareholder Yield measures how much capital a company returns to shareholders or uses to reduce debt relative to its market capitalization. It goes beyond dividend yield by also including share buybacks and debt reduction.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Dividend yield only tells part of the story. Companies can also return capital through share buybacks, while reducing debt can strengthen the balance sheet. Shareholder Yield combines all three components into one metric, giving investors a broader view of how a company uses its capital.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A higher Shareholder Yield generally indicates more capital being returned to shareholders or used to reduce debt.
- The mix matters: dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction can affect shareholders in different ways.
- Share buybacks are most beneficial when shares are repurchased at attractive valuations.
- Investors should also consider whether dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction are sustainable over time.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow shows how much cash remains after a company has covered its operating and capital expenditures. FCF ex SBC additionally deducts stock-based compensation (SBC) to adjust the cash flow for the effect of non-cash SBC.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow ex SBC = Operating Cash Flow − SBC − Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s actual financial strength – independent of reported accounting earnings. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction. FCF ex SBC also deducts stock-based compensation and shows how much cash generation remains after SBC.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow indicates that a company has strong financial strength – independent of reported earnings.
- It is often a solid basis for sustainable dividends and share buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be a warning sign, even if reported earnings remain stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net Margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free Cash Flow Margin | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how much free cash flow a company generates relative to its revenue. In simplified terms, free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted metric.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC = (Free Cash Flow − SBC) ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how efficiently a company converts its revenue into free cash flow. Strong free cash flow can provide financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or further investments. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and therefore provides a more conservative view of cash generation from a shareholder perspective.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high Free Cash Flow Margin shows that a company converts a high proportion of its revenue into free cash flow.
- This can provide greater financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or investments.
- The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for potential shareholder dilution from stock-based compensation.
- The long-term trend is particularly important. Declining margins can, for example, result from higher investments, changes in working capital, or weaker operating performance.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Revenue per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
13 Analysts have issued a SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding forecast:
Analyst Opinions
13 Analysts have issued a SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding forecast:
SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding Events
Past Events
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AUG
24
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
about one month ago
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StocksGuide Free
SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Half Year 2026 Webcast for analysts, investors and media representatives.
Today's call will be hosted by Christoph Tonini, CEO; and Boris Gussen, CFO of SMG. I will now hand over to Christoph to begin today's webcast.
Thanks a lot. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we start, I'd like to briefly draw your attention to the disclaimer on Page 2 of our presentation. My name is Christoph Tonini, I'm the CEO of Swiss Marketplace Group, and I'm sitting here in Zurich together with our CFO, Boris Gussen.
Flipping to Page 4. And before we move to our half year performance, I would like to briefly address an important leadership development we announced this morning. I have been discussing my longer-term plans with the Board for some time now. A few months ago, I informed them that I felt '27 will be the right time to transition out of the CEO role.
After almost 4 years as CEO and having led SMG through an important period of transformation and its successful IPO, I believe it is the right time to hand over the operational leadership of the company. Following a structured succession process, the Board announced this morning the appointment of Alberto Sanz de Lama as next CEO of SMG, effective 1st January '27.
This enables a structured handover as well as a continuity in both strategy and execution. Alberto has been a key member of our executive leadership team since '23 and has played an important role in shaping our strategy and the key decisions we have taken as a group. He has over 20 years of digital marketplace experience and is an experienced leader.
More importantly, he knows our business, our market, our people and our strategic priority extremely well, making him well placed to preserve strategic continuity and execute SMG's established strategy. We also announced this morning that Jorn Nikolay has decided not to seek reelection at the next AGM. He will step down as Chairman immediately but remain a member of the Board until the next AGM.
Jorn has been part of SMG's journey since the merger in '21. And I would like to thank him for his contribution to the company's development over the last years, in particular, for guiding the organization through the IPO. As I transition out of the operational leadership of SMG, the Board has proposed that I succeed Jorn as a Chairman, subject to shareholder approval at the AGM in April 2027.
I'm very pleased to continue contributing to SMG in this new role and to support the company's next phase of growth. Until then, Pietro Supino, currently Vice Chairman of the Board, will assume the Chairmanship on an interim basis.
I have great confidence in Alberto and in the strength of our leadership team. Over the coming months, we will work closely together to ensure a smooth transition ahead of his appointment as CEO on January 1. In the meantime, Alberto will remain fully focused on leading the Automotive division until the transition, while we work on an ordinarily succession to ensure continuity for the automotive business.
You will hear from him in his new capacity in the new year. As ever, we look forward to continuing our close engagement with the capital markets throughout. I'm now moving to Page 5, which provides an executive summary of our first half performance.
Sustainable double-digit growth and expanding margins through operating leverage are the cornerstones of our equity story. H1 provides further evidence that our strategy is delivering on both fronts. Group revenue grew 11.3% to CHF 179.8 million, while growth was broad-based with double-digit growth across all core verticals.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 15.8% to CHF 101.5 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 2.2 percentage points to 56.5% and cost ratios declined along the expectations we set out at IPO. In real estate, we delivered the first net agent growth in 3 years while maintaining strong double-digit ARPA growth in the core packages.
On the AI front, we are successfully scaling several initiatives while the ongoing rollout is being funded within our current CapEx envelope. Overall, we are growing, expanding margins, broadening the real estate customer base, deploying AI pragmatically and increasing visibility for the full year.
This combination gives us confidence in both our full year '26 outlook and our medium-term value creation path. As a result, we are narrowing our full year '26 revenue guidance from 10% to 12% to 11% to 12%. We confirm our adjusted EBITDA margin at 56% to 58% and improve and narrow the CapEx guidance at 7.5% to 8.5% of revenue.
On the next slide, I'd like to highlight a few operational achievements from the first half. Starting with real estate, we successfully relaunched our package portfolio in H1. The new offering has been well received by customers, is already translating into stronger upselling and has contributed to strong ARPA growth in the core packages.
On top of that, we delivered on a strategic priority that we had clearly set out at the time of the IPO. We report first year-on-year net agent growth in 3 years. This is the result of successful win backs of small customers, customer retention as well as the strong adoption of our recently introduced Flex package.
We have underserved smallest clients previously. And with the Flex offer, we are bringing them back and retaining them in our ecosystem. Another standout was our Seeker subscription business, which delivered 190% year-on-year growth in Seeker subscribers. This demonstrates clear willingness to pay for premium access to listing in the supply constrained rental market and our capability to monetize the seeker size of our real estate marketplace.
Turning to automotive. Product innovation and product-led value capture remains key priorities. During the first half, we launched a range of product enhancements, including AI-driven features and a unified integrated private seller journey that allows private sellers to seamlessly switch between classifieds and auction formats.
We also continue to convert product value into revenue, delivering another period of strong RPD growth supported by an increasing adoption of premium packages. Finally, Ricardo maintained its strong operational momentum. Continued product improvements, high user engagement and healthy marketplace dynamics translated into another period of strong GMV growth and an exceptional year-on-year performance.
Overall, these achievements demonstrate the consistency of our execution and make us confident going into the second half of the year. I'm turning to Page 7 now. Across our marketplaces, SMG remains the clear market leader with a strong traffic advantage supported by the brand deeply embedded in the daily lives of Swiss consumers. Importantly, this position has not changed. Contrary to the disruption narrative, we see no evidence that AI is taking our traffic. LLM-driven traffic remains below 1% across our core verticals and broadly stable even as adoption of AI tools continue to rise among Swiss consumers.
We also continue to benefit from attractive underlying market dynamics. Switzerland remains a stable and resilient market with monetization levels in real estate and automotive being below our European marketplace peers. This gives us confidence that we still have significant headroom to grow on the long term through continued product innovation and enhanced customer value.
Flipping to Page 8 now. AI becomes powerful when it has access to trusted inventory, rich marketplace data and strong customer relationships. These are exactly the assets that SMG has built over many years across real estate, automotive and general marketplaces.
Across the group, our strategic logic is to scale AI initiatives that improve discovery, workforce and marketplace intelligence and further strengthen our competitive moat. On the demand side, with AI, we enable users to do better search, receive better recommendation and get more support in making decisions. This makes our demand moat even stronger by deepening engagement, relevance and direct usage of our platforms.
On the supply side, we are making listings simpler and more efficient while increasingly integrating into our customers' daily workflows. AI allows us to automate time-consuming tasks and provide agents, dealers and sellers with smarter tools to run their business.
On the data side, we are building on our unique marketplace data and proprietary intelligence to enable better recommendations, better matchmaking and to enable our customers to make better day-to-day decisions. Across our platforms, we will see even more real-time context and intent signals in the future.
We will see even better pricing and valuation data, and we will see that trust and safety signals will matter even more. To sum it up, AI is strengthening our competitive moats. On top of that, our replatforming and cloud migration were fully completed last year, providing a great technological foundation that allows us to scale AI initiatives without fundamental investments.
Let me now turn to the next slide, which showcases concrete AI-powered products and features that we have launched over the last few months or roll out as we speak that directly support the strategic outlined earlier. Conversational search is now live across all our core platforms. Going forward, it will increasingly help users find what they are looking for in a more natural way.
Other AI-powered tools such as decluttering and virtual staging in real estate make listings more engaging and more comparable. I mentioned earlier that we expect AI to make workflows more efficient and to integrate us even deeper into the processes of our professional customers.
A few examples here. Automated background removal and virtual staging helps automotive dealers create higher quality listings in less time. In GDM, we launched AI-supported bulk listings, making it very easy to list multiple items on Ricardo while AI is writing descriptions and providing pricing suggestions.
In real estate, we are currently testing and rolling out AI replies on Flatfox, reducing manual work while improving responsiveness. Just to give you an idea of the scale, in the first half of 2026, Flatfox advertisers manually generated approximately 240,000 messages per month on average.
These are practical examples of how we use AI to increase customer productivity and improve the return on investment they achieve through our products and marketplaces. Finally, we are increasingly turning our proprietary data into proprietary intelligence.
In automotive, our new Optimizer Pro provides expected time-to-market insights, helping dealers manage their car inventory, while a new recommendation engine improved conversions. In real estate, we now predict B2B package performance to promote upselling. In general marketplaces, LLM-supported tagging has improved discoverability, leading to better search results and higher conversion rates.
In addition, we continue to invest in AI-driven fraud detection, helping us to increase trust while reducing off-platform transactions. I want to emphasize that this slide represents only the AI component of our innovation road map. AI is an important lever, but it is only one of several levers we are pulling.
Let me use AutoScout24 as an example. Given our recently introduced product updates, dealers can now integrate PDF documents directly into their listing, such as service histories or inspection reports, giving prospective buyers more transparency and greater confidence in their purchase decision.
We have also introduced video integration, enabling dealers to present vehicles in a more engaging and realistic way. These are exactly the type of product enhancements buyers expect and dealers want to offer, and they create value without relying on AI.
The broader point I want to make is that as a relatively young company, SMG still see substantial untapped potential to improve products, customer workflows and monetization across our marketplaces. AI helps on this journey, but it is only one part of a much broader product-led growth agenda. With that, I hand over to Boris, who will take you through our financial performance in more detail. Please, Boris.
Thank you, Christoph, and welcome, everyone, on the call also from my side. Let me start with our group financial performance on Slide 10. Group revenue increased to CHF 179.8 million, representing year-on-year growth of 11.3%. This strong performance was broad-based with double-digit growth across all our core segments.
When comparing this with the 14.4% growth reported in the first half of '25, it is important to remember that the prior year period benefited from a 2.3 percentage point contribution from M&A and Ricardo Shipping Label revenues.
On a like-for-like basis, H1 '25 revenue growth was 12.1%, highlighting the consistency of our underlying growth trajectory. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 15.8% year-on-year to CHF 101.5 million. As a result of operating leverage, our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 2.2 percentage points to 56.5%, corresponding to a strong drop-through rate of 75.8%.
This reported margin absorbed several dilutive effects, including the growing contribution from Ricardo Shipping Labels and C2B in Automotive as well as the annualization of incremental costs associated with being a listed company.
Moving to the right side of the slide, EPS doubled year-on-year from CHF 0.29 to CHF 0.57. As you might recall, last year's result included elevated IPO-related costs, including related share-based compensation. These costs are now at typical levels and combined with our strong operational performance translated into significant EPS growth. Finally, we continue to operate from a position of financial strength. Our leverage ratio stood at 0.7x adjusted EBITDA, providing us with a strong balance sheet and a continued financial flexibility.
Let us now take up -- take a deep dive into the core business units, starting with real estate on Slide 11. Real Estate delivered a very good half year, demonstrating both the resilience of our market position and the continued strength of our monetization strategy.
Revenues grew 11.5% to CHF 88.5 million. The underlying real estate market in Switzerland remains characterized by strong demand and limited supply. Following that, we observed a continuous increase in property prices and single-digit decline in active inventory. The attractiveness of our platforms remained unchanged with both traffic and lead generation growing year-on-year.
This underscores the strength of our market position and the value we continue to create for both property seekers and professional customers. Our professional classified revenue increased by 9.7%, driven by the relaunch of our core package portfolio, which both supported pricing adjustments and an increased adoption of our premium offerings.
We also achieved an important strategic milestone we set out at IPO, a year-on-year net increase in agent numbers to 4,027 customers. The key driver here was the strong adoption of our Flex package. As a reminder, Flex is a hybrid subscription package, and we designed it as a deliberate entry product for smaller agencies that were previously underserved had churned or might have left the platform.
We piloted the product last year, rolled it out fully this year with more than 300 customers by the end of June. Those Flex customers have an ARPA below CHF 300, which is significantly lower compared to our core package.
This targeted addition of smaller customers and a significantly lower ARPA creates a natural mix effect. Including the Flex mix effect, reported ARPA grew 5.4%. However, the underlying core monetization engine remains firmly intact and ARPA growth in the core packages, excluding the Flex offer, was 13.7%.
We expect to see this mix effect in H2 as well as we continue to acquire and win back smaller customers but gradually normalize into '27. On the private customer side, momentum remained particularly strong. Other classifieds revenue increased by 19.1%, supported by the continued scaling of our Seeker subscription business.
Subscription volumes increased by approximately 190% year-on-year, providing strong evidence of the effectiveness of our offering and Seeker's willingness to pay premium access to the new listings. In addition, services and other operating revenue continued to grow, supported by the strong performance of our Flatfox SaaS business.
Finally, profitability also continued to improve. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 3.2 percentage points to 69.9%, reflecting the operating leverage inherent in our marketplace model and our continued focus on cost management.
Next, Automotive on Page 12. Our Automotive segment delivered another strong first half with revenue increasing by 12.2%, demonstrating the resilience of our marketplace despite a softer automotive market. Overall, the Swiss automotive market stayed soft. We see weaker demand with traffic declining year-over-year, stagnating new car registrations and used car sales, while inventory from professionals and leads delivered by our platform stayed broadly stable compared to previous year.
Professional classifieds revenue grew by 14.4%, driven by continued growth of average revenue per dealer, growing 13.8% year-over-year. Our dealer base increased slightly while we are also seeing continued adoption of premium packages. Slightly more than 35% of our dealer customers are now on 1 of the 3 tier packages, Professional, Professional Plus and Premium, while the rest are with the basic package.
Two years ago, the percentage was roughly at 28%. On the one hand, this demonstrates that we're driving the adoption of premium packages, but it also crystallizes more potential for growth and monetization. Other classifieds revenue representing our private or pay per-ad revenue declined 1.4% year-over-year, reflecting softer listing volumes, largely offset by targeted product and pricing initiatives, including the introduction of value-based pricing tiers.
Another important strategic priority is the continued expansion of our C2B business, AutoScout Direct. The number of cars transacted increased by 48.7% or CHF 0.8 million revenue growth year-over-year helps us offset the impact of lower private listing volumes. As C2B carries a lower margin than our traditional classifieds business, its growing contribution has a modest dilutive effect on the segment margin.
However, it creates an additional revenue stream as the market evolves and also shows how we adapt to the needs of private sellers for more convenience and a faster selling process.
Profitability also continued to improve. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 0.9 percentage points to 68.4%.
Moving on to Page 13. General Marketplace delivered a strong first half with revenue increasing by 13% year-on-year. This was supported by continued GMV growth of 13.1%, reaching CHF 309.1 million. The biggest growth contribution was from transactional revenue or Ricardo, which increased by 11.9%.
What is particularly encouraging is the momentum was broad-based across the marketplace with growth in visiting accounts up to 8%, unique buyers and sellers, both up 11% and posted articles up 4%, reflecting healthy marketplace dynamics across both demand and supply.
Growth also benefited from favorable market dynamics in selected categories such as coins and collectibles. In addition, efficient marketing execution continued to support buyer and seller activity. We expect second half growth to normalize against stronger prior year comparator and for the underlying marketplace momentum to remain healthy. We also made good progress with the rollout of Ricardo Plus, our new offer for sellers. More than 65% of eligible users have now been onboarded and the program is supporting volume expansion and deeper customer engagement. At the same time, targeted seller discounts helped drive additional activity.
These volume-driving measures, together with a higher share of above cap orders had a modest impact on the take rate, which declined by 0.1 percentage points year-on-year to 9.1%. We view this as a balanced trade-off as the initiatives support GMV growth and long-term marketplace health.
The classifieds part of the business also continued to evolve with revenue increasing by 17.2%. Growth was supported by targeted monetization initiatives, including the introduction of listing fees for cars as well as the integration of shipping possibilities, which improved convenience for users.
Finally, adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 2.5 percentage points to 48.8%, reflecting disciplined cost control while still allowing us to invest in marketing and product development to support long-term GMV growth. We continue on Page 14 and moving now to the cost base. I see that further across the individual segment reviews, we saw profitability improving, supported by revenue growth and the operating leverage inherent in our marketplace model.
This slide brings the dynamic together at group level. Looking at the adjusted total operating expenses, the absolute cost base increased only modestly from CHF 88.2 million to CHF 91.4 million. This reflects continued investment in the competitive positioning of our platforms alongside variable expense components such as cost of services that naturally scale with revenue.
As revenue grew significantly faster than costs, adjusted total operating expenses as a percentage of revenue declined from 54.6% to 50.9%. The same pattern is visible in personnel expenses. Adjusted personnel expenses increased only marginally from CHF 56.5 million to CHF 57 million, while the ratio to revenue declined from 35% to 31.7%.
Apart from operating leverage, this also results from the continued increase of our nearshore and offshore ratio being 39.4% as of June '26. The key takeaway is that we're able to support continued growth without a proportional increase of headcount or personnel costs.
On CapEx, we also saw a very healthy development. CapEx decreased from CHF 16.4 million to CHF 14 million as a percentage of revenue declined from 10.2% to 7.8%. This underlines our ability to drive meaningful product innovation and adoption with current talent and resources and within the current CapEx envelope.
Turning to guidance, Page 15. As a result of our strong first half performance and the good visibility we currently have for the remainder of the year, we're narrowing our full year revenue guidance to 11% to 12% growth, which is the upper end of the previously communicated range.
One important point of context is that our first half performance was driven by several factors we have already highlighted, particularly Ricardo's strong performance. While we expect the second half to be solid, we do not expect this to be a huge step change beyond what was delivered in H1.
For Ricardo specifically, we expect the market-based momentum to continue throughout H2, but with growth rates normalizing against the stronger prior year comparison and higher baseline. On margins, we are confirming our adjusted EBITDA guidance at 56% to 58%.
The current range captures continuous operating leverage while enabling investment in growth, increased marketing spend in H2 and certain onetime expenses such as increased consulting and education expenses. We're also improving and narrowing our CapEx guidance as we expect CapEx to land between 7.5% and 8.5% of revenue.
Finally, our midterm outlook remains unchanged. Our first half performance puts us firmly on track and strengthens our confidence in delivering against those commitments over time.
So to wrap it up, strong H1, good visibility for the rest of the year, allowing us to narrow our full year '26 revenue growth guidance and continued confidence in our midterm outlook. And with that, I hand over to Christoph for some final words.
Thank you, Boris. Switching to the final slide. To conclude, we announced a planned leadership transition this morning designed to ensure continuity in terms of strategy and execution. Alberto was appointed new CEO effective January 1, '27. He knows our business and strategy extremely well, and I have full confidence in him and our leadership team.
I look forward to supporting a smooth transition and continuing to contribute to SMG in my future role as the Chairman, subject to shareholder approval. In the first half of '26, we delivered broad-based double-digit revenue growth, expanded margins through operating leverage and cost discipline and continued to execute well on our strategic priorities.
We are also making good progress with AI and AI-driven innovation is strengthening our product offering and competitive position while developed under our existing investment framework. We have narrowed our full year revenue growth guidance and remain committed to our midterm targets.
Overall, the results underline the strength of our platforms, the great execution by our teams and the resilience of our models as we continue to create value for customers, partners and shareholders. Thank you to our employees, customers, partners and shareholders for their continued commitment, trust and support. With that, let's move to Q&A, and I will hand over to the moderator.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Yulia Kazakovtseva at UBS.
2. Question Answer
I actually have one question about the excess cash usage. So at the moment, it seems that your net leverage reduced around 0.7x. So could you please elaborate on your capital allocation priorities going forward? And as I said, how do you plan to use your excess cash?
So I think we announced initially that we would increase our dividends along adjusted EAT and that's still the plan for the time being. We're expecting a considerable increase in our dividends. Last year, it was CHF 80.5 million, and we're looking now in line with adjusted EAT at a much higher number. Other than that, there are no concrete plans regarding share buybacks or M&A that we could communicate at this point of time.
Our next question comes from Andrew Ross at Barclays.
My question is on auto. So there was a bit of noise in the press on the back of the pricing adjustments you made in May around the few dealers. Can you talk a bit about that pushback? How many dealers have either threatened to drop off or actually dropped off the platform since then and any impact that has H2 numbers, if any? And I guess a follow-up to that is whether there have been any further conversations on the auto side with either the piece out COMCO on the back of that noise or otherwise for us to be aware of over the period?
Yes. Thank you. So I think there was definitely a competitor-driven noise trial in the press. We have seen that, obviously, as in the past years, reaction of our customers were -- so nobody was clapping in the hands with the adjusted prices, but we have seen 0 churn, and that's the most important. So no churn at all. This gives us great confidence that after all, our customers appreciate the services and the performance we are delivering with our product and therefore, also definitely no impact, a rather positive one in H2 out of professional packages.
When it comes to COMCO, there is nothing going on with automotive and price variance. We haven't heard. There is a long time back was some questions, but it is more than 2 years back. So that was really press noise, but nothing in the market as such.
Our next question comes from Marcus Diebel at JPM.
I wanted to follow up on the strong performance in GM. I think you mentioned it's really driven by volumes. Could you just explain a little bit more also next to the slide that we've seen already sort of like what is sort of like happening? Is it that individuals just post more given it's now much easier? Do you -- have you acquired a lot more customers? I just wanted to have a sense of sort of like the reasons for the strong development in GM and if we should sort of like extrapolate this also in the next few quarters?
All right. So GMV was up 13.1% compared to the previous year. We saw a strong performance across all key metrics. Visiting accounts were up 8%. Unique buyers and sellers were up both 11%. Posted articles was up 4%. Average selling price was considerably up as a result also of one-offs. We saw, for instance, the coins -- the gold coins category or the Panini stickers bringing that up considerably.
So we saw a healthy development across all basically health indicators. And that will continue throughout. The take rates was down by 0.1 percentage points. We talked about the rebates, the discounts. And we also said last time, we believed that, that would grow volumes, and it actually happened. So the take rate is not affected much at this point of time. So for H2, I think we said it already. The last year, I think we saw a 20% growth in H2 '25.
And that clearly has also an effect on the year-over-year growth. And so we remain cautious for H2. All health indicators remain positive, but I would see the H2 growth around mid-single-digit numbers. But still full year would then, of course, be very positive also compared to what we said initially.
And maybe just to add, I think what was really very successfully done was the rollout of Ricardo Plus for sellers. There were -- in the Ricardo Plus sellers have certain items as a benefit. And this was an acceptance up to 65% of sellers using now the Ricardo Plus. And this is driving then what in the former part, we mentioned as MoneyGuard we have more transaction concluded with this escrow payment where we have on the amount paid in the escrow a certain split for us and it's also driving the label usage where we have also a margin on it. So Ricardo Plus, that was a real success, and it will help to continue also the growth, as Boris mentioned, in the second half year and next year.
Perfect. And mid-single-digit numbers, just to clarify, it means mid-single-digit percentage growth in H2?
Yes. Yes, that's correct.
Your next question comes from Marc Burgi at Finanz und Wirtschaft.
Can you hear me now?
Yes.
So my question is regarding your cooperation with LLMs. Could you maybe outline how you're working together with LLMs and how you try to make sure that, that this is integrated into your business model?
Yes. So first of all, it's our strategy is to remain LLM agnostic, both on the Seeker presence, but also in development of our products. That means that we are working on visibility on all the LLM players that our products are visible if a certain search is started on an LLM, but at the same time that we also make sure that our proprietary data, which we think is unique, going to be -- remain protected and is not going out to the LLM. And as I said, on the development side, we are using all kind of LLM models, and we also want always to have the possibility to switch the model and therefore, also to have no anchor when it comes to costs, which could raise up on the token side so that we're always looking, can we also switch a certain application, a certain process to next-generation open source models.
And this works quite well, and that's why also, yes, we're going to see an increase in token costs, but this is absolutely manageable. And we see even, as Boris mentioned, we're going to start an AI project because we see clearly potential also of efficiency gains with including AI in all our processes.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Chiara Di Giammaria at Berenberg.
I have 2 questions, if I may. The first one is a follow-up on AI. I appreciate it's early stage, but can you give us an indication on the token cost and the potential net effect with the savings from AI that you expect?
And then the second question is on adjustments. Can we expect a similar level for full year based on H1, at least for the share-based compensation or any indications here?
Okay. So on the LLM costs, I mean, we have just seen some price adjustments on their side effective July. The costs are -- in the grand scheme of our total costs neglectable at this point of time. We said that already before. We will see an increase of token or consumption-based costs over the next years.
That is modeled into our midterm plans into our guidance. It will come along with savings at the same time when you think about potential increases in headcount that we don't see, for instance. So we knew that already a long time ago that this would happen. And we can control that in a well manner, and we can cover that in our existing guidance throughout the next years. And then there was another question on H2 performance, and you said share-based compensation. Is that right?
Yes.
So we have -- we will not see an uptick in share-based compensation at all. It is fully recognized at this point of time. And we -- so -- and as you may know, last year, we had our IPO. We had a major chunk of share-based compensation, IPO incentives there.
And then we said this number would considerably go down now over the next years. And this all happens in exactly as expected. Our adjustments as a whole are significantly down. You see that also reflected in the EPS, and it remains in single millions number for the full year of '26 and also throughout the next years.
Our final question of today, we're going back to Andrew Ross at Barclays.
I back in the queue if that's okay. I just wanted to follow up on the C2C line in autos, a bit soft in H1. Just give us a bit more color as to why that was. And then I think you spoke about some value-based pricing tiers that have gone in.
So I would be curious to understand a bit more detail as to how that's going to work to drive an acceleration in growth. I mean since I'm on the line, maybe I can just ask you a bit about what you've learned about putting on conversational search in different verticals and any KPIs you can share with us about how people are engaging with that whether there's any differences by vertical and how you present the conversational search on the homepage, et cetera, et cetera would be interesting to understand.
Yes. Maybe starting with the second one. So as we just started to roll this out, I would say, data points are not yet there where we can give a very precise answer to this question if the usage is different. I think it's clear that the engagement will increase as soon as people see that there is a real additional value.
So we -- I would say we started really with the 1.0 conversational search now and continuously, and that's the beauty in our business, continuously now improving also these functionalities. The most advanced, it's -- that's GM, where we see already the positive impact of engagement and better usage and better answers.
But in real estate and also in automotive, it's too early now because people are sometimes just not realizing that -- give you a concrete example, they are using conversational search, typing in BMW X3, which is nothing else than they would have spent as a filter before.
So it is increasing now the adoption, but it's too early. I think we can with the full year figure, give much more concrete data points, how much on-site has increased and how much also the performance has increased with such users.
When it comes to the first question, we have seen internationally a weakening of B2C in automotive. It's not a unique situation in Switzerland. And there are probably several reasons, not one single one. There is definitely still a corona impact where we have seen a shortage in -- on the supply chain, which has a certain impact now also on secondhand cars.
There is the EV impact. So for us, most important is the trend is already coming back. We still have a bit of softening, but it's in low -- in terms of volume in low single digits and with better monetization, we can already offset this trend. And we hope that we're going to see increase again from next year on. Also, as we always said, the AutoScout Direct, which there will be now also a campaign in the second half because we really want that Swiss people know that they don't have to just trade in their car at the dealers' place.
They really can have this offer with AutoScout Direct. This has to be known. And if we are successful and we have good reasons to believe it's going to be successful, we will bring new volume, additional volume also to our platforms.
With this last question, we conclude today's webinar. Thank you, everyone, for joining, and have a great day.
Thanks a lot. Have a good day. Bye-bye.
Financial data from SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 350 350 |
-
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | - - |
-
-
|
|
| Gross Profit | - - |
-
-
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 168 168 |
-
48%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | 179 179 |
-
51%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 57 57 |
-
16%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 122 122 |
-
35%
|
|
| Net Profit | 96 96 |
-
27%
|
|
In millions CHF.
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SMG Swiss Marketplace Group Holding Stock News
Company Profile
SMG Swiss Marketplace Group AG engages in the development and operation of a network of online market places. The company is headquartered in Zurich, Zuerich and currently employs 863 full-time employees. The company went IPO on 2025-09-19. The firm focuses on the acquisition, holding, management, and development of investments in domestic and foreign companies, particularly those operating Internet platforms and digital marketplaces, as well as the provision of related other services at home and abroad, the management and sustainable development of these investment companies within the framework of a group of companies as well as the provision of the financial and organizational prerequisites for the management of a group of companies. The firm is listed under the ticker symbol SMG on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
