Narrow-Moat Intertek's First-Half Results Fail to Impress

At first blush, narrow-moat Intertek’s half-year results don’t look half-bad. Underlying revenue rose by almost 6%, while operating margins were up 260 basis points year over year to 15.3%. In the context of an 8% underlying fall in revenue in the first half of 2020, however, investors could have expected more from today’s update in the way of a recovery. Management’s guidance for the full year also doesn’t give us much of a steer as to how the rest of the year is shaping up; however, we believe the first-half performance is at least tracking in line with our expectations.