Good morning! I enjoyed the Stock Market Show on Saturday, in Islington. It was good to meet & chat to other investors, one or two interesting companies, and I enjoyed giving a talk on small caps on the Stockopedia stand, as usual at these events. It's always interesting to meet other investors, and discuss shares that we like or don't like! It's striking how civilised discussions are face to face - why can't bulletin board discussions be equally civilised? Some people seem to turn into monsters once they have an internet connection to hide behind through a pseudonym.

Networkers International (LON:NWKI)

Share price: 51.5p
No. shares: 84.0m
Market Cap: £43.3m

The market has reacted negatively to interim results to 30 Jun 2014 from this staffing company today, with the price currently down a rather harsh 17% to 51.5p, and it doesn't look to have bottomed out yet either, although I doubt it has much further to fall, looking at the modest valuation.

The interim figures don't look too bad to me, although the narrative does seem to be trying to gloss over the downturn in performance, blaming it on the strength of sterling in H1. Whilst that might have had some impact, it's surprising how many companies still manage to do well, despite currency impact. Hence why I try to be a little sceptical about that particular issue - it will be swings & roundabouts in the long run anyway, with the pound having weakened against the dollar in the last few weeks, partially reversing the previous trend, which could present a buying opportunity perhaps?

Profitability - dropped from £3,3m in H1 last year to £2.8m in H1 of this year, a drop of 15%, which they say would have been down 3% in constant currency. Business is done in 12 countries, but the overwhelming bulk is within Europe. So it must be the £:Euro exchange rate that has hurt them.

Outlook - It sounds as if things are improving, so I am wondering whether today's dip might be a buying opportunity?

"Trading in all three sectors has shown growth in recent weeks and the business as a whole is up on last year over the past three months, even after taking into account the adverse currency effect.  If this recent performance is sustained throughout the year we will be able to close some of the deficit…

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