Good morning!

Ed is doing an interesting-sounding webinar today at 12:30 - signup link here. The topic today is different ways of using the StockRanks system to find good shares.

I see that Debenhams (LON:DEB) (in which I currently hold a long position) has appointed a new CEO. It's noteworthy because he's come from Amazon. So it shows how much emphasis retailers are now putting on online & mobile. Debenhams already has a very substantial online operation - it's actually one of the UK's largest internet retailers. It's funny the way the market ignores that, and puts it on a low earnings multiple, as if it were just a stores-only retailer.

Another stock I hold, Restaurant (LON:RTN) has still not said anything to the market about very specific potential takeover stories in the media. How can this be? Normally when a share price surges strongly, on rumours of takeover approaches, the company is obliged to make a statement to the market.

To date, RTN has said nothing. This seems most irregular. RTN shares are up 32% in the last 3 weeks, largely driven by takeover speculation. The company MUST make a statement, confirming or denying the situation. Also it needs to explain why there has been such a long delay in updating the market with price sensitive information that is currently being withheld - the rumours are either true or false. We need to know, now!


Hostelworld (LON:HSW)

Share price: 188p (down 27% today)
No. shares: 95.6m
Market cap: £179.7m

AGM statement (profit warning) - I haven't read it yet, but it must be a profit warning because the shares are down 27% - a typical drop for a standard-type profit warning.

A city friend asked me to look at this company, to give him a second opinion on it a few weeks ago. I've not written anything here about it before now. My view at the time was that the website looks good. The business is profitable & pays divis. However, growth seems to be stalling, and the group appears to be cannibalising sales from one of its own websites.

Anyway, on to today's statement. Q2 trading is not going well:

Reflecting recent geo-political events, particularly in Europe, trading over the second quarter has been at a level below our expectations...
...Overall,…

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