Daily Stock Market Report (Mon 24 Mar 2025) - BMS, TND, SFOR, SAG, RTC, ABDX, INSG, ENSI, WPHO

24th Mar by Graham Neary

13 comments 5019 reads

Good morning!

In case you missed it, here's a link to the latest Week Ahead with the economic calendar and list of companies reporting this week.

Today's Agenda is now complete.

1pm: all done for now, cheers!

Companies Reporting

Name (Mkt Cap)	RNS	Summary	Our view (Author)
S4 Capital (LON:SFOR) (£202m)	Full Year Results	Results in line with expectations. Net rev -11% LFL, adj op profit -4.5%. Outlook cautious.	AMBER/RED (Roland) Today’s results show genuine free cash flow and some underlying profitability. But the outlook remains challenging and S4’s customer concentration continues to concern me. Today’s 2025 guidance is H2 weighted and broker forecasts suggest earnings could fall slightly this year. I see little attraction and think it’s sensible to remain cautious, despite the modest P/E.
Science (LON:SAG) (£183m)	Full Year Results	Rev -2.3%, record PBT of £14.7m. Consultancy affected by market instability. Outlook: more buybacks.	AMBER/GREEN (Graham) No change to my stance here. Science has the hallmarks of a good consultancy business with excellent cash flow and a net funds position on the balance sheet. However, I think the investment in Ricardo has raised the stakes and the risks. I'll be surprised if they can resist spending more of their surplus free cash flow on Ricardo shares through the rest of 2025.
Team Internet (LON:TIG) (£168m)	FY TU	Results delayed by audit. FY24 to be in line with revised exps. Rev -4%, adj op profit -3.3% to $44.2m.
Braemar (LON:BMS) (£85m)	TU	Profit warning. Rev c.£141m vs exp £152m. Adj op profit c.£16.5m vs exp £17.5m. Order bk $82.2m.	BLACK / (AMBER/RED) (Roland) Weaker cyclical conditions are putting pressure on chartering profits – the group’s core business. I don’t see anything seriously amiss here. But I think it makes sense to remain cautious at this point, given the risk of further downgrades.
Quadrise (LON:QED) (£74m)	Interim Results	H2 net loss of £1.7m, cash of £7.1m end Feb post £6.5m placing. Trials underway.
Windar Photonics (LON:WPHO) (£41m)	TU	Record revenue +20% to €5.7m but €1.4m delayed sales. EBITDA to be c.€0.4m at lower end of expectations. But H1 2025 will be strong due to the rephasing of a 2024 order plus a new order for the US market.	AMBER (Graham) [no section below] This Danish hardware and software company (for wind turbines) raised £5.9m in December. I also note that NEDs have been paid with fresh equity…

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doctor dave

24th Mar

The uk value momentum screen performance has been exceptional over the years (+500% since inception). I was intrigued though to see that on Jul 3rd last year the screen (comprising about 100 stocks) went up 11% in one day. Can anyone explain it? Thanks. DD

Sorry with screenshot this time. It accounts for quite a bit of the outperformance over the last year...

sparkler

As Graham's table rightly explains, the trading update from Braemar (LON:BMS) is indeed a profit warning, but you wouldn't guess it from the wording. "Braemar is pleased to report that the Group's balanced and diversified business model performed well, during the year, to deliver a robust overall trading performance for FY25."

This sort of wording really irritates me. Just tell it how it is. They keep up the pretence later on with "Operating cash flow remains strong" when going from a net cash position into debt (albeit reversed shortly after the year end).

Rusty2

This has been reported several times but Stockopedia just ignore it.

Never got any response to my reports. Others have reported it also.

It is based on the top 25 stocks, quarterly rebalanced.

Lord Gnome

LoL. Obviously working on the basis that nobody bothers to read past the headlines or the first paragraph.

Andy Garsed

Thank you Roland for your review of BMS. Having been advised to buy in at the peak price in 2013 I have been loyal though the opportunity cost has been huge. Dividends received of £1.68 since purchase provide some comfort. The business has made huge strides to overcome past very weak decisions. However, the level of Intangibles from past acquisitions leaves net assets at a low level and ongoing staff running costs are a very significant factor to consider. The COO leaving with the role being combined with the CFO will hopefully reduce these costs. Clearly, one to watch when I am still underwater!!

chris2021

Braemar (LON:BMS) The net cash position, whilst true, is a typical 'red herring' used by some companies. The last half-year report showed long-term borrowings of £25.1m . The current assets include cash and cash equivalent of £26.0m. Matching off the two, together with other minor offsets, to arrive at a net cash position is simply misleading. The cash is not available to pay down the long-term borrowings because, if it was, why incur the interest of serving a debt. The cash appears to be needed in the day-to-day running of the business. Whenever I see this type of false assumption, I base my share price valuation calculation on the fact that there are long-term borrowings.

intuitive6191

"This sort of wording really irritates me. Just tell it how it is"

Agreed - but I would suggest that this isn't going to happen soon.

Not specifically related to Braemar, the brief to the PR department will probably be to produce the best sounding report without misleading the market. This is not unreasonable.

The first draft may well then go back to the directors and advisors for approval. At that stage a lot can happen. If you are the director of a non performing division you might not want it stated baldly so. Or if the borrowing has gone up unexpectedly then the FD might want this softening up. And so on....

I use to work on projects which required PR in a fairly unimportant and routine fashion. As part of FTSE 100 company which was very sensitive about adverse PR , each word was heavily scrutinised. Directors would lobby for changes to make their own contributions more important and after multiple drafts, you ended up with a Frankenstein piece which read sort of OK, but a little odd in places.

As well as all this behind the scenes, there is the obvious point of PR - nobody wants to hear bad news. Directors, employees and shareholders do need some positive vibes even when the news is a bit grim. Everyone knows that the figures will be revealed eventually for what they are, so why not front it up as best as possible.

I never had to write PR but have some sympathy for those who did. It is a thankless task at times requiring many different skills. My experience is a number of years ago. It would be very interesting if someone with more current knowledge could be encouraged to post on Stocko.

EDIT - having read the Braemar report a couple of times - it seems quite a reasonable piece of PR.

Pimlico on Thames

I think you meant Science (LON:SAG) not SAG Holdings (NAQ:SAG)

Graham Neary

It defaults to SAG Holdings (NAQ:SAG) every time, sorry I missed it a few times! Thanks for letting me know.

Revs8

Gosh. So few comments today. Where is everyone?

I would hazard a guess that the companies reporting today aren't very widely held!

stpalm

26th Mar

"Never got any response to my reports." That seems bad when subscribers pay good money for this service, we need to know we can trust their data

Daily Stock Market Report (Mon 24 Mar 2025) - BMS, TND, SFOR, SAG, RTC, ABDX, INSG, ENSI, WPHO

Companies Reporting

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Graham Neary

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