Daily Stock Market Report (Tue 4 Mar 2025) - GRG, SNX, WHR, KLR, ABDN, KITW, RCH

4th Mar by Graham Neary

89 comments 7242 reads

Good morning all, the Agenda is there now!

1pm: we're all done for today.

Companies Reporting

Name (Mkt Cap)	RNS	Summary	Our view (Author)
Ashtead (LON:AHT) (£20.1bn)	9M Results	Q3 rev -3%, adj. PBT -6%. Nine-month figures more positive. Full year results to be in line.
Intertek (LON:ITRK) (£8.3bn)	Final Results	Rev +6.6% at constant FX. 2025: mid-single digit growth, margin to grow to 18.5%+ (2024: 17.4%).
Beazley (LON:BEZ) (£5.7bn)	Final Results	PBT +13% to $1,423m. Net tangible assets per share 545.9p. Share buyback for $500m.
Fresnillo (LON:FRES) (£5.6bn)	Final Results	Rev +26.9% ($3.6bn). $550m divi. 2025 production might be lower: 49-56 moz silver, gold 525-580koz.
Direct Line Insurance (LON:DLG) (£3.6bn)	Final Results	Ongoing operating profit £205m (2023: loss £190m).	PINK. Under offer.
Abrdn (LON:ABDN) (£3.0bn)	Final Results	New 2026 targets: adj. operating profit >£300m (2024: £255m), net capital generation >£300m.	GREEN (Graham) Lovely news that they are changing their name back to the pleasant "Aberdeen". The 2026 targets are also encouraging, as are the improved net flows. Adjusted profits for 2024 have slightly beaten expectations. Shareholders can look forward to a constant dividend payout for now, until it's coverage has improved. All in all, it's a picture of improving health and positivity.
Inchcape (LON:INCH) (£2.7bn)	Final Results	New med-term CAGR targets (compound growth rates). EPS >10% p.a. Volume +3%-5% p.a.
Greggs (LON:GRG) (£2.1bn)	Final Results	Sales +11.3%, adj. PBT +13.2%. LfL sales +1.7% in first nine weeks of 2025. Challenging Jan weather.	AMBER/GREEN (Graham) This is a risky decision but I'm leaving our stance unchanged despite another sharp fall on the back of declining short-term sales growth. Management assert that their expectations for the year are unchanged and still plan to hit their long-term sales growth next year.
International Workplace (LON:IWG) (£2.0bn)	Final Results	Outlook: cautious. FY25 EBITDA $580-620m. Leverage to fall, BBB credit rating to be maintained.
Spirent Communications (LON:SPT) (£1.1bn)	Final Results	Rev -3%. Challenging market conditions, but a growing orderbook. Well-placed for 2025.	PINK. Under offer.
Keller (LON:KLR) (£940m)	Final Results	Rev +4%, adj. op profit +22% at constant FX. Significant deleveraging. Multi-year buyback.	AMBER/GREEN [no section below] (Roland) Today’s results from this groundworks specialist flagged a significant improvement in profitability, thanks to improved project execution and a more focused geographic/product offering. Revenue growth was…

Unlock with Email

Unlock with Google

Already have an account?
Login here

Mark Carter

4th Mar

Checks portfolio ... what a mess. Nearly 2% down. It's seems a very bipolar market right now. The market is handing out both double-digit gains and double-digit losses. It all seems a lucky dip.

GRG Down 11% despite showing sales up 11%. It's on a fwd PE of 15, which is a level you don't often see. I don't hold, but we've had situations in the past where sentiment is negative and it has proven to be a buying opportunity. We shall see.

jonno

I think you find that 99% of small caps are on something of 'a slide'. From my portfolio Jet2 (LON:JET2) Kitwave (LON:KITW) Sigmaroc (LON:SRC) WH Smith (LON:SMWH) and Card Factory (LON:CARD) all down over 5% closely followed by Bloomsbury Publishing (LON:BMY) down 4%.

Time for some gardening or a visit to the gym or allotment to paraphrase ISAallowance.

StrawberryDreams

I wonder if US listed Ast Spacemobile (NSQ:ASTS) could do similarly.That is if Trump 'allowed' them.What a disaster that person is.But not necessarily really bad for Europe if they can come to some common agreements quickly and step in and work together.

Graham Neary

Yes, if you buy a long-term linker and then sell before maturity (but after a big change in real yields), you can lose your shirt. Holding to maturity is what they're designed for.

alexdonnelly

ken mitchell

Hi timarr

Re CLS Holdings (LON:CLI) . I hope I’m right to be optimistic based on this short bit in their last Results update:-

“Sales process for Spring Mews Student is progressing well and has generated significant interest with several bids received from experienced and well-funded PBSA owners.”

It’s the debt that has been a key reason I didn’t buy until today.

As for Warehouse Reit (LON:WHR) not having notified investors of the previous 3 bid attempts, your take on it was thought provoking, especially so your point about the bid timetable.

I agree too that with NAV rising now, and rising for other REITS too, there’s a strong case for wind-down to extract the full value. The snag with that is the time it can take. A bid even if it’s at a bit too cheap a price means investors can quickly sell and put some or all of the proceeds in to another REIT with a good chance it will be bid for.

The key point readers of the REIT posts can take on board is that the sector is cheap and full of quality choices on far too wide discounts, and a lot yielding 8% or even a bit more.

Supermarket Income REIT (LON:SUPR) looks a possible win win, in that it might see a bid and anyway with top notch Supermarkets their tenants, and almost guaranteed to pay the rent, the recent 66p multi year low and only 70p now seems bonkers and so it’s an obvious bargain anyway.

bruce27

I also hold Card, and Jd Sports...and Renold! So I am seriously reevaluating my future as an investor. If I had put it all into a World tracker fund, I would be 50% up by now...but what's life without a bit of jeopardy???

NewInvestor1972

Apparently stocks go up as well as down.

The Phoenix

Thanks Graham

See Ed Shing's ETF article two weeks back Bruce seems to be the way to go in my opinion, I think one problem investors have is unless you can do this pretty much full time you get caught out when we have times like the last week when everything dives and your either to busy with work or looking after children to react.

By the time you have caught up your in that "bugger its to late to sell now" mindset then chances are another 10-15% is going to come off the topline also.

I've got about 25-30 positions open at any one time and when stuff is going up its easy as doesn't really require much time maintaining the portfolio I still plough on with research 15-20 hours per week when I probably should just be reviewing holdings every evening at the first sign of possible wobbles.

We are all in search of the elusive grail of investment strategy but I just feel maybe 5-6 ETF'S as per Ed's article would be the way forward this would give diversification across bonds, global stocks, cash and gold.

I put portfolios together for clients and even something relatively low risk would have made 45% over last 5 years but in my personal portfolio I would be lucky if I have made 20% primarily because I have been in the wrong area in my Sipp UK small/mid caps.

No easy answers but I guess a lot of people on here are starting to feel like me in that despite 20 odd years in the market, meeting fund managers and the likes of J P Morgan monthly I still can't get above average returns.

Someone once said its probably easier to train and get into the olympics than reach the top 1% of traders.

The only thing I will say is if you stick with it we are fortunate some of the top 1% are on this board and are happy to share their knowledge.

Tim i remember you flagging Abrdn (LON:ABDN) last summer I have just seen today the db pension by all counts is 800 mil in surplus so hopefully another asset within it that can be unlocked at some point.

timarr

Hi TP

Not had a chance to look in detail yet, but the update today provides some comfort that the new CEO is getting to grips with things. Hoping this will turn into another Aviva (LON:AV.) - new management doing sensible things to create value rather than destroying it.

A bright spot on an otherwise chaotic day ... :-)

abtan

Abrdn (LON:ABDN)

Hi Phoenix

I too recall Tim flagging this one last year and after some research I bought some (thanks Tim!)

In response to your point the value behind the pension surplus is being unlocked. If you read the Annual Report and search for "£35m" you will see the commentary around this (spoiler alert: it's £35m pa.)

The benefit will start to flow through from July 2025.

adhowlett

Yes, it's hard to look at portfolio values on days like today. Corrections will always hit your investing journey, many times I'm sure. The bigger the correction the more of an opportunity they present - just look at the charts during Covid.

Just wait until the news/social media is filled with stock negativity, doom and gloom (well, more so than usual!) and then invest some more or even better continually invest more.

Out of interest Tim some are predicting first quarter US gdp could be negative somewhere between -2-3% do you think that's now factored into prices or not ?

Thanks Abtan plus they have a stake in Phoenix group (LON:PHNX) that was worth several hundred million.

I don't worry about that kind of detailed macro stuff. No one ever gets it right, other than by luck and even if they do predicting the direction of markets is a fool's game - they're usually moving six months ahead of events.

All I'm trying to do at the moment is figure out what to sell in order to buy more Abrdn (LON:ABDN) and REITs :-)

Revs8

Renold (LON:RNO) now at out near very strong support IMO. No bad news that I know. Hold IMO.

5th Mar

Many thanks for taking the time to reply , Phoenix, your thoughts are very much appreciated.

Gag20806

I ditched it

Daily Stock Market Report (Tue 4 Mar 2025) - GRG, SNX, WHR, KLR, ABDN, KITW, RCH

Companies Reporting

Unlock the rest of this article with a 14 day trial

About the Author

Graham Neary

89 comments

Unlock the metrics for all these stocks and more...

Unlock the metrics for all these stocks and more...