Daily Stock Market Report (Tue 7 Jan 2025) - SQZ, NXT, CNS, ARB

7th Jan by Graham Neary

73 comments 5033 reads

Good morning! The RNS remains quiet for now - it appears that many City workers and company management teams have taken full advantage of the chance to take a break over Christmas. I did think we would have a few more updates than this on January 7th!

11.50pm: we are all done for today, see you tomorrow!

Spreadsheet accompanying this report (updated to 3/1/2025).

Companies Reporting

Name (Mkt Cap)	RNS	Summary	Our view (Author)
Next (LON:NXT) (£11.9bn)	TU	Full-price sales ahead of exps; pre-tax profit exps increased by £5m to £1,010m. FY EPS +11.4%.	AMBER/GREEN (Graham)
Serica Energy (LON:SQZ) (£593m)	Production update	FY prod 34,600 boepd, below Q3 guidance. Most issues resolved, output currently 46,400 boepd.	AMBER/GREEN (Roland)
Corero Network Security (LON:CNS) (£100m)	TU	“Broadly” in line for 2024. Looks like a probable miss for 2024. Confident in 2025 expectations.	AMBER/GREEN (Roland)
Argo Blockchain (LON:ARB)	Dec Operational Update	Their hosting agreement ended; they are evaluating alternative sites to rehost their machines.	RED (Graham)

Summaries

Serica Energy (LON:SQZ) - Down 1.7% to 148p (£582m) - Update on production - Roland (I hold) - AMBER/GREEN

Today’s update reveals that Serica’s 2024 production of 34,600 boepd fell below even its 5 December guidance. However, various technical issues now appear to be resolved and reliability is expected to improve in 2025. With current production running at over 46k boepd, I expect strong cash generation and believe the 15% dividend yield remains sustainable.

Next (LON:NXT) - up 3% to £98.32 (£12.2bn) - Trading Statement - Graham (I hold) - AMBER/GREEN

Full price sales in the pre-Christmas period were up 5.7%, vs. prior guidance of 3.5%. This slightly increases the full-year PBT estimate for FY January 2025 to £1,010m. Looking ahead, the company anticipates 3.5% growth in full-price sales for January 2026, and a similarly modest increase in PBT. Next remains impressively robust to my eyes and it will need to rely on this robustness if its pessimism re: the UK economy is well-grounded.

Corero Network Security (LON:CNS) - Down 2.5% to 19p (£98m) - Trading Update - Roland - AMBER

Today’s full-year trading update reveals Corero has missed 2024 revenue and EBITDA expectations slightly, but trading performance has remained positive and the growth outlook for 2025 is unchanged.…

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Archer

7th Jan

I was a holder but let them go some time ago due to the exit of assets but it would be interesting to see if they have bottomed out. Profitability and cash flow remain positive and dividend is now very good and affordable. Will keep watching...

marigold

That is the problem, EVs are fine for short journeys, but those can easily be done by train or bus in an urban environment. Not so good for longer journeys, so you are forced to run two cars.

timarr

That is the problem, EVs are fine for short journeys, but those can easily be done by train or bus in an urban environment.

Ah, but as noted previously, people don't use public transport, they drive. If you can figure out how to change that then the problem goes away, anyway.

timarr

BnB

Incredible car, getting back in my ICE vehicle was like stepping back in time.

It depends what you are comparing it to. I had a day in a Porsche Macan Electric - which is considerably nicer than a characterless Tesla - and it was very good and quieter than the ICE version (or my BMW petrol estate) but not more modern and unquestionably less enjoyable to drive enthusiastically on account of the huge increase in weight. Good in traffic though with superior NVH and would definitely strongly consider going electric for the calmer cabin.

john scott

Plus I don't much go for their heating systems(car fires)

NewInvestor1972

I'm talking about the software as much as the hard ware, has to be tried to truly appreciate it.

Aislabie

Although this data is from 2022 - and it appeared in The Guardian - the company doing the analysis was quoted as saying that particulates from exhausts are so low on new cars that if we started now it would not be worth tracking them

Tyres produce far more particles than exhausts in modern carsMilligrams of particles per kilometre of driving: New tyres 73.0, Used tyres 36.5, Exhaust legal limit 4.5, Exhaust - real world 0.02. . Source: Emissions Analytics

rmillaree

would be interested in accurate stats for sure - without doing a deep dive a quick search near the top of google has the following article from the rac. not sure is thats disagreeing with the guardian piece or not - but it does loks like some of the press releases quoting sismilar may not have been of the "unbiased variety" - thats so often the case with renewables that its not uncommon for nonsense to be trotted out as fact (that can happen on both sides of the dividing line i would say)

thanks for supplyinmg info though - it is an interesting stat If the guardian article is right

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/el....

hdavies2

please keep this thread to SVCR topics

cholertonandrew

I thought that was a really good and helpful write-up on Next- thank you.

Regards

Andrew

yiannos1

What’s SVCR?

Samsgrandad

Sorry bud, as from nov5 it is now The Daily Stock Market Report covering a wider area of subject material. If you've just got back from the Space Station you can read about it here. Feel free to select what you read.

Harry Hindsight

Small Crap Value Report - RIP

Thanks Harry

Perhaps hdavies2 is still in Christmas overhang mode!

All the best

Create one on the Discuss board. Interested in a solid state batteries that are quicker and cheaper to charge apparently. Tech will maybe catch up with politicians aspirations - but my interest is it contains silver, as do a lot of 'green' tech - now that's an investment.

Sorry but 3 years reading it religiously and going nowhere has dented my confidence, plus Mr Markets ludicrous IPO's killing all the 'golden gooses' it could lay its hands on.

Going full contrarian - read it in the news, do the opposite.

Just dipped into Pony AI (NSQ:PONY) - already running autonomous taxis in 5 major Chinese Cities and license their software to Toyota and other OEMs. Maybe regulation will reduce under Trump 2.0 but unlikely imo.

Spender71

8th Jan

Haha. Experience comes at a cruel price.

John LA

10th Jan

Serica is not incurring super windfall tax because of carry forward capital losses, hence the strong cash flow generation and high dividends. It is a well managed company being attacked by net zero policies of clueless miliband who would rather import fossil energy than support British Oil Companies operating in the North Sea

raggedtp

30th Jan

I believe the myth about EV car fires is dealth with in https://www.faircharge.co.uk/l...

Daily Stock Market Report (Tue 7 Jan 2025) - SQZ, NXT, CNS, ARB

Companies Reporting

Summaries

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Graham Neary

73 comments

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