Morning all!
Low & Bonar ( Low & Bonar (LON:LWB) ) – 20.5p – £67.7m – PER 3.73
Trading Update For The 12 Months To End November 2018 – Tough market and trading conditions largely unchanged in Q4, raw material headwind, underlying profit before taxation and amortisation to be circa £17m, Net Debt still huge at £129m - Disposal of the Civil Engineering business continues to be actively explored as is a potential equity issue.
I just can’t bring myself to go anywhere near this at present, remains on my Avoid list.
Reach ( Reach (LON:RCH) ) – 57p – £170.6m – PER 1.52
Trading Update For 2018 – The Board is confident PBT will be ahead of market expectations (£133.9m PBT).
So cheap – The yield is 10%! The issues remain however, the HUGE Pension Deficit and the terminal decline of the print sector. I will wait to see how the actuals look - I really think confirmation that on-line is working is required here (looks like 10% or so growth at present and that just doesn’t seem good enough (to offset the 10% or so decline on the physical side)).
Science ( Science (LON:SAG) ) – 215p – £86.1m – PER 14.6
Trading Update And Termination Of Formal Sale Process – Trading in the 11 months to end November in-lin2 with the Board’s expectations. Sale process ended, Brexit and even the world to blame! Buy-back programme will be re-introduced.
There still seems a reasonable amount to like here, except for the fact it’s not an attractive acquisition for anybody – And the whole world is to blame!
SThree ( SThree (LON:STHR) ) – 260p – £340.1m – PER 8.21
Trading Update For The 12 Months To End November 2018 – Adjusted PBT to be at the slightly higher end of the current market consensus range (£49.0 to £51.4m, consensus £50.3m). In better shape and well positioned heading into 2019.
This seems reasonably impressive and there’s perhaps value here given the 5%+ yield. I am just a little wary of the recruitment sector, perhaps unnecessarily so?
As always, all comment most welcome!
