I Read The News Today Oh Boy! 14-Mar-2018

14th Mar '18 by matylda

10 comments 4838 reads

Morning all!

Dignity ( Dignity (LON:DTY) ) – 853p – £425.9m – PER 12.6

Results For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – Seems to be in-line (ish). Outlook statement does not sound particularly bullish except deaths are up 7% so far in 2018, expectation was no increase.

3 times cheaper than 6 months ago, in-line is not going to get me interested yet.

EKF Diagnostics ( EKF Diagnostics Holdings (LON:EKF) ) – 26.25p – £120.1m – PER 25.0

Results For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – Revenue up 8% to £41.6m (2016: £38.6m), Gross Profit up 25% to £22.9m (2016: £18.3m), EPS 0.59p (2016: nil), Net Cash of £7.0m (31 Dec 2016: £2.2m). 2018 in-line with managements expectations.

I just cannot work out if this looks good or if it’s just average. The spidey senses are not triggering buy signals so for now I will remain Neutral.

Empresaria ( Empresaria (LON:EMR) ) – 94.45p – £46.3m – PER 7.62

Results For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – The headline is “Record adjusted profit before tax and adjusted earnings per share”. Revenue is up 28% CC from £270.4m to £357.1m with Adjusted PBT up 14% to £11.0m versus £9.2m last time. It’s 6 consecutive years of double digit % growth in adjusted earnings per share and the Final Dividend is up by 15% to 1.32p (2016: 1.15p.

Quite like this with the main concerns probably being the Operating Margin and Net Debt. Enough to remain Neutral for now.

SafeCharge International ( SafeCharge International (LON:SCH) ) – 307.5p – £453.5m – PER 18.2

Results For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – Revenue up 7% to $111.7m ($104.1m last time) but Profits and EPS are down. The total annual Dividend will be just 3% up on last year.

I hold a long position here but have to say, I am not overly impressed with these results. Will keep an eye on the market reaction.

StatPro ( StatPro (LON:SOG) ) – 187p – £122.7m – PER 26.2

Results For…

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MrContrarian

14th Mar '18

My morning smallcap tweet:

Somero Enterprises Inc (LON:SOM), Petards (LON:PEG), Alumasc (LON:ALU), Sportech (LON:SPO), Flowtech Fluidpower (LON:FLO), Corero Network Security (LON:CNS)

Somero (SOM) FY rev up 8%, adj EPS up 15% to 31c, a slight beat. FY div 15.5c up 40c + special div 3.6c. Bullish. I hold.
Petards Group (PEG) FY rev up only 2% as previously warned. Confident.
Alumasc Group (ALU) warns FY U/L pretax 15% below f/c. Blames slowdown in construction sector, recent weather.
Sportech (SPO) terminated sale process, warns on FY. Fills the vacant CEO position.
Flowtech Fluidpower (FLO) placing at 170, a 4% disc., to fund acquisition.
Corero Network Security (CNS) wins two orders for SmartWall worth $0.9m, about 10% of T/O.

timarr

Dignity (LON:DTY) have already announced that they expect lower profits this year as a result of the business model changes that they're making, so the results aren't really indicative of what will happen going forward.

Also what look like very credible results from Marshalls (LON:MSLH). I wasn't expecting much from the RNS, but 13% pre-tax rise looks a decent outcome in a tricky market.

timarr

Rusty2

Everyman Media (LON:EMAN) net profits are up from £60k to £1.27m. Their cinemas are different from your normal ones. Rollout seems to be going well. I had similar thoughts about cinemas but this seems to be doing well.

andrea34

Results out today from Symphony Environmental Technologies (LON:SYM) look good - price currently +7% (I hold):

· Revenues increased by 21.6% to £8.27 million (2016: £6.80 million)

· Gross profit increased by 17.8% to £4.01 million (2016: £3.41 million)

· EBITDA before R&D increased by 57.9% to £1.20 million (2016: £0.76 million)

· Profit before tax increased by 249.6% to £0.43 million (2016: £0.12 million)

· Profit after tax increased by 156.0% to £0.43 million (2016: £0.17 million)

· Basic earnings per share increased to 0.28p (2016: 0.11p)

· Cash generated from operations £1.03 million (2016: cash used £0.34 million)

· Improved working capital position with net cash of £0.63 million (2016: net debt £0.37 million)

· Distributable reserves of £0.07 million (2016: retained deficit £3.97 million)

ricky65

Yeah, Everyman Media (LON:EMAN) is a niche cinema chain. It's not like your commercial Odeons, VUEs, Cineworlds. It's a superior experience imo (luxury and upmarket). Note: I hold.

matylda

Fair comment re: Everyman Media (LON:EMAN) - Makes me even more wary of investing if I'm honest. Perhaps the same people no longer buying on the High Street like Debenhams, BHS and the like and the same people no longer eating at Jamies, Chiquito's, Franco Manca, etc.

Just a view that's all.

Hi Matylda,
Not sure I fully understand your comment. I don't think it is the same people who shop at Debenhams (LON:DEB) or BHS. Cinema numbers have not fallen in the last 10 years, in fact they are up slightly. Is the High Street not going to become more entertainment and eating/drinking as more shopping will be online?

OK - I thought you had "similar thoughts".

Maybe I didn't phrase it correctly - I don't believe the cinema experience is going to grow due to the attraction of the easy to use cheaper on-line alternatives, especially with talk of movies going straight to Netflix (can't find the article now).

Add this "their cinemas are different from your normal ones" and "it's not like your commercial Odeons, VUEs, Cineworlds. It's a superior experience imo (luxury and upmarket)" into the mix and I just feel the majority of customers are the same ones that have affected retailers and restaurants that were "different from your normal ones", retailers and restaurants that were a little more "luxury and upmarket". Mostly due to cheaper or more convenient alternatives.

Of course, as always, just sharing my view.

I would also note that if it is true cinema numbers have not fallen in the last 10 years (I believe you of course), assuming the growth is greater than the population/demographic growth - I could take that one of two ways, 1, it's due a correction, 2 it's a sustainable area of growth. Obviously, based on my comment on the cinema experience I would add the former as a reason for me not to invest in cinema's.

Once again, just a view and it's great we are not all in agreement or it would be a dull, dull world.

I would not say it's a growth are, here are the numbers, people have been writing off cinemas for years but it has not happened yet. I think there is room for someone doing it slightly differently. Just as for retail yes some companies are down but others are still doing well. Going out to a cinema is different experience from watching it on TV at home, just like going out for dinner or drinking at home. Sure if there is a bad recession then sales will fall. I only have a small recent holding, so far so good.

Apart from Somero Enterprises Inc (LON:SOM) I'm not sure what shares you hold.

Sure, understand that point of view completely.

Apart from Somero Enterprises Inc (LON:SOM) (and SafeCharge International (LON:SCH) mentioned today), I guess like most investors, many others.

I do remember (almost all of the time) to declare any long position when commenting on any stock in my morning comment.

Best of luck with the Everyman Media (LON:EMAN) position.

I Read The News Today Oh Boy! 14-Mar-2018

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Matylda

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