I Read The News Today Oh Boy! 26-Feb-2019
Morning all!
Air Partner ( Air Partner (LON:AIR) ) – 85.5p – £44.6m – PER 8.8
Trading Update For The 12 Months To End January 2019 – Seems in-line and steady as she goes, with the usual caveat about the airline business.
This update seems rather uninspiring and even on a lowly valuation I am not quite tempted.
Augean ( Augean (LON:AUG) ) – 84p – £87.2m – PER 9.3
Results For The 12 Months To End December 2018 – Looks pretty good but there is still that outstanding issue with HMRC (£30m or so).
I still cannot be tempted here whilst that outstanding issue with HMRC remains.
Devro ( Dev Clever Holdings (LON:DEV) ) – 171p – £285m – PER 10.2
Results For The 12 Months To End December 2018 – Not the easiest of statements to read but basically seems quite flat.
That Net Debt is still enought to put me off (now almost 50% of the current Market Cap and over 3x Operating Profit).
Hotel Chocolat Group ( Hotel Chocolat (LON:HOTC) ) – 306p – £345m – PER 29
Interim Results For The 26 Weeks To The 30th December 2018 – Revenue up 13%, PBT and EPS up 7%, Net Cash up to £21.8m (from £18.3m) and the Interim Dividend sees no change. Recent trading including Valentines inline with the Board's expectations.
A decent update but I still can't see how this justifies a PER of almost 30.
Lighthouse Group ( Lighthouse (LON:LGT) ) – 26.5p – £34m – PER 14.7
Results For The 12 Months To End December 2018 – Revenue down slightly, PBT up 5%, FY Dividend up 67% and Net Cash is up about 10% or so to £9.55m.
Still seems (perhaps) fairly priced around this level to me.
Synectics ( Synectics (LON:SNX) ) – 197.5p – £35m – PER 11
Results For The 12 Months To End November 2018 – Revenue up ever so slightly (£71.2m), PBT down slightly, Underlying Diluted EPS down from 15.2p to 12.6p, the year end order book is lower (£21m vs £24.4m last time) and the FY Dividend is up about 20%. Net Cash is up from £3.8m to £8.1m.
Stockopedia still likes this more than I do (StockRank 96) at present.
XLMedia ( XLMedia (LON:XLM) ) – 78p – £169m – PER 6.8
Trading Update – Trading for 2019 started in-line with management's expectations although operational and regulatory headwinds see Revenue adjusted down by about $30m, EBITDA to be down $6m - $7m.
Happy to stay well away from this for now.
As always, all comment most welcome!
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4 comments
Lighthouse Lighthouse (LON:LGT) shares now 24.8 to buy (spread 0.8 pence or 3%). Simon Thompson recommends them in this weeks Investors Chronicle. Profits likely to rise in 2019 and dividend likely to increase from 0.7 per share to 0.8. The numbers look good for value investors and there is no debt. I do not own any of these shares but may invest soon.
Thanks for the update.
I actually did further analysis and have a Bullish view here too.
Not just because Profits and the Dividend are forecast (Finncap Broker note 26-Feb) to rise (6.7% and 14.3% respectively), more so that when you strip out the Net Cash here (about 30% of current Market Cap), it looks like really good value.
A pity I didn't act on my view last week now the ST effect will come into play on Monday !
Much appreciate the update.
My morning smallcap tweet: XLM not excellent
Corero Network Security (LON:CNS), XLMedia (LON:XLM), LXB Retail Properties (LON:LXB)
Corero Network Security (CNS) wins orders totalling $1.6m.
XLMedia (XLM) 2019 has started in line with management's expectations but will cease involvement in much of its existing Media activities. $11-13m write off, guides FY rev cut by ~$30m, adj EBITDA by ~$6-7m.
LXB Retail Properties (LXB) FY. Guides final return of capital ~2p. "It has not yet been possible to conclude a final settlement with Highways England covering the road works completed in June 2017 and neither do we currently have an agreed final contract sum for the works required following the recent road safety audit. The delay is compounded by the public difficulties of the contractor, Interserve. As a consequence, the highways performance bond will need to be cash collateralised beyond the anticipated life of the Group." I hold.
I agree, the valuation of Hotel Chocolat (LON:HOTC) is pure nonsense! Growth is clearly slowing dramatically, at this stage last year underlying EBITDA was up 22% and now it is up 10%!!! The dividend is also stagnant, which I think is never a good sign. While I occasionally buy three of the small bags for a total of £10, I really wonder who buys the more expensive products, and why in fact customers are charges significantly more per-chocolate just to have them in a pretty cardboard box - why would I buy 8 chocolates in a box for £8 or get about 18 in my three bags for £10?? The stocko picture is just appalling too.
I quite like the results from James Fisher and Sons (LON:FSJ) with all divisions showing good growth, organic revenue growth +12% and underlying operating profit +19%. PEG is also only 0.57. But brokers are not overly enthusiastic (3 hold, 1 strong buy) and for some reason the magic formula is only C+ :-/