Interesting results

A few interesting things going on today:

Interims

ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) +7.1% Q1 results have obviously excited the market. RS6m (Rel Str 6 months) is 36%. PE of 54 makes it “a bit heady” in valuation terms, and it seems to be touching a decade-high rating. Revenues were up 28%. Not shabby at all. “ARM has made an encouraging start to 2013 with more leading companies choosing to deploy ARM technology in their products and we therefore expect group revenues for the full-year 2013 to be at least in line with current market expectations. “

888 Holdings (LON:888) +0.1% 2013Q1 KPIs are out today. Group revenues up 9% yoy. Poker is doing well, and is up 15% yoy, accounting for about 23% of revenue. Shall be interesting to see how this plays out with the American gambling angle. CEO comments: “These are a fantastic set of results across all key metrics. Our excellent product offering, supported by our constantly innovative marketing and CRM capabilities, has helped us to deliver consistent growth and has positioned us well to take advantage of positive regulatory developments.” RS6m is 40%, although the market is greeting the results with a bit of a yawn.

Finals

Snoozebox Holdings (LON:ZZZ) -6.1% What a mess! Results were due out today, but the company did notify the market yesterday that results would be delayed. 26 April seems to be the new target for reporting results. There’s a problem with the recognition of income under IFRS, with a mention of “material shortfall”. ZZZ certainly confirms the stockmarket adage “bad news takes longer to compile than good news”. I note that only a few days ago, on 18-Apr-2013, ZZZ announced a contract win, sending the price shooting up above 68p. It has since crashed down to 53.5p. What a total farce. I hope that not many people were caught out by this. Who’s going to trust management now? What is very interesting is that the share price is down 8.1% YTD, despite the ASX being up 7.6%, and with growth shares doing very well so far this year. It’s almost as if the market knew that to expect the worst.

Trading statements

Premier Foods (LON:PFD) +2.1% Over-indebted food producer of Mr Kipling (he really does make exceedingly fine cakes, I love the Cherry Bakewells), Sharwoods (they’re really nice, too), and loads of other brands has received a warm reception by the market. The turnaround has been on-and-off for some time. The statement headlines with “Power Brands growth momentum continues”. CEO Gavin Derby said: ” am pleased to report continued momentum in our Power Brands in the first Quarter. This represents the fifth successive quarter of sales growth for our Grocery Power Brands, demonstrating that our strategies of investing in marketing and improving customer collaboration are working. Five of our Power Brands have been on TV in the past weeks, with more to come in the second Quarter.” RS6m is -15%, which highlights the wobbliness that the market has taken towards the shares. The Power brands amount to £222m of revenue. That seems to account for the bulk of the revenue, which had total revenues excluding milling of £327m. They mention grocery power brands of £128m. So things are looking pretty good there, although I must admit to being rather confused as to what there revenues actually are. Although they do have a little table, it doesn’t mention what the discontinued operations are, or what the milling revenues are. Is it really too much to ask that they give us a table where they split the revenues out and give us an actual total?

Carpetright (LON:CPR) +1.3% Ah yes, good old Carpetright, favourite short position of value investors. It’s famous for having Bill Gates as a shareholder, being absurdly overvalued, and stinging everyone who shorts it. Shares are actually down 6.2% YTD, and RS6m is -14%, showing that underlying fundamentals do sometimes apply to Carpetright. Like-for-like sales have actually done quite well in the UK, but badly in the rest of Europe. The long story kept short is that group sales increased 2.1%. “Whilst the recent cold spring weather has been positive to our sales, we believe this performance reflects the continued success of our programme of self-help initiatives. These include the ongoing programme of store refurbishments, the introduction of our improved laminate range to more stores, the development of our bed business and the increased use of digital media. This has been achieved in a market which remains challenging with consumers very focused on getting a good deal, necessitating a highly visible and compelling promotional programme.” Gross margins have actually improved. Net debt is down. Shorts are being trimmed, and it will be interesting to see how the share price progresses despite being overvalued on fundamentals.