Good morning. Nice and early again today. Please note my new article last night on excessive board room pay at small, AIM-listed property company Inland Homes (INL). Should be an interesting AGM on 27 Nov, I'll be attending to make these points in person. Directors really do need to think more carefully about aligning their rewards with shareholder value, and not simply using the company like a personal slush fund. I regard good corporate governance, and fair executive pay, aligned with shareholder interests, as being of absolutely paramount importance. If that means having the occasional scrap with Directors, then so be it. Let's hope these Directors are sensible, and listen to shareholder concerns, making the necessary reductions in pay.
Today's Results
Turning to today's results, although I don't usually do large caps, I do have a long position in J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) , as the valuation seems undemanding, and as a customer they just seem to be executing so well. Whilst Tesco are a shambles from a customer perspective, and have in my opinion completely lost the plot.
Sainsbury's interim results to 29 Sept show sales up 4%, and LFL (like-for-like) sales up 1.7% (this measure strips out the distorting impact of new shop openings & closures). Underlying EPS is up 9.4% to 15.2p, and the interim divi is up 6.7% to 4.8p. That looks a bit ahead of forecasts I think, so could be good news for the share price today, hopefully.
The shares look attractive to me, with a 4.8% forecast divi yield, and steady earnings growth, combined with a PER of about 11-12. There is some debt & a pension deficit, but all looks under control to me.
There's probably not that much short term upside on the share price, maybe 10-20%, but as a long term hold for the divis, it looks pretty attractive to me.
Had a quick look at Speedy Hire (LON:SDY) interim results, which look pretty encouraging, with a 37% increase in adjusted PBT to £6.6m.EPS is up 23% to 1.1p. According to Stockopedia, the forecast PER is 14 this year, falling to 11 next year, so that looks about right.
Also had a quick look at results from Blinkx (LON:BLNX) , but I have absolutely…
