My apologies, but I won't be able to write today's report until this evening. I'm taking a day off to hang out with Mum in London. She's heading back home at about 8pm tonight, so I'll put together a report after that.
I want to report on AO. , Creston (LON:CRE) , in particular.
Regards, Paul.
I trained as an accountant with a Top 5 firm, but that was so boring that I spent too much time in the 1990s being a disco bunny, and busting moves on the dancefloor, and chilling out with mates back at either my house or theirs, and having a lot of fun!Then spent 8 years as FD for a ladieswear retail chain called "Pilot", leaving on great terms in 2002 - having been a key player in growing the business 10 fold. If the truth be told, I partied pretty hard at the weekends too, so bank reconciliations on Monday mornings were more luck than judgement!! But they were always correct.I got bored with that and decided to become a professional small caps investor in 2002. I made millions, but got too cocky, and lost the lot in 2008, due to excessive gearing. A miserable, wilderness period occurred from 2008-2012.Since then, the sun has begun to shine again! I am now utterly briliant again, and immerse myself in small caps, and am a walking encyclopedia on the subject. I love writing a daily report for Stockopedia.com on most weekday mornings, constantly researching daily results & trading updates for small caps. Cheese! more »
Hello mum!
Looks like WTM have put out a positive trading statement... although the initial price rise has been eroded to nothing, presumably due to market redness.
CAMB have issued results which look fab - EPS up 44-45%, revenue up 16.4%, now has net cash... but p/e still only about 11. Is p/e 11 still fair Paul?
Years ago I held CRE, when I knew even less about investing than I do now; seem to remember they had a (cyclical?) history of disappointment... and current results look pedestrian - once burned, twice shy!
All the travel shares are heading south...
No coverage of KNOS that I can see. I'd be interested to find out if there's a reason.
NI
The Chronic Investor posted an online article, the opening paragraph of which is as follows:
The honeymoon period for Kainos (KNOS), which listed in July 2015, has proved shortlived: investors sent its shares down sharply after it published these half-year results. The good news is that the government, healthcare and enterprise software group inked about £35m in contracts, compared with £21m in the same period last year. This helped drive adjusted operating profits - stripping out IPO costs - up 16 per cent to £6.6m. The bad news is a government spending review that threatens to delay public sector investments.
I feel the problem Kainos (LON:KNOS) had was that since IPO, it shot up very quickly - I bought in shortly after launch and in a matter of four months or so, watched the value go up over 50%. I think the sell-off was because the market was expecting an interim stating they were far exceeding market expectations.
My opinion is that when it didn't materialise, some investors took profits and, because of the rapid rise, there may have been stops that were fairly tight - once they went, the price kept falling as more stops were triggered.
Personally I'll continue to hold and would welcome any confirming/opposing views as I'm still fairly new to investing (just a year under my belt).
Hi Paul,
Interested to hear your comments on AO. I suspect the comments wont be positive due to diabolical results considering the state housing market is in.
From investors perspective it AO is very poor investment a bit like Amazon of white goods world, excellent website, very good customer service but no profit for shareholders. As a customer I bought couple of things from AO after moving house was very impressed by their speed of delivery and overall service price was good too. They are of course trying to sell extended warranties so thats the only negative I can think of as a customer.
Home retail (Argos) on another hand feels like it is stuck in the middle not the best price wise nor customer service. Website is also quite not very good but they have large foot print. I'm not particularly enjoying buying from there but considering getting a few shares before Xmas once.
A.
OAndrea341 & JamesRH, thank you very much for taking the trouble to post. Much appreciated. KNOS have good margins and are quite dominant in their marketplace. I think the surge in the SP was because of the recommendation by Smallcap Sharewatch initially, and then positive updates by them. The SP is pretty much where it was when I read about them while on holiday in August.
NI
James,
Sorry if I sound like I am teasing slightly because I understand exactly what you mean but it shows some of the lunacies of the market and how companies report that drove you to write:
"I think the sell-off was because the market was expecting an interim stating they were far exceeding market expectations."
Hi Bouvier,
No teasing taken!
As mentioned, I'm still trying to learn how to read markets and reports. Some of it goes over my head but that's why I've joined Stockopedia to hopefully grasp some knowledge to put to good use. Have been reading Paul's columns for a while now and have picked up some good ideas which have beared fruit.
Every day's a school day!
James
Hi James,
I am also on a learning curve in the same way as you. I have found Stocko incredibly informative and helpful. May I ask you what other avenues, books etc that you have looked at and found helpful?
Thank you in anticipation.
Nig
