Small Cap Value Report (8 Jun 2016) - SPD, BOO

8th Jun '16 by Paul Scott

39 comments 21156 reads

Good morning!

"Mad Mike" Ashley, the 59.3% owner of Sports Direct (LON:SPD) - in which I hold a long position - put on a great show yesterday, in front of MPs. It even made the top slot in the main evening TV news.

Overall, I reckon he handled it quite well - in particular admitting mistakes, and agreeing that certain details of how warehouse staff were treated were unfair. Owning up to mistakes, and putting them right, is always the right approach in life generally. It's also pretty effective at neutralising criticism.

So whilst he comes across as an extremely forceful character (which some might characterise as a bully), and clearly has an ego the size of a small planet, he's also a talented retailer. SPD is a fundamentally very sound business, which generates pots of cash, and is likely to continue to do so. Maybe he'll take it private at some point?

Although JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.) is clearly eating Sports Direct's lunch on the sale of expensive, branded trainers, SPD remains dominant in low to middle-priced sports clothing. To my mind, all the stuff about Mike Ashley is largely background noise. I don't see it having much impact on the fundamental value of the business, other than tarnishing the brand name a bit in the short term. Consumers have very short memories, and quickly forget issues like this.

That leaves a very good business, with some fixable issues, on a relatively modest valuation. So I continue to like, and hold, SPD shares.

EDIT: My apologies, but due to a technical glitch, a lot of my section on BOO has vanished. I'll try to get it back from backup.

Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO)

Share price: 56.1p
No. shares: 1,123.3m
Market cap: £630.2m

(At the time of writing, I hold a long position in this share)

Q1 trading update - covering the 3 months to 31 May 2016. This is a strong update, with excellent (all organic) growth in all regions. Here are the highlights, highlighted:

(picture removed, as seemed to corrupt article)

Forex - is expected to become helpful as the year progresses, helping margins, but it sounds as if this benefit will be recycled into lower prices for customers.

Cost efficiencies - longer term, there is scope to improve the net margin, by automating the warehouse. It sounds as if, right now, the…

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back2value

8th Jun '16

I'm quite surprised by the lack of impact on the BOO share price from such a positive update. The same was true for ZYT's trading update recently, too. In the long run, though, I believe both companies have very good prospects, and their balance sheets offer a margin of safety that you won't always get with other investments.

B2V

stepone

You can not see them being higher. Is that what you meant to say ?

Thanks,
StepOne

JohnEustace

I think we may be confusing accesso Technology (LON:ACSO) and £Asc?

If I remember correctly Paul, sold Accesso on the CEO selling a chunk of shares.

I have stayed with Accesso. Peel Hunt put out a note on them yesterday targeting a 23% upside at £16.

ericb

You are both getting confused with ASOS (LON:ASC) and accesso Technology (LON:ACSO)

Rusty2

Sorry it was a typo, its just the ASOS (LON:ASC) was not coming up for some reason.

I see thought he was talking about ASC.

James RH

B2V,

I think you've got to take into consideration that the Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO) share price had, prior to today's statement, already appreciated over 15% since the prelims on 26th April. These are just the Q1 figures and there's a long way to go for the FY yet.

As Paul mentioned the price is going to have to relax or take a breather at some point. Having held for nearly a year, whilst I'd like the price to continue rising forever, I'd rather have a steady incline than spurts followed by pullbacks!

James

That will be Izabel London izabel.com
Seems to be a mid priced label that also sells through Debenhams, Dorothy Perkns etc.
Not sure they are targeting exactly the same demgraphic but there is some overlap at least.

mrmodha

I saw BOTB advertising on TV yesterday which was a pleasant surprise (although as a player it means more competition!) - I've never seen them advertise before so I can only presume it is a ramp up in their marketing. Good move if they combine with targeted online ads and an improved website which feels a bit dated to me.

(Not currently a holder)

Its really already in the share price, anyway its only the first quater, so about 40% ahead of last year's first quarter, is to be expected as last years final results were about the same. Whether this growth can be sustained for the rest of the year is the question, I think its possible, they are quite small still. But you only have to look at ASOS (LON:ASC) share price history to see what can happen they fell from 7000 to under 2000.

Yes I misread thought he meant ASC. I meant he was shorting ASOS (LON:ASC), now I can't edit my post. Why does the company name not come up sometimes when you put £ before the EPIC? As in your post.

Yes Paul sold out following the money, it was not just the CEO it was most of the directors. I sold also I usually follow big director sales.

JDW72

A few crop up every now and then. BlueVanilla is one, there are others that I can't recall right now. They seem to appear, stick around for a few days, maybe a week then disappear.

boohoo seem to be pretty much everywhere pretty much the whole time. More memorable name as well. They also have a great app which is rated highly, both anecdotally and also online.

The others don't have that.

Re Best Of The Best (LON:BOTB) From my experience the thing with TV advertising is it does work really well but the effects are short lived - it's a bit of a sugar rush for sales. Once you start it's difficult to stop because you will see an immediate hit to sales.
The trick is to convert the new folk you get from the adverts in to long term players via online marketing, app, website etc. You need the rest of the business to be in the right shape before you roll out onto TV.

FREng

9th Jun '16

Re: "Why does the company name not come up sometimes when you put £ before the EPIC".

I think you have to get it exactly right - all capitals and followed by a space.

Not sure sometimes it works fine but other times it does not. Don't need a space find a full stop or comma helps sometimes. Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO), Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO) Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO), Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO).

You see all these worked today the first was Boo, next BOO space, next BOO, next BOo.

But other day I could not get ASC to work. More glicthes in Stockopedia?

Whitbourne

Herbie,

All of your examples are fine. However my observation is that punctuation marks other than a full stop or comma are taken as characters and therefore prevent the Stockopedia server from recognising the symbol.

I may be about to make a fool of myself ;-) but here are three examples that I believe will prevent the ticker from being recognised:
£BOO?
£BOO!
£BOO's

If you add an extra space it is fine
Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO) ?
Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO) !
Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO) 's

That maybe so today but on previous days I've had problems with ASOS (LON:ASC) and numerous others, I found putting a , or . after sometimes worked but not always. I never use ! or 's after and rarely ?

Vader

10th Jun '16

Regarding SHOE PLC (SHOE) I decided to sell because of a note in their Interim Results yesterday which said:

The shares will go ex-dividend on 21 July 2016

I feel there are more intereting retail business out there for investors like NEXT and BOO

I feel there are more interesting retail business out there for investors like NEXT and BOO

(Apologies for the duplicate post tried to edit but re-submitted)

Hi veganvader,

I'm curious as to why you've decided to sell based on an ex-div date?

Sell on fundamentals, technical analysis or even a gut instinct, yes.

I understand there are more interesting retailers out there which may provide a safer or more rewarding place for investing, and cashing in one investment to pursue another is quite reasonable, however I've not heard of selling based purely on an ex-div date being 6 weeks away.

Unless I'm missing something?

James

Hi James
You are totally right. At the time of reading the Interim Results I was under the impression that the ex dividend meant that they were no longer going to pay a dividend.
I have learned something important today.
Fortunately for me I am still pleased to have sold the share to persue other options but I won't make the same mistake again.

Thanks
Shawn

Small Cap Value Report (8 Jun 2016) - SPD, BOO

Boohoo.Com (LON:BOO)

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Paul Scott

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