Small Cap Value Report (Thu 30 Dec 2021) - CRL
Good morning, it's Paul here with the SCVR for New Year's Eve eve.
I'm not sure if there will be much news today, but as for yesterday, here is a placeholder for reader comments.
Agenda - just the one company reporting today -
Creightons (LON:CRL) - interim results. Tough prior year comparatives, due to the (previously flagged) one-off sales last year from pandemic-related products. Operating profit down about 14%. I flag up a couple of points of concern, re excessive share options, and negative cashflow. Overall, it looks a decent business, and maybe priced about right for now. Worth considering perhaps?
Also,
Parsley Box (LON:MEAL) - my mystery shopping experience is now concluded, you may be relieved to hear, with all the product consumed. My conclusion is that product quality is too variable, and the target niche looks too small. Shares remain uninvestable, due to it being close to running out of cash. Big dilution (or insolvency) look likely. Hence uninvestable until it's raised more cash.
Explanatory notes -
A quick reminder that we don’t recommend any stocks. We aim to review trading updates & results of the day and offer our opinions on them as possible candidates for further research if they interest you. Our opinions will sometimes turn out to be right, and sometimes wrong, because it's anybody's guess what direction market sentiment will take & nobody can predict the future with certainty. We are analysing the company fundamentals, not trying to predict market sentiment.
We stick to companies that have issued news on the day, with market caps up to about £700m. We avoid the smallest, and most speculative companies, and also avoid a few specialist sectors (e.g. natural resources, pharma/biotech).
A key assumption is that readers DYOR (do your own research), and make your own investment decisions. Reader comments are welcomed - please be civil, rational, and include the company name/ticker, otherwise people won't necessarily know what company you are referring to.
Parsley Box (LON:MEAL) mystery shopper - I've finished off all my remaining product from Parsley Box (LON:MEAL) and the last few were OK. So I think it's clear that MEAL has a real problem with variable product quality. Some items are OK quality (e.g. salmon & asaparagus, sweet & sour chicken, fish pie, toffee cake, half bottles of red wine (particularly good)), whilst others are just terrible quality (especially the beef hot pot & steak and ale - both of which hardly had any beef in them, and what little there was, was chewy & unpleasant).
Let's hope the new MD at MEAL sorts out product quality, and consistency, asap. The shares remain on my uninvestable list, because it has already told the market it needs to raise fresh equity. From a position of extreme weakness, I dread to think what terms the fundraising might be on. Hence I wouldn't go near it until there's plenty more cash in the bank, and maybe a change of strategy & management? Because what they've done so far has clearly gone badly wrong. It's a reminder that companies which raise a cash pile at IPO, to spend on a marketing splurge, often seem to fritter away the money, and then come back for more.
Is there a viable niche for ready meals that can be stored in a cupboard instead of a fridge? Possibly, but probably only a niche market. Practically everyone has a fridge/freezer, so it makes a lot more sense to buy supermarket ready meals, which are larger, tastier, and cheaper than MEAL offerings.
Creightons (LON:CRL)
88p (yesterday’s close) - mkt cap £59m
This share has been a 40-bagger in the last 10 years, an example of what keeps many of us interested in small/micro caps - the occasional nugget of gold is lurking there somewhere, although it’s not usually obvious at the time.
More recently, the chart looks similar to many other small cap charts - getting a bit ahead of itself after a long run up, then correcting quite sharply in the last quarter of 2021. Is this a buying opportunity I wonder?
.
.
Unaudited interim financial report for the six months ended 30 September 2021
It’s helpful when companies include a short description of what they do, at the top of RNS announcements, which Creightons hasn’t done. Again.
The StockReport description is -
Creightons plc is a United Kingdom-based company engaged in development, marketing and manufacturing of toiletries and fragrances. The Company operates through three business streams: own branded business, private label business, and contract manufacturing business.
The historical graphs look very impressive -
.
The year end is 31 March. I reviewed its interim results here in July 2021, concluding with a positive overall impression.
The company is up against strong prior year comparatives, as H1 in FY 3/2021 was boosted considerably by opportunistic sales of covid-related sanitising products. Although the company also suffered reduced sales of other products due to the pandemic.
H1 key numbers today -
Revenue £30.0m (down 7%)
“One off” sales were £11.5m in H1 LY, so that’s about a third of the prior year H1 comparative, a big headwind, hence overall -7% doesn’t look bad at all, in that context.
Gross margin up, at 42.7% (from 39.3% in H1 LY) - which more than offset reduced revenues, with gross profit of £12.8m slightly up (H1 LY: £12.7m)
2 acquisitions - “integration progressing well”
Profit before tax (after removing £221k acquisition-related costs, which are exceptional) of £2.5m, versus £2.9m in H1 LY
Tax charge is lower this time, about 12% (down from 16%) which helps boost EPS
EPS - strangely, the company doesn’t give an adjusted EPS figure to remove the exceptional costs, which seems a bit of an own goal. Instead note 3 shows EPS has been calculated on the statutory after tax earnings of £1,988k. I think we could adjust this to strip out the £221k acquisition costs (less tax effect) to add £194k to earnings, adjusting it up to £2,182k, which gives 3.35p basic EPS, and 2.87p adj diluted EPS - note the excessive share options below, which is well above the usual 10% upper limit considered acceptable by many investors - so the question needs to be asked why the company has been so generous with share options? Are other shareholders comfortable with that? The answer may well be yes, given that the share price has 40-bagged! Rewards for management seem reasonable in that context.
Before investing here, I would definitely want to check out the terms of the share options in the most recent annual report, which is quick & easy to do online. I often just look up specific points in annual reports, rather than reading the whole thing.
.
Balance sheet - there are some quite big movements here, relating to acquisitions. Note 7 shows how both acquisitions in the period had slightly negative net assets. So the £9.7m consideration due is more than all goodwill (£10.1m) - or brand value, as it’s described.
Acquisitions were part-funded with issuing more shares, and taking on more debt.
Trade & other receivables look high at £15.6m - suggesting the group may not be very good at collecting in cash from its customers?
Inventories also look a touch too high, at £13.2m
Overall though, working capital remains healthy, with the current ratio at 1.66
Gross debt has risen to £8.5m, with gross cash at £1.0m, giving net debt of £7.5m - the financial highlights doesn’t disclose this, instead it cherry picks the £2.9m as “Short term borrowings and loans” - which strikes me as misleading. It’s customary to show total net debt, not just short term debt. I wouldn’t want to see the company take on any more debt.
Stripping out intangible assets, NTAV is £13.7m, which looks OK.
Cashflow statement - cash generation is not very good. This is due to large increases in working capital, which more than absorbed all the profit.
Investing activities saw a cash outflow of £8.3m, which is mainly related to the 2 acquisitions in H1.
Put all of that together, and the company has effectively spent its previous cash pile, and taken on more debt. That’s fine if the acquisitions turn out to be worthwhile, but it’s a potential risk.
Valuation - I’m going to work on my 2.87p adjusted, diluted EPS figure for H1. Add in some extra for the acquisitions, and the full year might end up around 6p EPS perhaps?
The share price (at 08:27) is around 89p, so that’s a PER of 14.8 - which looks about right to me.
I can’t find any broker research, which is an oversight by the company. This share has a good following amongst private investors, so it’s really important to use a broker that publishes its research on Research Tree, not the case for CRL.
Hence I have to work purely on my only guess for how the full year might turn out.
There could be upside, if the acquisitions produce more profit, but I don’t have any numbers on what is expected from the acquisitions. Spending about £10m on them would suggest that CRL must foresee decent profitability from the new subsidiaries, otherwise they wouldn’t have bought them. So my 6p EPS guess could be light, who knows?
My opinion - if you like the company, then the sell-off from a peak of about 134p, to today’s 89p, could be a buying opportunity? The valuation looks about right to me, so I wouldn’t say it’s a particular bargain, but just reasonably priced.
A lot of it hinges on the acquisitions - if they turn out to be good, then that could drive the future share price up. So I’d want to find out what expertise & track record management have in doing acquisitions.
Overall then, CRL looks potentially interesting.
.
Disclaimer
This is not financial advice. Our content is intended to be used and must be used for information and education purposes only. Please read our disclaimer and terms and conditions to understand our obligations.
49 comments
Not happy at the moment about
Botb
Boo
PHD
and of course my market timing.
But seriously considering giving up on AIM and just moving into Its.
Can anyone let us know who invested in meal at 200p?
many thanks
To answer your question stockdave, yes I did purchase Parsley Box (LON:MEAL) in the IPO, but luckily sold very early on @ £2.0035!
With regard to Meal, I was concerned about MDs role in Orbital see year 2000. No idea which funds bought in at 200p.
I do not do shorts but I would have shorted this.
Good research, well done.
Good morning all. I enjoyed Paul's Christmas Eve review.
I am not a regular visitor to Trust Pilot but thought that I would have a look at the ratings for a number of companies, given his mention of poor reviews for Joules (LON:JOUL) especially recently.
As a holder and a big loser after the 30% hit on the day of the last market report, I am particularly sensitive to what happens next for Joules (LON:JOUL) and I didn't like Paul's comment about the possibility of a further profit warning one little bit! Why hold on to a share with a second profit warning looming? I did a bit more digging on Trust Pilot.
My choice of companies on Trust Pilot may not have been the best, but these are my findings for better or worse. Before I give the figures, I think there are a few special factors at work here right now.
First, customers are particularly sensitive around Christmas. Deliveries = presents = special meals, and so immediacy is particularly important.
Secondly, customer sensitivity is probably heightened too, so customer service - or lack of it! - becomes increasingly important too. (I am in that category. I can readily forgive a fault if it is put right quickly and I am treated promptly, fairly and courteously)
Thirdly, Covid 19 levels are really affecting staffing, and distribution issues which have been covered in depth for weeks/months now are having big effects - all when the seasonal volumes of business are at their height.
Here are my figures
Total Reviews Excellent/Good % Bad/Terrible %
Joules 5,851 74/9 2/13
Next 5,339 18/5 8/66
M&S 6,095 20/4 9/63
ASOS 138,103 67/5 2/24
Boohoo 177,663 63/14 6/11
Amazon 20,291 36/8 6/46
Make of those what you will. Some were a bit surprising to me. Given the time of year, and reading the most recent comments, all were likely to be worse than normal and heavily polarized. The only significant differentiator seemed to be, and especially frequent with Boohoo, if the customer spoke to someone personally then the matter was usually dealt with to the customer's satisfaction, and much appreciated.
For Joules vs Next vs M&S, probably the most similar companies, Joules doesn't look so bad in comparison. However, it will be their absolute figures which will be affecting their business so in the end the comparisons are probably not very meaningful. for Joules.
Trustpilot reviews have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as many companies game the system. You have to dig into whether the company is proactively asking for reviews, and how they are doing it too.
On a quiet day and being on the eve of the eve of the closure of the Stocko Challenge I've had a peek at the current scores.
The top 10 have all made it on just one of their five picks being a multibagger. The companies involved were:
1 Brightcom National SE India
2 Sawaca Business Machines Bombay SE
3 Lake Resources Nl Aus SE
4 Gstechnologies LSE
5 Province Resources Aus SE
6 Province Resources Aus SE
7 Sayona Mining Aus SE
8 Aurum Proptech National SE India
9 Athabasca Oil Toronto SE
10 Zephyr Energy LSE
So how did we, the fallible subscribers to Stocko perform? Not very well, I'm afraid - down 21% on the top 5 subscriber picks. With rough % change at time of writing these were:
Boohoo (LON:BOO) -65.0%
Sylvania Platinum (LON:SLP) +1.7%
Saga (LON:SAGA) +5.7%
Volex (LON:VLX) +12.5%
4d Pharma (LON:DDDD) -59.1%
The psychology of investing is fascinating. My view tends to be for the long term 3-5 years. I.e I have a sort of price target in mind, and there's enough uplift in that target for the end result to be a number of years away.
Many commentators promote the idea of cutting your losses quickly, which I can't argue with, but just doesn't sit right with me.
So the way I view my holdings is bit like buying a property to do up. You buy it and know it will achieve an end value BUT you're going through some pain in the mean time.
It sort of works as a philosophy. Clearly if something turns into a pile of poo, then it must be flushed away. But I'm generally waiting till those projects flourish
The money hasn't been made in UK stocks it seems. I've been slowly slipping back and now at position 70. Doesn't look like I'll get a romantic weekend with Stocko in NY this time...so next year I'll need to spiv up the picks even more (though I do hold all the stocks I put in so not just random)
https://www.stockopedia.com/ch...
I do want a stewards inquiry though as Plateau Energy Metals was acquired by American Lithium mid May and LI is up 1.25% from that point....so I make that a c.400% return for Plateau/LI and I get a return of c.145% for the ytd and maybe into the top20! ;)
Obvs I just need a moonshot 2 days for uranium stocks to take me higher...though the volatility could easily slip out of the top100 before the year is over!
PS plus I have in the money warrants on LI...which add a nice bit more...but I'm not going to argue that one.
I haven't really followed the challenge for last few months, as I'd seen lots of folks with multi-baggers, which I hadn't invested in, and most of my stocks I knew had faded in the last quarter. So I have to say I am very pleasantly surprised to see I have made it into the top 100 (at #100 admittedly) .
£IPX is my biggest personal holding after I sold out of Jubilee Metals (LON:JLP) earlier in the year for a very tidy profit (albeit it was a bit of a forced sale). Impax Asset Management (LON:IPX) has doubled over the year as it has done for past few years, so very happy with that pick and I think 2022 will be equally good as the ESG trend continues strongly.
This is why, one of my strongest anti-buy signals is when the Stocko community rating on a share goes >35%. It signals that the trade is too crowded; and the price is likely to be up with events already, if a lot of people think it's a good buy and have bought recently.
I do wish Stockopedia will have a new feature, showing the top buys, sells, watchlists (as per Stocko portfolios) to see what's popular in the community. Like how Hargreaves, Robinhood, etc have their top traded lists...
Agree ,not only Stocko but all heavily promoted stocks on various platforms.Early 2021 I counted 4D Pharma to be the most favoured by PI's on Twitter . My best performing stocks rarely appear in print anywhere.I never thought Stocko would end up being a great source for stocks to short !!
Wow! I hold the first four but I had totally forgotten about the Stocko Challenge. Obviously, Boohoo (LON:BOO) currently makes a big dent in my figures.
Well, you are currently 661 out of 3285 so that's better than most of us:
Is there no competition for 2022??
on a very quiet day an interesting little green hydrogen play called Atome Energy (LON:ATOM) came to market this morning, fortunately without much hype and fanfare. It spun out of Peter Levines President Energy (LON:PPC) vehicle (he is of Imperial Energy fame where he built a $2.4bn business, so he has decent pedigree).
Has a couple of very interesting projects signed - cash + standby facility of £9m so no funds needed ahead of FID and a market cap of circa £25m so not expensive by green hydrogen play standards either.
Could be an interesting one to follow.
Beximco Pharmaceuticals (LON:BXP)
On a quiet day announced @ 1 hour ago that it is producing a generic version of Pfizer's COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use).
https://www.investegate.co.uk/...
Quite an interesting, if illiquid share.
Phil
(I hold)
Creightons (LON:CRL) I hold. Re options, I haven't looked it all up but my initial investment was when the company had a market cap of about £5M. If all the the options had been granted by then, the value of shares under option would have been about £850K, not unreasonable even though well above 10%.
I agree the price is currently about fair based on normal matrics. However the depth of understanding demonstrated by management (I have always found Pippa particularly impressive) suggests to me they will do well with the acquisitions and continue to outperform.
To all at Stockopedia including members of the Stockopedia community with a special mention for Paul and Jack and the SCVR a very simple thank you for your splendid efforts throughout what has been a difficult year for many.
I may not always agree with some of the conclusions reached or comments posted, but they have been an endless source of information and on several occasions provided insights and nuggets of information that I may otherwise have overlooked or not been alert to.
To paraphrase George Harrison, "All things must pass", I therefore hope and believe that 2022 will see an inflection point marking the end pandemic, with a gradual reduction in the number of infections, similar to the culmination of the 'Spanish flu' pandemic. "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes" here is hoping that Mark Twain is correct.
Happy New Year to All.
Dear All
Thank you all for a wonderful and different year of dialogue, thoughts and inputs.
No top 10 or such from myself, as I am on a tax year basis so still just over 3 months to go yet and all to play for!
I wanted to circle back to the discussions earlier this year, and excellent efforts from Paul on behalf of Zane.
Whilst "charity" can mean many many different things to each of us and it is very personal.
Yes I am totally honest that I am focused on the financial security and independence of my parents, siblings and children (not to forget myself) and hence the primary reason that I am here and investing.
But as a time poor currently, what is the perspective on the quantum that one should give to those with a greater need, in whatever form that you chose? Should I be thinking 5% of total monthly income, 10% of free cash flow, 1% of total assets per year? How do others go about this?
In the purposes of full disclosure, I currently have a four direct debits going out monthly to three local causes and one national (related to my profession). In addition to the "money in the tin" at the girls school and clubs, and whatever is on the high street when we go into town (one challenge of the current reduction in cash is that I have to make a conscious effort to have change to give! but that is a different discussion).
Thank you
Tommy
When my father was house bound I had to order a week's food. The market is well supplied with ready meal suppliers-Oakhouse Foods and Wiltshire Farms are two - cheap meals, variable quality. Ended up using Sainsbury's - so in one go could order meals and other household items that he and his carer needed.
Did you try Cook?
Yeah, my mum used Wiltshire and we thought they were fine, and mum thought the delivery guy was fine to…..which helped. Parsley Box (LON:MEAL) only real USP is the fact you don’t need a freezer.
Hi Paul and Jack
Thank you for another fabulous year for the SCVR. As always I’m simply stunned by the thoroughness and breadth of your reports. It’s not only incredibly helpful for me financially but I find it incredibly helpful for a wider understanding on business and society through both your analysis of companies and who is doing well, but also from your odd quips and musings! If it wasn’t for this report I would seriously worry who I would turn to for thorough analysis as a lot of your “competitors” (wrong word I know) just don’t crunch the numbers like you do or cast the same sceptical eye over the books.
I am now averaging 14.5% a year after 8 years of investing and this year I have made 28.8% (my year runs to xmas eve each year) – see my bio for my yearly returns. I have read the SCVR through most of that time so I have a lot to thank you for. The cumulative impact of that average 20-25 years out is huge despite only starting out with a modest investment amount and only topping up my stocks and shares ISA account this week for the second time during that period. Perhaps this will surprise a lot of subscribers but I only sat down earlier this year to work out the effect of my average return compounded over 25 years. I fell off my chair! I think it would be helpful if a lot of the bitcoin and bulletin board junkies were able to use a compound interest calculator you can find online to understand the huge benefits of more modest, slow and steady sums of money.
I have a lot to thank you guys for. Your balance sheet analysis is especially helpful as my knowledge there is still poor but improving. There are times I disagree with your analysis or think you’ve become over enthusiastic (we are all human), but that is helpful for me as well as it (unintentionally) improves my own understanding of companies and my strategy. For example, I was pretty sceptical about Boohoo (LON:BOO) earlier in the year when international revenue started going in reverse and I will steer clear of them until that trend changes because it means Boohoo (LON:BOO) is slowly turning into a UK-only company and as a result Zeus predict single digit revenue growth going forward.
Sometimes investing approaches differ due to personalities – I am glass half-empty generally and so find Paul’s glass half-full approach quite helpful in balancing out my cautiousness when reviewing companies!
Thank you once again!
*************************************************************
Finally, to add to the community debate over the Christmas period, I thought it might be helpful to set out my planned strategy for 2022:
Have a fabulous Christmas and New Year break!
p.s. I recently created a Twitter account if anyone wants to follow me! https://twitter.com/investtortoise
Just followed you on Twitter. I like your results and general approach to investing. I also love Google sheets and use them a lot. I have a UK and US watchlist on Google, as well as many others. On one I monitor the Investors who present on Mello, PIW and stock slams, it makes for very interesting reading. I also have a good Inv Trust sheet which has convinced me of the value of a few IT's in the portfolio. I shall look forward to following you. Charles
Thanks! Any investment trusts you are keen on at the moment?
Great post Patrick -and I have also followed you on Twitter.
I don't currently use Google Sheets, but will take a look. I am guessing this could also be achieved in other PF management tools by having a watch-list and creating alarms.
There was a great tweet from Ian Shadrack on Twitter who is a big Inv Trust guy, showing a variety of IT's across 20 odd different sectors - he does a YouTube channel and talks through each of them .
I am currently looking to pivot back more into IT's as the last couple of years has shown that I don't want to manage such a large PF all on my own as I don't have the breadth of time or experience in markets outside of the UK - happy to have a certain % of my PF based on my own ideas & judgement mostly on UK Sm Caps, but I want exposure to a lot of other sectors so I am fully diversified and I will be doing this through IT's. Probably focussing on about 10 or so non-UK sectors.
Best wishes & good luck with the plan for your 50's
K
Mind if I ask how's your buy price calculated buddy?
If you mean when I buy a share I include the cost in the calculation. If you mean what share price I use at the year end for those I still own: I use the price on Google which for smaller shares might be the buy rather than the sell price - but this year the difference between those at year end was only about half a percent for my portfolio overall.
With one public house listing a Christmas dinner for a couple of OAP's for 90 pounds and second pub willing at 65 pounds my wife shopped around the local supermarkets and there were no ready-made frozen ones in stock. They stayed at home, my wife doing dinners for them at the total material cost of 12 pounds. Food for thought?
but it cost your wife time and effort...
The wife and I are OAP's too but not either side of 90 as are the couple who my wife does their weekly shop for at the same time as for our own. It's a neighbourly thing, having lived in the same cul-de-sac since the 1960's and must have been doing that for over 2 years now while I weigh up the pros and cons on Stocko.
I think it's important to support the hospitality sector as much as we can at the moment, even if prices have risen.
Luckily, my walks along the beach here in Bournemouth provide the ideal choice - if I want a shortish walk, then there's a Harvester at Boscombe Pier (about a mile away). If I fancy a longer walk, there's another Harvester about 2 miles away in the opposite direction.
I always leave a tip, and speak pleasantly to the over-stretched staff - it's very obvious how many businesses are currently struggling with staff shortages. The poor barmaid left my pint of Guinness on the side for 16 minutes, apologising by saying she hadn't had a second to leave the bar to bring it out to me (outside).
Still, as investors we should be looking through this, as herd immunity looks to be only a few weeks away at this rate. Then we should hopefully get into the realm of out-performance (as we saw on re-opening last summer) for travel & hospitality businesses.
Mind you, £90 for two turkey dinners would considerably exceed my upper limit too!
Regards, Paul.
I think it's important to support the hospitality sector as much as we can at the moment...
The sacrifices you make for Queen and country are truly heroic Paul! :-)
That is a wonderful thing to do and she deserves a big hug and a nice day out.
My cousin has been doing similar all of the Covid years, is this now longer than Brian Adams was #1 for? Where she drops Sunday Lunch, Christmas Dinner or whatever round to two single old folks on her street, just buys a slightly bigger joint/chicken and puts some extra veg in, fractional cost and effort for a massive societal benefit.
I know need to up my own game!
Tommy
Paul, New Years Eve ia tomorrow, lol. Would you be able to take a look at Creightons (LON:CRL) which has announced interms this morning. I hold - thanks
Morning RajanP,
Sure, I'll take a look at Creightons (LON:CRL) interims, looks to be the only relevant news in our niche this morning.
Regards, Paul.
Thanks Paul and I should have read properly when you wrote New Years Eve Eve.
RajanP,
Thanks Paul and I should have read properly when you wrote New Years Eve Eve.
Haha, you fell for my little prank there! ;-)
Mind you, given my track record on getting days/dates wrong all the time, you can be forgiven for assuming I was disorientated at 7am, as usual.
Best wishes, Paul.
Paul,
You are an absolute delight. That is all. Have a lovely day.
Yes, I just got it. "Eve of the Eve" very good.
Busy at the moment getting my 2022 yearly Portfolio together, it is made up of 10 Shares, I hold for one year at a time, then sell.
2021 was mixed, ended up with a very small profit of +0.5%
Happy new year everyone.
Good question Alun. Their explanation of the reduced sales and profits makes sense. But surely some indication of current trading or expectations for H2 would be normal. Were they so focussed on explaining the drop in sales and profits that they simply forgot? If there are known problems going forward wouldn't it be their duty to explain them?
Re Creightons (LON:CRL) - from memory, they never give an outlook statement / trading statement because there are no broker forecasts
mammyoko is right - Creightons (LON:CRL) don't usually provide a trading statement. They are a bit unconventional (including no broker) and tend to give *a lot* of detail in their investor presentation which this year you have to wait until 12 January for! The presentation is definitely worth a watch as they tend to be incredibly open and it usually includes a slide predicting full year revenue and margin.
As predicted Creightons (LON:CRL) couldn't fully replace hygiene sales and have seen margin pressure on products. You could have seen it a mile off. I am a bit surprised to see it up initially this morning as EPS is down 21%.
ps make sure to use the diluted numbers because the company gives a lot of shares to its staff which is great for employees and likely the business, but means private and institutional shareholders get diluted a little bit more every year.
Thanks for this. I was fancying Creighton's but with the report, the regular dilution of their shares, and the high spread....you are asking for an outstanding performance just to see small if any profits. I just cant see it.
Once the one-off benefits of the pandemic are out of the way I think FY23 will show better signs of growth. I am sitting tight until the share price looks more attractive which for me is 70-80p. I am surprised to see the share price increase today.
I think the Creightons (LON:CRL) share price was drifting down because this statement was a month later than in previous years and people were nervous about the possibility of bad news being sneaked out at the end of the year. So given it’s actually good news that’s a relief rally today. I hold.
Thanks Patrick L. The management team are very impressive (I have seen them on previous results presentations). I will be watching their PI World presentation on 12 January.
I am not a great fan of companies paying money just for brokers to rejig the information that management give them. There are no rules, as far as I know, against companies giving their own forecasts (c.f. Next). Companies use paid brokers to circulate what are effectively their own forecasts just to insulate themselves from criticism should those forecasts not be met. The adjustments that brokers add in to their reports tend to obfuscate and make comparisons more difficult instead of illuminating the information.