Sorry, no report today. Normal service will resume tomorrow morning from 8 a.m.
Paul,
Not even a very quick mention for Quindell Portfolio (LON:QPP) and the contract win, hope your OK and nothing major wrong?
Regards
Steamy
About the Author
Paul Scott
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 »
6 comments
Asagi
I am sure that between us we can put something together that almost hits Paul's standards....
Notice of results from two companies today that I have long kept an eye on. First up is First Derivatives (LON:FDP), the Northern-Ireland based financial software company. The company occupies a special place in my heart after being my first big win on shares after the financial crisis. The company is 'one of those' -- with a five year record of sales, EPS and dividend growth year-on-year. EPS and DPS show a compound growth rate of 16% and 17% respectively in the last five years.
Founder and CEO, Brian Conlon, owns 45% of the shares. Standard Life owns 9%. The spread is currently 560p -> 575p. A couple of years ago it was 30p, so congrats to the company etc. on getting the shares noticed and the spread down.
First Derivatives (LON:FDP) is a great example of how a large director shareholding can work v. well in your favour. It is a great example of interests being aligned with shareholders and EVERYONE getting the rewards of success. The dividend has been increased tenfold in the last ten years.
While smallcap companies commonly have two years of EPS and dividend growth forecast, First Derivatives (LON:FDP) has demonstrated high growth previously and has been announcing contract wins.
The company is announcing full year results on June 18th. Forecasts are for EPS of 32.4p and dividends of 11.4p. 2014 forecast is for EPS of 43p i.e. a P/E of 12.8.
Plastics Capital (LON:PLA) will announce FY numbers for Y/E Feb 2013. A few years ago, debt at the company was holding back the P/E. According to the Stockopage, the net debt at the company has come down from £20m in 2009 to £8.6m at the end of 2012. Shares are available today on 9.7 times the FY 2013 forecasts. The company also pays a dividend, which was doubled at the interims and so will probably be doubled again at the finals taking the yield to 2.3%. I'd expect further rises as management continues to quite aggressively pay down debt.
Asagi (no position)
Paul Scott
Hi Asagi,
Thank you for filling in for me ;-)
I had a quick look at results statements today, and nothing much caught my eye.
There was another contract win announcement from Quindell Portfolio (LON:QPP) which sounds interesting, so maybe my scepticism there is too great? Who knows. I'm nowhere near confident enough to invest, and want clarity on the funding issues & unexplained loans, and most importantly where the hell they supposedly make all this profit from?
Results from API didn't look bad, although the aborted sale process looks a bit strange. Might be worth a look now they are talking about introducing a dividend?
Another big sell-off on the Indices today, which I think is healthy - scrubbing off a degree of euphoria.
Silverdell interims looked OK to me. Low margin stuff, and heavy on working capital. There must be a better way of structuring that business, to better match customer payments to outgoings? I hold a few Silverdell shares myself.
That's pretty much it.
Cheers, Paul.
SevenPillars
I was looking forward to your comments on Silverdell yesterday as I've been following this one for a while, but right now it's chart looks pretty ugly. Yesterday's statement didn't seem to change the downtrend, the shares falling again on the back of what looked like a decent statement. It looks like Silverdell shares something with Quindell, in the sense that the market doesn't seem to have bought into the story despite the result. The main rumour fear with Silverdall appears to be that it will need to raise more cash in order to continue with its growth, the company deny this. If the company is telling the truth then it looks undervalued.
BrianGeee
Silverdell (LON:SID) seem to be making the IR mistake several companies make of trying to ram their opinion of their company's valuation down the throat of any investor that will listen. If they just told their story in a conservative and convincing style, investors are more than capable of making up their own minds.
It's superficially attractive to hear how much upside management feel there is in the business, but experience tells it's not the ones with the loudest voices that tend to deliver the best results.
