UK Stock Market News Today – 22-Feb-2018
Morning all!
Zytronic (ZYT) – 533p – £84.4m – PER 17.1
AGM And Trading Update For The 1st 4 Months Of The Year – Broadly in-line with the equivalent period last year.
Gave this a little thought this morning. I reckon on reflection I would only be interested here around the 400p level. This would probably mean one of 2 things, something has gone wrong (and it may then be a riskier investment than it is today) or there’s been a general market sell off (in which case there will most likely be better companies to invest in). Going to remove this from my Watchlist for now.
Macfarlane (MACF) – 86p – £132.6m – PER 12.2
Results For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – Another year of growth in-line with market expectations – Revenue up 9% to £196.0m, (2016: £179.8m) and PBT up 19% to £9.3m (2016: £7.8m). FY Dividend will be up 8% on last year. Debt down to £14.3m (£15.3m last time), Pension Deficitdown to £11.8m (£14.5m last time). Confident of further progress in 2018.
I am long here and like these results enough to remain long.
Vitec (VTC) – 1070p – £481.4m – PER 13.8
Results For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – A “transformational year” – Revenue up 10.8% (£353.3m) and Adjusted PBT up 13.4%, ROCE up 19.6%, FY Dividend increased by 12.1%. Confident, at current exchange rates, of delivering further progress in 2018. Why no hedging strategy, if it’s so important?
I quite liked this and it was on my Watchlist – I am now, on reflection seeing it as less attractive and am going Neutral. The 2 kickers being that further progress, it seems, is dependent on FX (which should not be the case (and it’s not hedged)) and, maybe I am missing something, but I just don’t see the “transformational” here.
Northgate (NTG) – 351p – £482.3m – PER 7.98
Q3 Trading Update – A load of waffle usually means there’s some bad news towards the end. It seems “FY18 PBT is expected to be c.25% lower than the £75.0 million reported in FY17”.
This one just popped onto my radar for the first time and – It’s going straight on the Avoid list for now.
Xpediator (XPD) – 38.75p – £45.5m – PER 9.92
Trading Update For The 12 Months To End December 2017 – Revenue will be up about 59% to £116m (2016: £72.8m) and Profit will be significantly ahead of last year – In-line with market expectations.
First time I have come across this company and there’s a lot to like. If I don’t pick some up this morning (need to keep an eye on that 7%+ spread) I will keep it on my Watchlist, 38p.
McBride (MCB) – 155.4p – £283.2m – PER 10.5
Half Year Report For The 6 Months To End December 2017 – Growth will come in H2 and expects to launch a plan to return to break-even within 18 months.
This remains on my Avoid list and I will cease coverage until I see something worthy of removing it from that list.
A great day to all, all comments most welcome.
