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So now we know.
On Tuesday someone from the CMA let slip insider info on the detail on the PDR issued today.
My quick read read is that "we are watching" assessing revenues and sales, but the implementation of price controls has been suspended due to the CMA deadline and issues around the Covid pandemic.
I guess Dignity will provide a fuller explanation of impact within a few days.
Whatever is happening to this share. The last 24 hrs have been crazy.....anybody know or suggest what s going on
A clear cut director's buy in Dignity is as rare as hen teeth, so best take note when they happen.
Ahha.. thanks. Now 23% up and cannot see anything in the RNS, so there must be something in the national news that has
created an interest. Perhaps govt has lifted the limit on number of mourners and the amount of alcohol they can consume
by breathing in the "Gel" at the wake ??
Looks like my prediction of a £4.00 -£4.50 share price is to be realized sooner than I thought. Thank goodness I kept my remaining 20% of initial investment. I'm not wiser as to the reason for the sudden rise accept that this share was looking oversold. And it has quite a niche in a somewhat predictable market.....dying will never go out of fashion!
Can anyone enlighten me as to the reason for the big upward jump in share price today ?
Thanks
Even more detail in RNS dated 29 Jul 20. Highly recommend a good read! Company is well placed to weather the storm. Careful implementation of the ongoing restructuring and the latest best practice government recommendations all very positive imho. Good luck all!
Specs1 please see the extract from the FT last month. You are talking rubbish in an obvious attempt to de-ramp in order to get back in. Bull****er alert!!!
Mr Whiley added that Dignity would not furlough any employees and would only approach the government for business rates relief.
The company is taking advantage of business rates reduction only, furlough is not required!
Dignity are furloughing where we are. One of the guys has got work as a taxi driver, strangely enough. Dignity have been losing out to the independents big time.
I just sold 80% of my holding and grabbed a nice profit. That's never a bad thing to do. The rest of my shares are now at a very low cost average and I can just sit back and watch the fun. Somehow I sense they will indeed go to £4.00 to £4.50 in the next few months.........but who cares? My profit will go some way to getting me a nice business class flight to Bali.
The share price was always going to fall today after a 30+ % rise yesterday. The facts are however, that there are going to be plenty of funerals over the next 12 months and I would rather have my money invested in a company that is busy, no furloughed employees, financially stable rather than in a sector that is on its arse and no idea of when things will pick up.
Auson, well done! I wish I had done the same......and I probably would have done if Id got out of bed early enough to catch £3.40. I fear these markets are very treacherous and volatile.
I still think that these shares may have turned a corner. And they were looking over sold. But anything could happen in these markets.
why people like you make stock go crazy If you invest do you research and hold not because u read some news
ahha,
Well done, although nothing to be proud about owning stock in this company. I bought in the mornng and sold this morrning.
Cheers
I am proud to declare that for the first time ever I have bought in to Dignity at £2.99 I'm already in profit, which has cheered me up no end. I think short term this could go to £3.50 and maybe even £4.00 Despite the virus and people swapping to cheaper funerals, the company does have a large market share. And the funeral business is probably one of the safest money earners for the long term. It will be nice when they start paying a dividend, but they have always been a bit stingy even when the shares were £26. But they have expended the business. I have also noticed that the Directors have begun buying again.
Wouldn't disagree Thunder, but not necessarily to pre-Covid crisis levels is all I am saying because of the extra costs v average funeral revenue
That is true to some extent, but take a look at the p/e ratio here..crazy low, for a business that should have relatively stable cashflow for a long time. The loss was due to exceptional items, with the cash generation strong they can pay down debt to improve the margin. We also know there is likely no national lockdown in H2 but still expectation of higher death rates - which to me means more full cost funerals on the horizon. Director buying and large short to close - this is only going up short term IMO.
Pleased for LTHs this is doing so well but to answer your question Thunder, perhaps this is why
https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/07/29/cheaper-covid-19-funerals-hurt-dignitys-bottom-line/
Funeral services have been stripped back during the coronavirus crisis as big send-offs were banned to slow the spread of the disease, new data from funeral provider Dignity shows.
Dignity said that the proportion of “simple and limited service” funerals it performed tripled in April, May and June.
During the same months last year, only 13% of people chose one of the simple and limited funerals for their loved ones, while 53% picked Dignity’s more expensive “full service”.
However, that split was almost flipped in the second quarter of this year, as 37% of people chose the simple, and only 26% the full service, Dignity said on Wednesday.
It meant that despite a large rise in the number of funerals, with deaths up 47% to 207,000, Dignity’s profit took a hit.
The £58.3 million profit the funeral provider registered in the second quarter of 2019 was swapped for a £13.6 million loss this time around.
£13.6 million Dignity's loss in the second quarter of 2020
Dignity
The simpler funerals are much less expensive than the full service. Last year Dignity made almost £3,600 from each full service, but only £2,047 from the simpler plan.
It also made a lot less money on flowers and other ancillary items, £49 on average, compared to £233 this time last year.
More people died in the last quarter than at any point in the last two decades, Dignity said.
But the business did not capitalise on the increase, partly because of the simpler plans.
However, it also cost Dignity a lot more to run the services, as keeping up safety measures proved costly.
All the £5.5 million benefit Dignity got from business rates relief “and more” was used to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep staff and clients safe, it said.
It also hinted that Covid-19 may hurt the business’s long-term prospects as the number of deaths might be lower in 2021 and 2022 than they were last year.
made some nice profit today going long will go gain tomorrow if breaks 308 barrier
Why have there been no broker ratings on this share since August 2019????
Looking at those interim results, I am struggling to see why this has gone down so much during the covid crisis, surely now a rerate back to pre crises level is on the cards!?
Interims due out in two weeks. Should be interesting. From the previous RNS I saw that no employees had been furloughed which I take as a positive. Does anyone know what the current restrictions are for funerals? Is it still maximum of 10 people and no limousines etc?
Or have any of the lockdown measures been eased recently?
A long-standing lament on this board has been the absence of share buying by the Dignity board. Something I’ve shared in the ten years I’ve followed Dignity.
The directors have done very well out of the annual and long-term bonus they awarded themselves each year. Typically, selling the shares as they receive them, with Mike McCollum (CEO) and Steve Whittern (CFO) leading the way.
Hopefully, the currents issues with the CMA, which are still to be resolved, are well known to anyone following the Dignity story. Last April Mike McCollum left Dignity. I took this to mean that he felt his golden goose had laid her last golden egg. I never believed being CEO of Dignity had been a very demanding job. The only significant competitor was the CoOp! I guess he found dealing with the issues thrown up by the CMA investigations too much.
I was slow fully exiting from the turn in 2017, but I had done very well over the years and have kept a watching brief since. Early this year I came back in with a small stake – too soon as it happens. The share price held up for a time before too succumbing to the economic impact of CV19.
Anyway, with other opportunities catching my eye, Dignity dropped off my radar. I did pick up on MC leaving, and some share purchases by the new chairman installed late last year, but getting to the point, of this long winded post, I missed the recent purchase by Steve Whittern (CFO).
I think this is significant. The terms of the 2020 LTIP award had been delayed until after the CMA report, which had been expected this summer but is now is likely to be 2021. The 2016 & 2017 LTIP awards lapsed without any bonus being awarded. I felt that SW would be waiting until the LTIP gravy train resumed but I’ve just noticed that he’s jumped the gun with the purchase 15th June of 50K shares, bringing his total holding to c166K. Was this the first time he had put his hand in his pocket to buy Dignity shares? If so, it could be significant. He is the CFO after all.
SW typically awards himself - renumeration committees are a joke – about £300K value of LTIP per year. Last year it was at 633p. No doubt he’ll award himself a similar amount after the CMA update – he wants to get the price right – but I find his recent purchase interesting in light of the CMA delay impacting this year’s award. I hope Phoenix, with a 29% holding, are keeping an eye on future bonus awards.
JepGambardella, I notice you posted early on the 16th, so I’m guessing you spotted the 5pm RNS. I monitor the 7am releases and often miss the later ones. You’re obviously on the ball.
Dignity is back on my radar.
It will be interesting to see if there is a trading update within tomorrow’s AGM. A rapid rise in the SP recently from 218 to over 300.
I wouldn't invest in thousands of companies ! In fact out of thousands im only invested in a few dozen!! I also don't visit the thousands i am not invested in's chat rooms to tell them either !! Im funny that way :)