We would love to hear your thoughts about our site and services, please take our survey here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
I wrote to Geoff Drabble when the shares were less than half today's price about my concerns then. He kindly sent me a lengthy reply saying that he always welcomed feedback from shareholders and explained the company's position as regards capitol allocation priorities. He left the company 6 months later so I'm not sure he was totally convinced . Admittedly the price increase has been astronomical but the company nearly went under before it bought Sunbelt. I really do think they should be paying down debt.
It's something their previous CEO, Geoff Drabble, once said. He said that UK shareholders love dividends and hate buybacks and US shareholders love buybacks and hate dividends. So AHT do a bit of both, as their shareholders are split approx 50:50 between the two countries.
As for all-time high, if you look at the Capital Markets Day summary you'll find a section on the deployment of free cash flows. Within this, AHT demonstrate the effects of buybacks using an SP of £55.
They did pay down some debt during the pandemic. But financial and operational gearing have always been part of the AHT deal, so investors should know what they are getting into. Undoubtedly a long downturn would hurt.
Why should they need to keep their US investors happy? Buying back shares at an all-time high share price when they could be reducing their huge debt at all time low interest rates seems farcical to me.
Seen articles that indicate the new US infrastructure plans will give us a boost.
"Subject to ongoing shareholder approval, over the next two financial years the Group anticipates buying back up to £1 billion in shares."The buybacks are to please their US shareholders. £1bn will buy back about 5% of the shares at current prices. If the cash were used for divis instead, we'd get £1 per share in each of the next two years. Personally I'd prefer divis, but I suppose that AHT need to keep their US investors happy.
i have been following AHT since £1 ,never in my wildest dreams i thought they would reach £46,
wow, they nearly went under decade ago.
Once again, if the daily traded figures on here are accurate, buys heavily outweigh the sells as they have all year so far. The only thing I'm annoyed about is that I haven't loaded up with more....surprise surprise. LOL.
Hi all, a potentially interesting read for those interested in construction/ infrastructure companies in light of the Biden stimulus and other positive economic factors. Somero Enterprises. https://www.thetwentiestrader.com/post/somero-foundations-for-growth
...up and repeat.
Equipment rental firm Ashtead (AHT) has an opportunity to increase its market share in its ‘specialty’ division, says Jefferies.
Analyst Will Kirkness retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of £54.00 on the stock, which closed up 3.4%, or 146p, at £44.73 on Thursday.
Kirkness honed in on the opportunities in the firms ‘specialty’ arm, which has seen the group move into portable power, disaster recovery and facilities maintenance.
‘Ashtead target 15% market share in the medium term, from 10% now, and $2bn of speciality revenues,’ he said.
‘We think market share could increase to 20% by full year 2031 and that the specialty business could be worth $5bn, or 35% of group revenues.’
Looks close to a peak, will recover, brilliant company all those diggers on building sites, look at fundamentals, I might take 5% profits for capital gains allowance, then hold until next dip, then buy buy again, difficulty is judging what constitutes a dip, or a peak........
bummer......:-(
...WOW.....it just gets better every day! I'm feeling greedy now but nervous.
I see that Numis now has a target of £50!
I'm out at £42.85 - First time in a decade that I haven't owned any AHT. Pretty expensive plus I needed to fill my non-taxable Cap Gains amount. May reinvest back when the new ISA allocation opens on 6 April depending on price.
I sold a third at £39. I'm thinking of selling some more as well. Not a lot of room for disappointment at this level!!
..looking at this trend shape ;÷)
Likewise Sion.
I bought in at 44p in 2002. Panicked when they dropped heavily last March and sold most of them.
C'est la vie!
Purchased these at £1.26 around 2008 ,had to sell these at a slight lose to pay for an extension. What a mistake that was !!! Shares can destroy you emotionally,lol
Yes I bought at£22 just over a year ago, problem is to know whether to take profits without eroding value of holding, I'm tempted just to sell 10% only
You of course need to keep one eye on the COVID work but £50m is still £50m at the end of the day and its a £50m opportunity which has been taken away from its competitors. That resulting gains will put AHT on a much more positive footing for when the major construction and infrastructure projects kick off - newer kit, a reinvigorated team, an expanded team of experts. As always be cautious but this is very positive.
...a new high and onwards. Did you hear that ? Anyone out there ? Once again, lots more buys than sells. If anyone bought this 12 months ago then it's a 4 bagger. Unfortunately,
not me but well happy so far. GLA
.... all my ideas were good as this share performance. Hope I've not jinxed myself now. GLA
Perfect for AHT and presumably explains today's gain.
Rylidan I know the feeling, we all can relate to that. Years ago I used to deal AHT around 600 then sold up everything. Recently back in and doing ok but.....if only I'd held, doh
Anyway, GLA. Oh, and today's news doesn't seem to have hurt the sp, today at least. Have fun