Stagecoach Share Chat (SGC)

I decided to follow your advice matey. Gonna get a smallish holding in here, upto 500 shares and then look at other things to add to my portfolio. I got 20k shares in pfd for greed, but going to look at smaller parcels in the bigger companies. Cheers 4 your help and advice GL

I'm in...only 65 shares at the moment but more to come gl

account:- Stagecoach Group plc ("Stagecoach") today completed the sale of its school bus operations in the US state of Wisconsin ("Wisconsin School Bus") to Student Transportation, Inc.. Part of Wisconsin School Bus will be held in trust, pending approval of the sale by the Surface Transportation Board. Wisconsin School Bus primarily operates school bus services under contract to school boards in the US state of Wisconsin. The business has been part of Stagecoach since 1999. Although the business has performed well, Stagecoach's share of the US school bus market is relatively small and the sale enables Stagecoach to focus its management and capital on less regulated North American operations, including the fast growing megabus.com business. The General Manager of Wisconsin School Bus and the rest of its management team has transferred with the business. The consideration for the sale equated to an enterprise value of US$47,000,000 of which US$46,750,000 has been settled in cash and the balance of US$250,000 is payable in six months' time. The sales proceeds will initially be applied to reduce Stagecoach's consolidated net debt. The gross assets of Wisconsin School Bus as at 30 April 2011 were US$21.8m. Prior to the sale we were forecasting revenue of US$36.4m and operating profit of US$4.0m for the year ending 30 April 2012 Could be useful for bringing down its debt.

Blimey, there seems a lot of interest here mate. Only seems to be us having any kind of conversation. Is everyone else on holiday perhaps?

So do I mate I'm sure it will. As you know I am in PFD at the moment and it seems to be climbing quite well at the moment. I was hoping it would stay at the 3p each mark for a couple of weeks so that I could top up to my desired holding of 20k shares cheaply but it has shot up to nearly 6p so it might cost me a little more that I had hoped. Talk about mixed feelings.......Grrr. I do like the idea of looking into peoples shopping trolleys in the supermarket to see what people are buying from "me", Love it when I see Hovis & Mr Kipling stuff in their bags etc, so I'm soon gonna be looking forward to seeing full buses and trans as well. GL.

We have very similar investment strategies, i have always invested in companies that i use and it has served me well over the years. Hope it works well for you. ATB.

I'v been thinking about this. Have decided that I am coming in here after all and look at cineworld later. I'm a bit of a strange investor, I do look at key information before investing, but I am more of a "would I use the company's products/services" kind of investor first closely followed by it's stats. An odd philosophy perhaps, but then the logic behind it is if its a good product that I use regularly then why not. East Midlands Trains has a lot to answer for lol. GL

Thanks again for your reply. It does sound like you have been dabbling in shares for some time, where as I am still learning. I have picked up a little knowledge here and there, particularly from these boards but it looks like I still have some work to do. When I first started it was just as a more interesting way of saving for my retirement which was the driver for me to start buying shares as opposed to just dumping money into a savings account and earn practically bugger all in interest, especially as interest rates being where they are now. I usually invest a small amount on a monthly basis until I think I have enough shares in a company and then start looking at investing in something else. As I mentioned in an earlier post I am in pfd (because they were suprisingly cheap considering the brands they have). I know about their issues but they are a share for future growth for me so not too worried about them and will have 20k shares by the end of this month which is enough for me, so hence I am looking at SGC and once I have a holding I am comfortable with then look at adding something else to my portfolio as I know that it makes sense to be in different things rather than everything in one particular share. Thanks again matey and GL

Never use sp's to compare shares. The sp is merely a function of how many shares are in circulation. Of much more relevance is the mcap figure. SGC has an mcap of £1.433 Billion, wheres Cineworld's is only £270 Million. So SGC is 6 times the size and has 6 times the debt, so they're very similar in that respect. SGC are very cash generative and have just returned £270 Million to investors, plus they offer a DRIP to help your investment grow. Why not split your money between the two, that way you have two bites at the cherry. I always bought small parcels in a lot of companies, and over the years have weeded out a lot of the losers. Currently know nothing about Cineworld, but will add it to a watchlist and keep an eye on it. Lets meet back here in a year and see which one has done best. ATB.

That info you gave me was most useful so thanks mate. I have done some research for my next holding and as I mentiond earlier sgc has come up on my radar however so has Cineworld, both look like a half decent investment. only thing negative I can see against the 2 sgc seem to have a midge over 650m debt against cineworlds 100m and yet the sp between the 2 companies are reletively similar. decisions decisions.........................

Positive article from Edmond Jackson http://www.iii.co.uk/articles/20560/stock-watch-stagecoach-group

That's pretty much the plan now. PFD holding I got purely for grownth now hopfully. Cheers 4 the advice mate.

As you say you are in for the long term then companies that offer drips etc should IMHO be at the core of your portfolio. Unless you need the cash from a div then by taking new shares instead your holding grows exponentially, albeit slowly at first. ATB.

To be fair, I hadn't really thought that deeply into all of this. My thinking was based simply on building a portfolio over the next 10 - 15 years into a number of different companies combined for both share value growth and divvi and see what I end up with. I have a stocks & shares ISA account and only buy shares that I can hold in this particular kind of account so hopefully I would be able to either dodge CGT or pay out the bear minimum I can get away with , but this is something I will have to address nearer the time I think.

Most of the big boys and a lot of others offer a SCRIP, where they issue new shares in lieu of divs, or a DRIP, where they buy more shares for you in the market place with your div. They are basically the same thing but have different advantages for the company depending on how much of their profit come from foreign earnings, i think. The big advantage to the likes of you and i is that it is a great way to build a large holding over time at no extra cost. If a share has a yield of 5-6% then your shareholding can double in around 15 years. Have been investing since the mid 70's and have always taken divs as shares with the result that some of my holdings are way in excess of what i originally bought, namely BP, BT NG and all of the utilities. All of my holdings are certificated and having always read all of the reports that have been sent out so it was easy for me find out if they had any sort of dividend alternative. If you hold through a broker or nominee service then this should be available to you with a bit of research. My shares were also my retirement pot - i was fortunate enough to retire in my mid 40's - and i have certainly done a lot better than the small amounts i invested into personal pensions before i completely lost faith in them. Plus you have the advantage that you can cash in what you want when you want - always keeping one eye on CGT - unlike a pension where your only option is to eventually buy an annuity. My portfolio is now heavily into major companies who have a healthy div yield so, as i am not currently selling to fund my retirement, it continues to grow without having to invest any more cash. My only tip would be to diversify as much as possible, i hold over 60 shares directly, along with over 30 Unit Trusts invested in just about every region in the world. Unfortunately i not yet managed to get them all going up at the same time, lol, but overall i should have a fairly healthy retirement. Unless Greece defaults and brings the rest of europe down with it!!! ATB.

Averaging down does have a high degree of risk, but it sounds like you know that already. but with pfd being a food producer this to my mind makes these risks slightly more acceptable as it is unlikely the supermarket chains will stop buying from them. I am a long term investor for growth (sp value and hopefully future divvi) with that particular share but I am not looking to have a large holding - was looking at between 40 - 50k shares but have decided to cut this figure to around 25k shares and then look into other things. I have never heard of scrip or DRIP, but my thinking is to build a portfolio of a few different companies over time for my retirement and then blow the lot on holidays etc. Thats the plan anyway.GL

Have never been a fan of averaging down as so often the sp goes down to never recover, and it just becomes a case of throwing good money after bad. But then i know nothing about PFD so am sure you have your reasons. These days i am strictly a 'Blue Chip FTSE100' type of guy, never going to make any spectacular gains but then not likely to lose my shirt either. Obviously not sure of your investment strategy, are you the quick in and out type, or the lay it down and watch it mature type? I'm definitely the latter so always take my divs as new shares if the company offers a SCRIP or DRIP alternative. SGC do offer such a scheme, so if you do not need the cash from a div then it is a great way of increasing your stake without dealing costs. ATB.

Yes it does, thank you. I am currently in PFD, which is taking a bit of a beasting to say the least at the moment, but I am averaging down a bit and will have the holding I want sooner than I thought, so Stagecoach has come up on my radar. I use East Midlands Trains to get to work and the annual ticket I buy costs a flaming mint so if I can get some of that back via a divvi it will take some of the sting out of it. Gl

Stagecoach made a payment of 47p per share on 21/10 as a way of returning £340 million to shareholders, with co-founders Sir Brian Souter and his sister Ann Gloag respectively pocketing £51m and £37m. We were given the choice of receiving the payment as either income or a dividend depending on our individual tax situation. As the £340 million roughly equated to about one-fifth of the stock market value they also underwent a 4-for-5 share consolidation in order that the sp was the same both before and after the payment - otherwise it would have fallen by roughly 47p as is normally the case when a div is paid. As you were not a holder you would not have seen any great change in the sp at the time of the payment, and indeed were probably not even aware of it. Had you been a holder you would have ended up with approx 80% of your original shareholding and 20% in cash, exactly the same situation as if you had decided to sell a 20% stake. IMHO both SGC and NEX are worth adding to any portfolio. Both benefitted from increased travellers due to the harsh winter and have continued to increase numbers as people have been forced to seek alternative transport solutions due to the high cost of petrol. Hope this answers yoyur question. ATB.

I just had a read through your last post, what is that all about? I am not in SGC as yet but it is something I am considering adding to my portfolio over the next couple of months. Any info I can get would be useful Thanks in advance

Stagecoach (SGC) retained its "buy" recommendation from Panmure Gordon, with an increased target price of 280p, from 260p. The broker is impressed with the transport group's ability to set up several Megabus hubs in North America and maintain a high operating margin. Panmure notes the company's strong track record and believes it is well placed to acquire a number of UK rail franchises which are coming up for offer. The shares grew 4.375p to 257.5p.

Liberum Capital downgrades Stagecoach from buy to hold, target price 262p

Three cheers for Stagecoach. Given the role of Scottish Old Labour in the affairs of the odious state-owned Scottish Bus Group, Labour should know all about bad businesses. Small shareholders who have stuck with Stagecoach for some years have been well rewarded.

Stagecoach has hit back at Labour after it was singled out as the sort of "predator" business that Ed Miliband attacked in his party conference speech on Tuesday. Maria Eagle, the Shadow Transport Secretary, is understood to have claimed the bus company was a "bad business", taking unjustified rewards of the kind Mr Miliband had criticised, according to the Times.

brilliant thanks alot for your time fella and be lucky..