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I worked for AHT for 12 years in its railtrack sector, however not much h revenue for the organisation actually came directly or indirectly from house builders however I get that the sector represents trends.
According to David Kempton but he rates AHT :
"a buying opportunity"
https://citywire.co.uk/funds-insider/news/david-kempton-4-stocks-im-buying-as-grim-2019-looms/a1185934?re=60726&ea=222385&utm_source=BulkEmail_FundsInsider+DawnChorus&utm_medium=BulkEmail_FundsInsider+DawnChorus&utm_campaign=BulkEmail_FundsInsider+DawnChorus
I can't see any reason other than that the house builders are down on falling house prices.
All AHT's U.S. competitors are up. URI up 2.34%, HEES up 1.61% and HRI up 1.14. at the time of writing. It's a conundrum
AAS
It is precisely because the dividend is well covered that the company can well afford to pay more'
6.5p with a profit of 98p per share: Ridiculous. When I see the value of my share holding fall by 35K I do not consider that the share buyback is in any way "returning profit" to me.
If they won't further increase the dividend or pay special ones as the builders do with surplus money I would much prefer them to pay down the debt, which they are paying interest on, ready for the inevitable downturn, instead of wasting my money on share buybacks.
Not a good day for the share price.
"Massive debt"?
As at 31 October 2018, the Group had net debt of £3,612 million. Net debt to EBITDA is 1.6, a decrease of 0.01 and within the management target range of 1.5 to 2.0.
Dividend cover is a substantial 5.74.
"wastes millions of pound supposedly"
Can you provide evidence of that please?
Yet again Good results followed by a muted market response.
Who would want to invest in a company that pays a paltry dividend yet wastes millions of pounds supposedly
"returning profit to shareholders" by buybacks, while carrying huge debts?
This is the report:
Interactive Investor: Ashtead share price drop a ‘conundrum’
The Ashtead (AHT) share price slump is a ‘conundrum’ given the equipment rental company’s earnings and profit growth, says Interactive Investor.
Analyst Richard Hunter said ‘on the face of it, the company is riding the wave of an economic boom’ especially in the US but more recently has been plagued by a downturn in US construction.
This coupled with its market’s cyclical nature and the shares ‘have been pounded even if the company’s performance is painting a different picture’.
‘It may well be that Ashtead’s fortunes remain largely welded to prospects in the US, yet the share price performance over the last year has not reaped the benefit of earlier economic success, having fallen 20%, as compared to a 10% drop in the wider FTSE 100,’ said Hunter.
‘Even so, the general view of the company is rather more reflective of both performance and outlook, with the market consensus coming in at a strong “buy”.’
The shares rose 5.8% to £17 yesterday.
The drop imo is all about a pull back after years of continuous rising. The dividend is not particularly very good to keep people in the share and so profits have to be made from selling the shares.
Should be 2,700
should be 1,800
Interactive Investor: Ashtead share price drop a ‘conundrum’
https://citywire.co.uk/funds-insider/news/the-expert-view-glaxosmithkline-wpp-and-ashtead/a1184352?re=60547&ea=222385&utm_source=BulkEmail_FundsInsider+DawnChorus&utm_medium=BulkEmail_FundsInsider+DawnChorus&utm_campaign=BulkEmail_FundsInsider+DawnChorus#i=4
That said, there's a few cheap shares around at the moment.
Yep excellent results and URI up over 3% in after hours.........so hopefully this will provide some upward momentum tomorrow as well. Bit disappointed in the share price action today but it’s still phenomenally cheap IMO. I reckon year end eps could be at least 180p now which puts this on a forward PE of just under 9, it’s five year average from memory is 15, so a potential 62% upside and yet given its price weakness I’m beginning to think I must be missing something?. This is not only massively undervalued IMO it’s a very sound play against Brexit and sterling weakness......so what’s not to like!.
DD
11-Dec-18 Peel Hunt Limited Buy 2,500.00 2,500.00 Reiteration
11-Dec-18 Liberum Capital Buy - 2,390.00 Reiteration
11-Dec-18 RBC Capital Markets Outperform 2,800.00 2,800.00 Reiteration
Cor!
It is climbing but hopefully will do for days to come as well.
In a more normal market environment, stock would be up 10%. I'm slowly continuing to accumulate stock at this level. GLA
Our business is performing well in supportive end markets. Accordingly, we expect full year results to be ahead of our prior expectations and the Board continues to look to the medium term with confidence."
Interested to see someone updated broker forecasts afterwards.
Quite the range currently:
3 Dec JP Morgan... 2,300.00 Overweight
29 Nov UBS N/A Sell
29 Oct HSBC 2,500.00 Buy
18 Oct JP Morgan... N/A Overweight
Very sad to see Geoff Drabble go. He has been an excellent CEO over the last 12 years.
He also replied personally to my email to him about buybacks earlier in the year explaining the situation.
How many other CEOs would bother?
....but succession plan very much on track with the highly impressive Horgan to take over. Stock price shows this is no issue for the market.
2200 will be fine for me.
BARCLAYS SLASHES PRICE TARGET FOR ASHTEAD
(Sharecast News) - Ashtead is facing a flattening off in its construction equipment end-markets, Barclays said on Monday, slashing its price target for the FTSE 100 company.
Analysing how the current economic cycle might differ from the last one, Barclays felt that lead indicators "have likely peaked" and currently strong activity levels are likely to lead into flat end-market volumes in the year to April 2021 and negative in the two subsequent years.
Barclays, which cut its price target to 2,200p from 2,580p, said the "shape" of the current cycle is very different from that in 2008-10, which saw very aggressive growth followed by a sharp downturn. Currently growth has been steadier and so a less severe correction is expected. Furthermore, Ashtead has a stronger balance sheet this time.
"By the time AHT's end market conditions have deteriorated enough to be evident in financial performance, the shares will likely be closer to a buying opportunity than a selling opportunity."
Brought some of these today when my alert of 1700 was hit. Not seeing a recession happening yet in US but sp being hammered likely from ftse dropping.
Mornin' DD
I am now starting to get a little concerned.
It appears that not a single cent of Trump's pre- election promised $1trillion plus infrastructure spend has been allocated so far, and raising taxes to fund spending is likely to be political anathema to many Republicans.
URI has dropped 33% YTD despite good results and even if spending allocation is voted through is it likely that contracts would be awarded to UK listed companies with Trumps "America First" ideology?
Hi dubious
He seems to time his purchases / sells very well, follow the money.
DD
He only reinvested half of what he sold.
It remains to be seen whether the other board members who sold in July have the confidence to buy back in.