Computacenter Share Chat (CCC)

Not a dumb question at all. It appears to be a number of factors from the FD's report near the end under "cashflow".
No least - there was c.£50m of advanced cash on the books at year end which has been wound down over H1.
They have significantly paid down bank debt from c £121m to c £36m at end of H1. Plus they are carrying c.£100m more in inventory H1 21 v H1 '20. As ever, a faultless management of balance sheet is very robust for future acquisitions.
I was maybe a bit premature calling a cash return but H2 looks good for a debt free balance sheet and rapid increase in cash.

Forgive me if it’s a dumb question.

Only a positive note.Apologies for having to issue the RNS earlier this week but the bods in the city are not doing their jobs.
Looking forward to next week.Have a great weekend

The CEO weekly email to the business is due out at 2pm today.Good chance next weeks results will be discussed.I will post again if there is positive news

I helped with the Post Office Counters rollout here in Northern Ireland and can say the whole operation was very professionally done and the guys in Computacentre were a great bunch to work with.

Anyone else out there using Google spreadsheets to track their portfolio?
Every now and then a stock stops showing properly and the last few days it's been CCC.

https://on.ft.com/2V9OU22
Always pleasing when you read in the FT what you feel to be the case!

I agree SZ - who knew it was a FTSE requirement to make an additional statement if the brokers are undervaluing the company and not following company guidance?!
Still , I think I can accept it and hope 9th Sept will deservedly take it north of £30.

Morning All
A definite buzz around the Hatfield site this morning.All eyes on Sept 9th

Agreed. Looking good here for a crack at £30

This is unusual. Why not just pleasantly surprise the market in September on results day?

Morning Jmcj
Happy to pass on information.The company are winning business,Daimler 145mil,Sky,etc and we are told another massive Dept of Education contract starting in Sept,500000 laptops.The Hatfield site will revert back to 24/7 hours Sept/Jan.
The latest SAYE will launch soon and i always advise any staff eligible to seize the oppurtunity.We are offered 10% for a 3yr contract and 20% for 5year which i have always done.I have 2750 options coming out Dec 21 which i took at £5.77 per share so a hefty bonus.
Feel free to message me with any questions which i wil do my best to answer.

Thanks for sharing Chelwood. Very interesting to get something of an inside account, much appreciated.

Yes,been here 20yrs and watched them grow.I believe the USA is the key to future grow of the company.The workforce has steadily increased over there and we are told they are performing very well.
A branch in Cluj,Romania is due to open as well.Onwards and upwards.

Do you work at the company?

Agree with sentiment on this board. It's an undervalued company vs peers so a long way for the shares to go, barring any general market corrections which could be looming.

My wife holds a lot of shares in Tesco and i monitor for her as she does not have the interest.Only this morning individuals were posting negative,i believe ite called ramping,paid de-rampers.
Thank the lord this site appears above that.
As an employee of CC i have just read this weeks notes from Mike Norris and it continues to be very positive.A few weeks ago information gleaned from the market suggests this could be £47 per share in 5years.

:-) I agreed but couldn't find the words to add to what I'd already said - this is undervalued and is moving nicely against the market in general. £34 is my fair value based on current PER, along with a cash return by May 2022. If we are lucky, we will get a revaluation to a PER of 25.
Good posts should be encouraged - one only needs to look at the drivel on VOD and GSK to see what a poor board is but sadly footfall on CCC isn't comparable.

Waiting for the 9th sept when results are announced,this could easily go beyond £30.
The CEO commented in his weekly address to staff last week that we will see just how well the company have performed.

Couldn’t agree more with you Zinc.

2,900 easier to take down.

BTW lovely to have a discussion board where we are all in full agreement.

Feels like a significant milestone! Been a tough nut to crack.

Yes there is a lot of scope for multiple expansion given peers such as Softcat trading high 30 PEs, with similar, if not lower growth over there?

What a very encouraging update. I'm a bit gutted that yesterday I didn't buy £20k more in CCC rather than splitting it between BT and AV but hey ho.
To be 50% ahead on profit over last year at the midway point, with some headwinds, is phenomenal. Going a little off-piste with a scenarios...even if they are 25% up by the year end, allowing for some tougher comparatives, that is EPS of 170p. I believe that CCC should be trading on a PE ration of 25 but even on the current 20x that is a share price of £34.
I believe that if it doesn't do any more acquisitions this year the cash situation may allow a special dividend too - so all in all very rosy in the Hatfield garden!

Computacenter said it 2021 will likely be another year of "substantial progress" following a robust first half performance.

The computer services provider expects to post 50% year-on-year growth in adjusted pretax profit for the first half of 2021. Profit would have been even further ahead had there not been supply shortages in the industry, it said.

"As we enter the second half of the year our Services backlog and more particularly our Product backlog, across all geographies, are at a record high which gives us a high degree of comfort," said Computacenter, adding that it concerns remain about supply shortages and a further strengthening of the pound, but does not believe either of these headwinds will get any worse.

The firm added: "After a record breaking performance in 2020, as we entered into 2021, there was some understandable scepticism as to whether Computacenter could continue with its 16 years of uninterrupted earnings per share growth. Given the performance in the first half, the current backlogs and the forecast to the end of the year, while nothing in life is ever certain and we face a stronger comparative in the second half, it is highly likely that 2021 will be another year of substantial progress for the group."

Using information from a recent presentation and the company seems to be focusing on growth in what appears to be a fragmented US market. Considering the pound's recent strength and its subsequent slide against the US dollar, its potential American earnings look attractive.

Down 5% since that tip, it appears I reversed the trend having shared it - we should be just about due an update from CCC as we seem to have got into a pattern of city trading statements every couple of months.