Currys Share Price (CURY)

Nice to see broker upgrades

I am surprised that there has been no mention of the passing of Lord Kalms on 30th March 2025

Just after midnight all the US and Asian futures were down, e.g. Dow down about 1,0000 (2.37%). FTSE100 futures weren't so bad, at about 60 (0.6%) down. When I went to bed at about 2:30 am US futures had recovered a bit and the Dow was only down about 800. When I checked the markets for the first time this morning at about 8:45 am, the FTSE100 was down about 105 (1.25%) and the FTSE100 was down about 175 (0.9%), not great but nowhere near the bloodbath which many people were expecting and London shares are performing significantly better than the levels at which some Asian markets closed and the DAX is currently down about 1.6%.

On a day like today I got an enormous surprise when I checked the top 20 risers on the FTSE250. At about 8:50 am Currys is top of the list, up nearly 11%. Moments ago it was traded at 101p, up 12.05 (13.55%) on fairly high volume, and the spread was 101.00 to 101.50.

I've been in and out of Currys a few times this year but didn't make as much profit as I could have because I got my timing wrong. My most recent purchase at 93.878 on 2 January 2025 involved fewer shares than previous purchases so I'm currently up about 5.54p per share. I bought prior to what I expected to be a positive update on Christmas and New Year trading but I didn't sell between about 18 and 21 February when I could have got about 99p per share. Also, I paid too much - I could have got in for under 90 between 9 and 14 January.

Currys had been dribbling back recently on lack of news and on lack of investor interest so this morning's announcement via the RNS that profits in the current year will be significantly higher than expected has casued the share price to catapult up. This is the full text of the announcement:

"Current year guidance

In the period since 4 January 2025, trading has been robust with continued positive like-for-like sales growth in the UK&I and the Nordics.

With less than five weeks of the financial year remaining, Group adjusted profit before tax is now expected to be around £160m (compared to previous guidance of £145-155m).

The Group expects to finish the year in a strong net cash position.

A full year trading update is scheduled for 21 May 2025.""

This is part of an Alliance News report at 9:27 am today:

"It is the second time that Currys has upgrade guidance so far in calendar 2025. The previous guidance was provided in January and was ahead of market consensus at the time of GBP140 million."

The takeover approaches about a year ago from two entities, Elliott Advisors / Elliott Investment Management and JD.com, were totally opportunistic.

I hold Marks & Spencer too. Moments ago MKS were up 10.8 at 375.9. I bought on 8 January 2025 expecting a good holiday trading announcement. That is indeed what we got the following day but the shares dived! They've been up and down a lot since then. I'm down about 1.5% on my purchase price of about 379.8 including dealing costs.

Excellent news today on profits and sp now over 100p.

AIMHO & GLA

Cobas Asset Management, a Spanish investment oufit, have been a big holder Currys for several years. There was a RNS at 1:54 pm announcing that on 17th March their holding had increased to above the 7% threshhold to 7.115493% of the voting rights, up from their previous notification which was 6.995647%.

Cobas' previous notification about their holding was on 14th February 2025 which reported that they had crossed the 7% threshhold in the other direction on 13th February when their interest in the voting rights had dropped to 6.995647% from 7.925100% at the time of their most recent notification prior to that one.

Accordingly, from 14th February to 17th March Cobas have acquired a net 1,358,449 shares in Currys. They will have paid not less than about £1.2m for these shares.

I quote something which I found a few minutes ago on the Cobas Asset Management website:

"At Cobas Asset Management we are faithful to our value investment philosophy, based on buying companies at a price below their intrinsic value and always with a long-term vision."

A few moments ago Currys were up 1.175p (1.33%) at 89.275 and so far today the high was 89.9.