Hays Share Price (HAS)

Took a tranche (1) ahead of 2p+ dividend - seems a good entry point for the bottom drawer marked "ISA",

In at 86.9p.

They made over £90 million pre tax (pre exceptionals).

This may not be cycle low profitability, however we may be closer to a a cycle low SP.

As a 3-5 year recovery buy it may be interesting, providing

we are not looking at a further deterioration in wider macro.

Hays Group posted a softish set of Interims this morning confirming that performance has been challenging, but interestingly the share price has rallied anyway suggesting that all the bad news may now be in the price. Group fees decreased by 12% to £1,113.6m, PBT before exceptionals was down 51% to £94.7m, there was a statutory basic EPS loss of 0.31p. There was weakness in the Group’s 3 largest markets, the US, Germany and Australia. Group headcount decreased 15%, management reduced costs by an annualised c.£60 million and expect to deliver further structural cost savings of c.£30 million per annum by the end of FY27. Valuation isn’t particularly helpful with forward PE ratio at 22.4x and bottom quartile for the sector. But the share price is up nearly 4%. True, the news was maybe not as bad as feared, but there is no rush to buy here. Monitor for now...

...from WealthOracle

wealthoracle.co.uk/detailed-result-full/HAS/853

How this share goes up on the back of those reults is bizarre.