The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
I very much doubt it, we had a similar instance at the end of last month with 14.7m shares traded and 5.8m shares traded all before 08:00am at the end of last month on two separate days and which I posted, then came the RNS holdings announcement the following day.
Now take a look, we're up to 41m shares now !
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/FOXT.L?p=FOXT.L&.tsrc=fin-srch
Well, just had a look on the Yahoo business website this morning and share volume reported in Foxtons .........36,682,125 .
Yes, that's over 12% of the company !!
Here is the cut and pasted screen shot :-
Foxtons Group plc (FOXT.L)
LSE - LSE Delayed price. Currency in GBp (0.01 GBP)
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40.00+0.95 (+2.43%)
At close: 13 November 05:15PM GMT
Summary
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1D5D1M6MYTD1Y5YMaxFull screen
Previous close 39.05
Open 0.00
Bid 0.00 x 0
Ask 0.00 x 0
Day's range 0.00 - 0.00
52-week range
Volume 36,682,125
Avg. volume 347,880
Market cap 120.518M
Beta (5Y monthly) 1.60
PE ratio (TTM) 13.33
EPS (TTM) 0.03
Earnings date N/A
Forward dividend & yield 0.01 (2.25%)
Ex-dividend date 03 Aug 2023
1y target est N/A
And here is the link to see it in full before 08:00am today or when the first trade in Foxtons is reported this morning :-
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/FOXT.L?p=FOXT.L&.tsrc=fin-srch
Well, just 22,000 shares traded up to 12.00pm today and then 2 lots of 500,000 shares followed by some order book shenanigans by the MMs in the afternoon to keep the price back under 40p and then some lumpy trades just published after hours.
Tomorrow could be just as interesting !
Hardly a surprise considering the lengths the MMs are going through to keep a lid on these !!
Another earnings enhancing acquisition announced this morning and the Kings speech later as a prelude to the Chancellors Autumn statement later this month and which will be predominantly based on housing will tick further boxes for Foxtons.
Nice.
Well if someone has come knocking at £1.25, I suggest they do an about turn and come back with something more realistic !
Ok, £1.25 is a nice opening gambit but arguably Foxtons are performing better now than since the days when Jon Hunt was at the helm and where sales was the key driver of the business, my goodness how things have changed in just the last couple of years.
I doubt if Converium Capital would be too happy either, especially after this letter last year (in case anyone hasn't seen it) and have they added another 2% to their Foxton holdings since.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220316005214/en/Converium-Capital-Sends-Letter-to-Foxtons-Group-Board-of-Directors
As predicted.
Nice.
I mentioned yesterday of 14,782,440 shares traded in Foxtons before the open and again today the volume so far is 5.4m shares, so that's just over 20m shares traded or 6.7% of the company.
Someone out there is obviously trying to keep attention away from prying eyes and is conducting trading in Foxtons shares away from the main exchanges.
If anyone knows where to get this information, please do by all means post it here but I will make enquiries.
The stock was held at 37p yesterday around 900,000 shares were sold to keep a lid of 37p on the order book, expect more of the same today.
Well, the total volume before this morning's trades was..........
14,782,440
Which is roughly 5% of the company give or take !!
Bring on the RNS holding !!
Ok, we saw a little bit of volume on Q3 day last week and just over a million shares traded on Friday officially, not a lot going on with Gittins playing down the numbers again, or so we thought ?
Now take a look what's being reported on the Yahoo business website, a bit more than a million shares traded on Friday me thinks :-
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/quote/FOXT.L?p=FOXT.L&.tsrc=fin-srch
Whilst my copy and paste comment a few days ago referring to the latest Q3 numbers was delivered 'tongue-in-cheek' I wasn't expecting it to be taken literally but then again its what we've come to expect from Gittins & Co. for the last 9 months or so.
As I commented in July, the numbers are being played down once again although to be fair to the Foxtons' management and in point 7 of the interim statement it does state the following.....
.......' Consensus expectations for Foxtons Group plc, being the average of forecasts for the year ending 31 December 2023 provided by analysts covering the Group, is revenue of £141.5m and adjusted operating profit of £11.8m'.
It should be noted that there are only 3 analysts supposedly covering the stock and they've all just tinkered with last years full set of numbers, again a complete waste of our time. These are not management delivered numbers !
What should be noted however and again no mention of this in the statement but Q3 turnover figure was the best performance by the company since its inauguration to the market back in 2013 when the following year its Q3 turnover figure was £112.7m and in 2015 Q3 reported £114.5m (9 months) !!
Similarly with lettings recording its best ever 9 months at £81.3m and even financial services coming in at £6.6m for the year to date beats the figure of £5.9m reported for Q3 back in 2015.
Market always concentrates on sales but we are now in a 5% interest rate environment and not a 0-1% interest arena, how many home owners can afford a 0-1% mortgage on a £500,000 property when earning £40,000 a year ??? Yes, quite a lot !!
Now how many of them will have to re-mortgage when their current deal expires in a year or two and now have to finance a £500,000 mortgage at 5-6% ??? How many of them can afford a £20,000- £30,000 increase in their mortgage costs ?? Er, not many !!
And this will be the norm for quite some time yet.
Going forward, whilst the US Hedge funds and Banks are still looking to pick up stock, maybe another Friday tree-shake tomorrow perhaps, Foxtons can now look forward to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement in a few weeks time.
Its election year next year, so expect the Chancellor to pull out all the stops, especially for first time buyers, the removal of Stamp Duty, Help-to-Buy incentives, Build-to-rent homes, help with legal fees (just add it on to the principal) and who knows maybe a cut in Corporation Tax Duties.
Yes, the Q3 statement was extremely dull to put it mildly (by design ?) but keep buying on those MM manipulated dips and tree-shakes !!!
I posted on here sometime ago about the collaboration between BidX1 and Foxtons and how landlords are now turning to auctions to get rid of their properties asap as rising interest rates bite.
No mention of breaking sales records in the interim statement with regards to the Auction team at Foxtons and BidX1 but maybe tomorrow Gittins might finally share the news with the wider audience.
In the meantime, just check this out :-
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bidxone-property-investment-platform_onlineauctions-foxtons-bidx1-activity-7122596512341073920-5V8-?trk=public_profile_like_view
It looks as though it will be increasingly hard for Gittins to play down the figures this time round, especially after the interview last week published on The Negotiator website (I've only seen it this morning !), here's a snippet :-
'......The changes made over the last year are already yielding considerable results. As confirmed by Rightmove last month, Foxtons agreed sales were up 61% in September, against a market backdrop of just 8%.
We’ve also been the fastest growing agent with regard to market share over the last six months, regaining our title as London’s largest lettings and sales agent (according to TwentyCI data, H1 2023 v H1 2022 market share and market share growth of New Instructions at a brand level).
As for year two, with everything we’ve put in motion it’s going to be even bigger and even better.'
And the story in full :-
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/foxtons-chief-why-were-were-in-pole-position-again/
Not long to go now !!
And its most likely that Gittins will be mentioned in a few papers in the morning after steering Chestertons to its most profitable time in its history before he left as CEO in the Summer of last year after his 10 year reign at the company.
What else is in store for the sector this week...........hmmmm !!
Indeed, another merger/takeover in the sector that's rapidly consolidating !!
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/chestertons-bought-by-french-property-group/
Yep, its been scheduled for today since those interims and has stated as such on the Foxtons website and now it states the Q3 numbers will be out on the 26th instead !
Oh well, I can wait another week !
You mean another in the space of two weeks ?
Oh Yeah, the on-line company company On The Market has been snapped up !!
https://propertyindustryeye.com/eye-newsflash-onthemarket-takeover-bid-confirmed-as-costar-group-bid-accepted/
Not long to go now and judging by all the latest linkedin posts and general market comment, I'm still standing by my prediction of a few months back that Foxtons are absolutely smashing it in ALL areas of its business.
But will Gittins deliver this time or will we get the copy and paste statement, '.........we re-iterate our guidance as highlighted in our interim statement and we maintain our forecasts for this financial year. With interest rates now looking to have nearly peaked, we are encouraged by the level of sales interest over the Summer and with a continued strong lettings book of clients we look forward to the final quarter of this year'.
Yawn, yawn, yawn, blah, blah and more blah !!
Go on Gittins, tell us all how well the company is really doing and how its on course to break records in every division of the business in Q3 and is on track to deliver its best profit for ten years !!!
I DARE YOU !!!
Oh go on then !!
Okay, so we saw that Dexters gobbled up LiFE residential last week and today Sotheby's International and Rokstone announce a 'merger' of sorts.
Its Sotheby's all the way but lest run with it.
Savills (mkt cap £1.2bn) up next to splash the cash ?? Nice cap raise of £350m for Foxtons, easy peasy !!!
https://propertyindustryeye.com/rokstone-joins-forces-with-uk-sothebys-international-realty/
Just for the record, Dexters are too busy doing their own thing after their purchase of LiFE Residential based in London this week.
LiFE have over 7000 paid tenants on their books, now that would have a nice purchase for Gittins & Co. !!
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/dexters-acquires-major-international-agency/