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What a rigged share price this is. Known offer of £3.20 and yet the price falls this morning. It should be at a minimum of £3.20 but then any further bid will look a lot better if the market price is £2.70 rather than £3.20.
The shares they have been buying back in the latest round fall into this years results. If they do manage to hit the same profit as they are suggesting from last year then they will definitely have a record EPS. It would not surprise me to see a further buyback later in the year. This one may be over today or tomorrow by the look of it. The all-time high share price was about £5.25, so they are nowhere near this on a similar EPS and far better cash position.
Last year Uncle Doug it was supposed to be 30th March, but of course the auditors unavailability pushed it back, so I was working on that basis. As we know there is nothing certain in this game, but £4 looks likely in the very near future given how much the price is moving up already with the buybacks made. I've never been a great fan of buybacks as I've seen in other companies money just wasted doing it and share price going south, but with the last buyback programme Mears look like they played a clever game, and this one looks strategic as well in getting it done in quick time before the results.
Another £20 million buyback announced. This is arguably a huge buy signal, as they could have waited for the final results at the end of March to announce this, but going early likely means they can buy cheaper than after the results, and they will not be paying a dividend on however many they are able to buyback before the shares go ex dividend, so will be saving a large amount.
Thankyou Time2Buy for posting this.
Whilst he was honest enough to admit that in one respect they took their eyes off the ball, I am not convinced about the FX loss and when they knew about this. Surely a good accountant and accounts system would have had this flagged up as a potential issue a lot earlier.
If the management want to make a real statement, besides obviously delivering on previous pointers to where the business would be heading, it would be for them as a group to buy a substantial number of shares.
They are close now to spending the £15 million in this round of buybacks, so this will have been done in half the time they originally anticipated. Getting it done before the trading update, so potentially a positive sign.
It's been a while since DGE has issued one of these. Pointer to the state of wider global economy. Gives DGE the opportunity to buy back far more shares now, that is as long as they don't pull the buyback programme.
Mears perhaps should either have mentioned today with the Interims or put a separate RNS out that they suffered a legal defeat two days ago that will be costly - £6.5 million. https://www.building.co.uk/news/high-court-orders-mears-business-to-pay-housing-group-65m-following-contract-row/5124451.article
It is referred to under Provisions in the Interims, but no mention they have actually lost the case.
Positive interims building on the recent profit upgrade message.
They are the only bidder for the massive Scottish contract.
Share buyback will be completed ahead of schedule (no surprise of course with recent buying), and the pointer that the Board may introduce a further buyback programme.
There could be many reasons for Milton selling, some of which could be due to their own investment situation rather than anything specifically relating to Mears, so I wouldn't necessarily take it as a negative for Mears going forward.
I have never been a fan of share buybacks as I have seen examples where large sums have basically been flushed down the toilet. One example was the old Cable & Wireless. The company that took over part of C&W - Liberty Global has also engaged in big buybacks and the share price has gone backwards. If the excess capital is not being used for investment purposes I would prefer a special dividend. But there will be some who argue for buybacks for tax reasons and some directors have an element of their remuneration package based on share price increase.
4.1 million shares now bought, which means half of the £20m allocated has been spent in just 2 months when they said it could take 18 months to complete the full programme. There could be a big seller whose shares they are hoovering up.