Member Info for albion8844

Here is your answer: Morgan Stanley said that having analysed the accounts of almost 400 of its JV Vet practices, it has become "rather sceptical about the main bull point in the Pets at Home investment case".

Seems to be a huge over-reaction. I read that the company indicated a possible sales contraction this year of 4-5% due to uncertain world economic conditions but the shares get hammered as if they are a member of AIM having fallen a fair bit this year already before today's announcement. The P/E is similar now to a non-growth retail stock that has lost focus, M&S. I really don't see a peer comparison with them.

I have no idea if there is something fundamentally wrong with this company or just pure manipulation by those with more power and influence. However it has focused my mind now on avoiding any future investment in AIM as to me it is more of a casino than a place for serious investment. Until or unless regulators better control AIM then as mentioned I'm not going to touch anything further in this market. The Government wants to encourage more investment in AIM companies by eliminating Stamp Duty but do nothing to reduce the roller-coaster ride that will put-off small and serious investors. I got out after reading the Paul Scott article by the way. The share price may spectacularly rise again but the volatility is not for me.

Anyone including chartists willing to predict when this slump in the share price will end and at what level? I don't think any words of reassurance from Oozi, who receives a significant income, will convince me that something isn't quite right at the company with the recent mild profit warning, the shorters involved and now Canaccord dropping their target price significantly. It all points to possible problems in my opinion and there is history of Israeli run companies not meeting expectations. Is this a share in which we have to be patient or could there be no long-term future in IOT as an investment?

By my own admission I'm a bit of a novice compared to some of you other guys. Not sure what to make of this company. I'm uneasy with the Israeli involvement based on some other Israeli owned companies that had performed poorly or been a disaster. Also don't feel comfortable with the accounting practice as highlighted by Paul Scott of Stockopedia, albeit perfectly legal, that distorts the true profit. On the other hand another supposed positive news announcement although with no financial figures provided is matched on the same day by an attack on the shares by presumed shorters. This is either to activate stop orders and scare investors into panicking and sell in order to pick up more shares cheaply or perhaps they know something that is not being revealed by the company.

Matt: Post 353. Thanks for the explanation. I'm not really that clued up on the share trades bulletin board to be honest. When you see a trade sale of 1 million it kind of stands out. Lets hope the potential for the erasure business really takes off.

Not sure that I share your enthusiasm with the very large sale trades indicated yesterday of 1 million. Some clearly don't see much share price growth in the short-term at least.

Exactly and totally agree with you. Yet another example of irrational or perhaps intentional manipulation of a share price. This kind of thing happens all the time in various sectors, associating a link with a company making news headlines for the wrong reasons.

I've learn't not to take much notice of these so called "expert" analysts and don''t generally trust them as I believe a few are attempting to manipulate prices. I had to laugh at the time of one of them in March 2014 from Barclays justifying an ASC target price of £80 when it was already on a lofty rating with a price of £60 at the time of the forecast. Look where the price is now - £26. Plus you have the irrational behaviour of those influencing market indexes, one moment it's concerns about rising US interest rates then when the authorities don't indicate a rise it switches to concerns about the global economy because US rates will not rise in the short-term. Onto GKN. The market hasn't really liked this share much usually resulting in a P/E lower than its peers. I think the main concern is that GKN has still to address its pension fund deficit. I do like the emphasis though of moving more and more into the civil aircraft business sector as I think this will be a growth area for years to come and compensate for other cyclical segments they operate in.

I bought these shares back in the dot-com days and after the share price recovering a bit I topped up 2/3 years ago at around 160+ which in hindsight was poor timing. Since then all I read from this company in announcements is that near-term sales expectations will not be met. This has been going on for a couple of years now so I do wonder whether there are fundamental longer-term issues in the field of business they operate. Analysts periodically recommend this share because they see growth potential in mobile data testing as advances are made but so far this has not been translated into increased sales and profitability. I do not share your view of this company's fortunes being turned around in the near future at least.

With the benefit of hindsight, I have come to the conclusion that this has not been a very well run company, at least in the recent past, as Carlyle seem to have concluded by walking away. When the last set of results were announced I recall that the dividend was increased by a reasonable amount but surely at that time the board must have had some idea of the problems ahead with the subsequent profit warnings. It was either irresponsible or perhaps to deceive the market that all was well. Linked to this was the sale of the marine unit in June to reduce debts (or maybe to relieve a cash flow problem due to the announced contract delays). I suspect that there may well be more bad news in the pipeline.

I wonder if Carlyle or Woodford had any influence in this resignation after possibly finding some alarming things in the accounts or would it be reasonable to assume that Carlyle would install their own man after a formal takeover?

Jarus, been monitoring this share for 2/3 months on a valuation basis and only last week made a small speculative investment after reading your post 9 August, Thanks Jarus, In hindsight just wished I bought more now. Do you still think this can motor on up to 500p?