Member Info for Beza

I thought that Drax had stated that they would be paying the dividend

Who’s trading? Mark Barnett

The trade: Embattled Invesco fund manager Mark Barnett has upped his stake in renewable power generator Drax from 13.9% of the shares to 14.2%.

How the shares have performed: Shares have been on a downward slide since a high of 412p last February. The coronavirus market shock caused prices to hit a low of 126p before recovering some ground to 203p.

What does the company say? The firm said last week that core profit for 2020 should be in line with expectations, despite an estimated £60m hit from the pandemic. However, Drax expects lower power demand and increased bad debts.

What’s the outlook? Out of five analysts covering the stock, three have a ‘buy’ rating with an average price target of 339p. Drax said full-year expectations remain underpinned by good operational availability for the remainder of 2020. In addition, the 2019 final dividend of 9.5p a share will be paid out, subject to approval at the annual meeting.

PEEL HUNT ON IPF

The price of International Personal Finance (IPF) shares is ‘overly pessimistic’ as the doorstep lender is proving ‘more robust’ than anticipated, says Peel Hunt.

Analyst Stuart Duncan retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 270p on the shares, which soared 20.6% to 55.9p yesterday.

While he said it was still to early to quantify the impact of Covid-19 on the business, a statement from the group ‘indicates the business is proving more robust that the share price suggests’.

‘The key points... are collections running at 76% effectiveness in April and positive cashflows of £27m in April,’ he said. ‘Both signal that the current share price is way too pessimistic for a business that is proving more resilient than feared.’

Well I am not surprised that WB can’t see any value in the USA markets because the valuations are crazy. As someone mentioned the other day, in a Dec 1999 the FTSE reached what was then a new peak at about 6950 and the DOW was around 12,500. Fast forward 20 years and the DOW has more than doubled whilst the FTSE only rose and extra 11% and now sits at 6,000! To me the the US markets are out of kilter with other major indices.

My understanding is that the dividend cover is 1.3. This figure was quoted before the sale of the cigar business. Cheers

Morning John, I’ll take a look at Ideagen later. Thank you. As for coal, I view it in the same light as tobacco, controversial but still making money. Coal is still going to be around in power generation for at least another 10/20 years I think (but not on as bigger scale as what we have seen in the past) plus it’s used in refineries and oddly enough, it’s even used in the manufacture of solar panels! But yes, many bargains out there at the moment. Regards Bisichi, I’m attracted to the healthy looking balance sheet so I’m going to keep digging, pardon the pun!

... yes I did notice that huge £3M buy back in September ish. Jeez if that was me, I’d have been balling my eyes out all week! Good work with the previous deals. I’m going to do some digging on BISI. We’ll have to see what happens here but at these prices it’s certainly looking interesting!

Yes I’m poised over the buy button (not today obviously!) after the drop but I’m not 100% sure yet. This crazy market is certainly throwing up some opportunities. Do you follow any other stocks John. I’ve stumbled across one called Bisichi Mining (BISI). If you get chance see what you think. Regards RE.A I’d feel more reassured if I saw the directors put their own cash in with some purchases to demonstrate confidence. I always read your morning update - very informative. Regards

I notice that BISI have retail property interests... Surely the value of these will be reduced in line with the carnage on the high street?

... and it seems very cruel that some family businesses, which were doing ok, will be forced to fold and then probably re-open under new ownership later in the year!

Morning John. Well regarding RE.A’s trading update we now know why someone was dumping stock. I guess the concern with this whole lock thing is that companies/ small businesses are at risk of falling into the hands of their lenders. Even if the business was ticking over and doing ok before all of this broke out.

... tobacco stocks??

I hold IPF. I was surprised that the share price didn’t rise yesterday given the announcement after markets closed on Tuesday that one of the directors bought 200,000 shares. It kind of went under the radar. A broker has a target on it (but sometimes take these with a pinch of salt(!) of £2.70. I’m a holder here too but not in AML or MARS.

Thought I’d become the first poster of 2020! I used to be a holder here but quite a few years ago. I know that coal is not exactly in fashion at the moment but this seems cheap...

Hi Paradise, where did you get the info about the recent director purchase? Regards

... I bought these at the beginning of the year when I read that Halfords had taken on the child seat part of Mothercare (which unfortunately hit the wall). I thought that this was a good move and a sign of good management that they moved so fast. I added in the mayhem so I’m happy to be holding. Although it’s really motored (pardon the pun!) I can see a lot of people holidaying at home this year and this can only be good news for HFD’s. Plus, with so many couples locked away at home for the last month there could be a run on baby seats next year! Good luck everyone.

Guys, has anyone got a forecast eps price for Halfords? The profit forecast of £50-55M is, I think pretty much the same as what was forecast before all this cv19 stuff blew up. I might be wrong but at the start of the year I thought that 23p eps was on the cards? Has anyone got any update figures? Great results regardless though!

Hmm, has the market not spotted the 200K buy made by one of the directors yesterday? It was reported after the market closed. I expected to see this up today so a little surprised/ disappointed!

Well I’m sure that the DOW is overvalued, especially back in Feb when it hit 27/28, 000 but would you say that the FTSE was? I mean, it hit 6950 December 1999 and 20 years later, in Feb 2020 it’s at 7600. But I can understand your concern because we seem to follow the DOW but never recover as much!

I know that the market is volatile at the movement but the IPF price this week has been crazy! I’m awaiting the results. It sounds as though Europe is starting to return to normal. Not sure about Mexico. We’ve heard very little about South America as regards cv19 but we need to see what the board say.