Member Info for eccles04

Not surprised, it is of course because masks do not prevent viruses from spreading but no-one wants to say it because it was Boris's idea in the first place. However now that we know the truth someone needs to have the guts to stand up, say so and change methods.

Could well be right there Paul; with the onset of inflation at the highest rate for years the wrinklies are beginning to realise that they need to find better safe places to park their cash and this is one of them.

Problem is that the half year report shows an after tax IFRS loss of £248m which is obviously putting some folk off including me even though it appears to be somewhat technical.

With all the blah blah blah going on at present about inflation this is an obvious portfolio addition to me unless there is some underlying reason which I cannot detect that keeps the SP below £2. No1 son pointed out this share to me a month ago and now I have a fresh lot of cash to play with I will dive in.

Great news for DRIPpers like me and even more strange considering that all transactions up 'til now (2am) have been buys.

What is beyond my understanding is what causes quite a lot of loonies to exchange a decent dividend earning share for a for a pile of cash which earns zilch. Don't tell me it's covid because it's very unlikely that a few hundred deaths (which happen all the time) will make a serious dent in DLG's sales.

Don't want to troll Paul, but what advice would that be? The average so called financial adviser has no more expertise in investing than you or I and almost certainly less than me being a retired financial professional. It's a shame that many people pay these rascals a few hundred quid when they could learn most of what they need to know in the nearest public library.

Ahem, what has "free cash flow" got to do with the price of fish? Just had a glance at the half year balance sheet which will need some sorting after the demerger just a few months ago and my most striking observation is Cash £204m but Payables £317m. Mr Wood needs to sort this disparity as soon as possible IMO. The fixed asset situation is fairly irrelevant as it is very much a personal choice as to whether one owns or leases trading sites - some businesses do it one way and others do the opposite.

cxs1: Don't think I am naive at all. I used to be in the property refurbishment business and found that all to often builders (like one of my former partners) were too idle to seek better/cheaper supplies. I always insisted and we made £thousands extra profits as a result.

Don't know where you get this info from cxs1, in my locality there are at least eight firms doing similar business to Wickes. If that is not competion I don't know what is and it's even easier for tradesmen to check prices these days because most suppliers are on the internet.

This world like Boris becomes more bonkers every week. We have a perfectly stable business (everyone buys insurance) regularly providing shareholders with good dividends but still it gets sold when a fresh panic breaks out over a virus (again like Boris). 40 years ago when I started investing, I cannot recall such stupid behaviour occurring.

Yes only the scared/dumb got involved in last friday's sell off. I have made it a rule never to get involved in such panics because over many years I have observed that SPs almost always recover eventually unless there is some factor which directly affects the business.

Even better reason then for using this platform as they don't do any trading on their own account I understand.

Yes, usual crackpots sold on Friday what difference yet another mutation will make to DLG's profits is of course zero. There will be another mutation in due course so I must be more ready next time with some cash to buy in at the crackpots' selling prices. It's a shame that the bumbler still panics when yet another one comes along.

Absolutely right Bernado, there are always plenty of loonies about who imagine that the world might end because of a virus. But what difference it will make if you swap shares for cash does not make any sense.

Quite right Avo, but you didn't know that a new mutation would be found in Africa. Mind you, why another mutation should cause the market to turn down this morning is beyond my comprehension. I mean what difference does it make whether you hold cash which always depreciates or shares which tend to do the opposite.

Well, never mind, unlike AJB, JIM seems to know how to produce a decent profit, I suspect that the EPS will finish up at at least 18p vs last years 12.71.

They are probably doing it to get some Christmas money which happens to a lot of shares at this time of year; have even done it myself in the past. So another few days and that will be it IMO.

Very interesting, some of these big boys are probably using the shares for "day trading" which can be done quite profitably with penny shares and explains a lot of the ups and downs over the past few years.

Paul2566, Sometimes the market goes a bit mental and has to be sectioned. E.g. about this time last year LGEN could be had for around £1.80 (currently £2.90+) which was quite obviously completely bonkers. Within a week or so it was back to £2.60 but a few canny individuals got as absolute bargain before it happened. Now in the case of DLG it seems that they lost a tiny fraction of their business recently which happens all the time but your average looney regards it as some sort of catastrophe and behaves accordingly.