Member Info for Grayling

QE I agree about divi being not bad but if I bought it would still fall at the lower end of my yields. My main problem with RR is the C shares payment method as this does not allow automatic dividend reinvestment within my ISA (Halifax). I would have to take the C shares, convert them into cash and use the cash to buy more RR stock at standard rates of commission. Not very attractive compared with my other holdings which roll the cash over into new shares with virtually no fee. Problem is that I can always find something more attractive than RR when the monthly investment time comes around. This month I am buying RDSB purely for the very steady long term dividend yield and based on the fact that the shares are at a 5 year low.

The fact that you read it in the June edition of Aerospace magazine means it is old news and was quickly followed by the July 6th profit warning (the 5th since Jan 2014). So yes the market is down generally and this has an impact, but RR has been on a steady decline for some time now based on worries about its future income stream. That said it cannot fall for ever and there will be an attractive price to buy in. Its just that at present nobody is certain what that price is and how long RR will remain in the doldrums before recovering.

Great news on the humanitarian front indeed and a scientific milestone for GSK. However, other than goodwill, this will not impact on the bottom line at GSK at all as the company have clearly stated that this is "not for profit" venture. They will provide the vaccine "at cost" to the affected countries and not seek to make any money at all on this programme. Whether this will result in the recouping of the development costs incurred over the past 30 years or so of research is unclear, but I doubt it.These will just be written off. So a great achievement scientifically, but other than raising GSKs profile as one of the great and the good not a lot of impact on profits.

MacNarin, Are you saying that all those fancy single crystal self-cooling turbine blades are not manufactured in house? I thought that this type of cutting edge technology was what gave RR an edge over its competitors and was closely guarded IP, amounting to an industrial secret. If they start farming this stuff out on subcontract the Chinese will be knocking aero engines off two a penny before the end of the decade!

Non in particular. I just read the quality press (ie. not the Daily Mail/Express) and look at the RNS service and broker updates. That and the share price graph for 2014 should tell you all you need to know. They can all be found on this site.

You must have got the wrong poster. I have made no comments whatsoever as to the quality of RR engines and regard them as the best that money can buy. Whether the company that produces and delivers them is in rude health or not may be another matter and as a non-holder best left to others. Hope you are not in one of the tourist hell holes on the north coast tho. We prefer SW Crete and Loutro in particular, with a day or two in Chania on the way in/out.

Bought another (small) tranche of shares today to bring my CWC holding up to the average for my ISA. Hoping for good news on the 21st and upward movement over the next year or two.

Boak, That is the standard wording under any AZN RNS relating to their anticancer portfolio and basically the equivalent of mom and apple pie. The actual RNS was issued because the FDA have now approved Iressa as a first line treatment for patients with EGFR mutant positive non small cell lung cancer. Good news indeed and judging by a scientific presentation I attended not long ago there is more positive news to come on AZNs portfolio of innovative lung cancer treatments.

Well spotted! I am not selling up anyway as I always give a share a year or two to see how it goes unless disaster strikes (RSA!).

I guess we may tread water in the run up to the Q1 results announcement on the 21st July? The price seems to be reluctant to meet the broker upgrades trumpeted recently and has quietly dropped back from the 70p or so May high.

Very interesting. It is never easy to figure out what has gone on with these late trades. They are supposed to be tightly regulated and reporting can only be delayed until market close if to do so during trading hours would destabilise the market in that share.

Comsman, Are you sure the 15m was not just the "uncrossing trade" marked (UT). This happens for all shares as the books are settled just after trading closes and is often mistaken for a late buy or sell. Fridays UT was 12.6M so in the same ball park. Cannot check Thursday's UT as it has scrolled off the end of the ticker by now.

As if to answer you Comsman it has perked up to the tune of + 2.5% or so this am! Don't get me wrong, I was beginning to wonder what was going on as well having bought in recently at 65p.

We did get a good news story from AZN at the weekend conference. Their targeted anti-lung cancer drug appears to perform very well in trials. Price went up significantly early doors only to fall back as the whole market retreated, but over the next few weeks we could see sustained improvement.

Makes sobering reading for followers of both AZN and PFE post failed merger. Lets hope from AZNs perspective that the Brodalumad story is not replicated for the other drugs now in the AZN pipeline. This conference in Chicago this coming weekend may shed some light on this, so a nervous wait.

Well no one was expecting this, but the downward drift just recently might have been due to leaks. Amgen have pulled out of the joint development programme with AZN for their blockbuster anti-psoriasis treatment Brodalumad (based on IL-17 receptor blockade). This is due to a significant incidence of "suicidal throughts" amongst phase III trial participants that would inevitably have narrowed the patient base for the drug. Although this is a blow to prestige it may not hit the bottom line quite so hard as AMGEN retained the lions share of the IPO and potential revenues in the USA. However Brodalumad was cited in the Pfizer defence as a potentially big source of future revenue, so this will hurt perceptions of AZN in the near term. I expect this to fall further tomorrow unless AZN have something positive up their sleeve to announce as a counter.

Any implications for VZC (or perhaps Liberty Global) in this deal which sees Charter Coms take over Time Warner Cable in a mixed stock and cash deal worth $79 Billion?

Overall not as negative or hostile a piece as the sensationalist headline would have you believe and the article ends on a very positive note. "On the bottom line, gross margins came in significantly above our expectations, which should help the company manage through its patent losses with stronger margins than we had anticipated.While we expect gross margins to fall over the next two years based on the patent losses on high-margin drugs, the higher-than-expected margins in the quarter combined with likely cuts to Selling, General and Administrative Expenses and Research & Development should enable the firm to easily achieve its 2015 guidance of increasing core earnings per share by a low single-digit rate. Turning to the pipeline, Astra is making strong strides. We are most bullish on the company’s immuno-oncology franchise, which we project will hit $4 billion in sales by 2020."

Thanks for posting that comsman it is a very balanced piece. I am happy to hold for the dividend at present, but obviously any capital growth that comes organically or via a takeover is welcome. I held these before when they were near the top of the FTSE250 dividend yield table for a couple of years (2013-2014), getting in when the price was in the high thirties and exiting at 56p with a nice profit. They fell back after that, but the Columbus deal and the recent rally tempted me in again.

Comsman as the Times piece says towards the end it all depends what John Malone does with his stake post the Columbus deal. Does he hold and support the future development of CWC or cut and run? He seems a bit distracted with eyeing up Vodafone at the moment judging by recent comments. I am not complaining about that as I also hold Vod and the price has bounced very nicely after the immediate post-results drop. Mostly I feel because Malone has shown interest in a tie up.