The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
...another solid trading update from the team at Kainos, increasing order backlog and clear visibility on pipeline of growth in revenues and PBT ahead!
"In the near-term, an increased backlog, a robust pipeline and a strong balance sheet provide excellent visibility of the strength of our performance in the current financial year."
I think this is a real gem of a business and one that could maybe shout a little louder to find a wider audience of larger investors, perhaps they too should be looking at a dual listing in the US, well it's a thought.
Plenty of cash at £130m (growing at some £20m a year), zero debt and a 5.5% FY25 FCF Yield, what's not to like!?
Late breaking news for the wider public market... Kainos is a superstar in both WorkDay and AI expertise deployment, ARRs growing at some 30% and now accounting for 15-20% of their total revs, very much an under-appreciated blue chip leader in their field... Not sure why it's not at the top of more investor's portfolios, a rare combination of US Tech like skills and revenues and oddly it's based and listed in the UK, who knew!?
Tell Sid..?
LOL... Brilliant replies!
Fwiw, I would't be surprised to see the shares close flat to up on the day today.
If I had participated at 20p in the round, I for one would be happy buying a few more at 30p, otherwise why pay 20???
...@UH, I also think your point about the raise coming at 20p and not 7-8p is hugely significant and completely shatters the bear case that this is a bankrupt company without suitors. What if there's a cash bid announced tomorrow, the shorts will have nowhere to go to cover their shorts and the larger shorts of Armistice, Millennium, Citadel, etc likely wanted to cover in the $10m raise, but I would be surprised if they got allocated any shares and I would expect them to be covering imminently, well after they short a few more to spook the pumpers and dumpers and improve their chances of covering that is... There's a name for them and their destructive shorting activity, but I'm unable to post it on this forum.
I think it's just general malaise, they're all pretty illiquid aren't they, my money's on Harwood driving the value in each of these companies, over time, it's what he does... I'm also watching the XBI ETF which has been consolidating after a recent breakout. There's so much value in these stocks and the wider sector, surely just a matter of time before interest rate cuts lead money flows into this bombed-out and unloved segment of the market.
Yes interesting to see the recent weakness, though it's on very light volumes, so frankly any seller or buyer (above say 200k shares) is going to move the shares close to 10% without any effort, this is AIM after all!
I'm looking forward to the update next week and expect to hear that the company is comfortably back to generating healthy monthly free-cash, and that the Fermentation/Enzyme business is starting to contribute progressively and then materially heading into 2025...
I see EKF being in the ludicrously cheap category and could therefore be bid for (at some point), like a growing amount of cash-generative AIM stocks. Think Wincanton, Hotel Chocolat, Mattioli Woods...
In the meantime, EKF has an excellent PoC business and they're likely to create a similarly strong market position in Enzymes, suggesting we're now in for a decent period of FCF growth, leading to higher dividends, share buybacks and a likely eventual take-out.
What's not to like here?
Couldn't agree more UH and SB, well said! I have been watching this from afar, still very much invested here and think the raise purely serves to help the company get a fair and hopefully full price for what they've built and achieved.
The rest is just noise from the shorters, pumpers and dumpers.
Ignore the noise and focus on the prize that's ahead, keep calm, etc.
...fair point Magic Wand, however, Verici recently raised capital at almost no discount, so I think it depends on just how much is already discounted in the share price. Renalytix shares have arguably been discounting 100% failure, so with funding, the valuation should arguably price the business as a going concern and less of a basket case. In addition, with the recent NGS coverage expansion, etc, one could argue they're that much closer to scaling revenues and potential strategic partnerships becoming achievable. If so, the shares could indeed recover very quickly.
I don't follow Avacta so can't comment on that, another company I'm looking at is Oxford Biodynamics (OBD), they too need funding so it will be interesting to see how they go in this market environment. I will add that the XBI Index in the US is this week showing signs of life and sizeable inflows, so we may be seeing the early days of recovery in interest and confidence in the bombed-out biotech and life sciences sectors, well let's see!
Decent volume off the bat today, my money’s on more short covering from Citadel, as I’m fairly sure their short was just a quick tactical trade and the risk here is that the company gets funded at or around the current share price, and then it’s potentially back to 50-100p in short order, especially if the current trend of positive news flow continues, here’s hoping!
Yes, and another block trade of 777k shares, presumably the trade that got MWAM to their short of 0.5%. Contrasting this, I see Baillie Gifford have recently upped their stake from 2.8% to 5.1%, let the battle of the funds commence...
Thinks it’s worth re-sharing the CEO’s comments from their recent update on Jan 26th… to your point LoL, it’s all about the bottom line and the comments suggest we should be in for a bullish update in this respect, plenty can happen between now and May when they’re next expected to update the market…
Americo Lemos, Chief Executive Officer of IQE, comments:
“I am pleased our business performance was aligned to guidance despite a challenging macro environment. We returned to growth from H1 to H2 2023 and expect this positive trajectory to continue in 2024. Additionally, we made significant progress implementing our diversification strategy, expanding our customer engagement pipeline and securing multiple design wins in GaN Power and MicroLED markets. Our strategic investment in GaN capacity in 2023 is anticipated to unlock further opportunities throughout 2024.”
Citadel’s quant algos have timed this one perfectly and they’re likely to be a good sized buyer today, Armistice have been covering also… the results were already known from their update in December and should come as no surprise to anybody, costs are down more than expected but yes the burn remains too high for their cash and thus why they’re in fundraising mode, all eyes on how that goes then… btw, it want the MM’a who pumped the shares it was the short hedge funds who got caught off guard by the draft LCD which is arguably the last barrier to them ramping sales going forwards… it’s a binary outcome situation for sure, be short at your peril and be long at your peril, GLA…
RNS on Feb 12th confirming Citi are ongoing sellers, now down to 4.7% from 5.2%, looks like they may well close out their position and the good news is this is now happening into a rising share price and there are good size buyers around, onwards to 30p then…
Haven't seen any RNS from Canaccord since the one posted Jan 19th and would expect any changes to be posted given theor position is well above the 3% reporting thereshold or have I missed something? The main buyer I'm watching is Richsrd Griffiths as he's usually more nible than the insto fund managers. The trend is nack on the front foot at least, about time the sahres were tradign above the placing level of last May!
Thanks for the helpful link and update of the shareholder list Gotrader, Citigroup have actually been the big seller and Lombard and Canaccord/Marlborough have been the big buyers, I was also encouraged to re-read that the CEO acquired up to 1% of the shares too, late last year that was... New CEO and now CFO, both from Global Foundries, look forward to the next update as they should have something to say about developments in the rapidly growing AI space too, well let's see...
Good to see the shares getting a boost finally!
Thanks for the info re: Marlborough/Canaccord, hadn’t appreciated that. I’m not too worried about the employee share issue, it’s only 1.6% of the issued share capital and the key employees should be incentivised to help the company realise its potential in the compound space, but yes better that any such awards are tied to success and not just for turning up to work.
Interesting to see Richard Griffiths adding to his position in IQE this past week, alongside Marlborough Fund Managers and Canaccord Genuity, the only seller seems to be Citi and they're now down to just over 5% and that could well get taken out by Mr Griffiths, he's usually a smart cookie and I'm happy 'following the smart money' on this one... Senior management team now comprises a CEO and CFO from Global Foundries, I'm watching this space with interest and have added a few more shares at 20p this past week.