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that we are coming up for Christmas, which means that everything will slow dow. No one will take any risks over the festive season and zilch will happen until about mid January. I like Christmas. I like seeing the kids running amoke and the carol services and eating and drinking myself senseless, but I do miss watching the progress of my various little flutters.
"I think its as well to know that the Coveney family are a very well connected lot in Ireland. " Thanks for the warning. Whenever I see a board packed with the great and the good I reckon that it is time to jump ship. Still, not having the sense to keep out of a crooked game I will hang around in the hope that the SP hits 256. And maybe Pat Coveney will pick up the contract to provide the Dail with Triple Decker All Day Breakfast sarnies....?
"I'm expecting this "bunch of Micks" to follow in the footsteps of that long line of successful Irish business Micks " Splendid fellows. I cannot see how anyone would dare to denigrate them. The dividend is not much more than a penny ha'penny in the pound, so that can't be the reason for the sudden rise. Can this be the start of the good times? Have the management done something right?
My valuation is based on the idea that anything is worth what some else will pay for it. The SP hit 261 in late February and started its race to the bottom soon after. According to my sums it should peak again at 253, but that assumes that the company actually makes some money. On Tuesday Patrick Coveney announced that the company had made a deal with Amazon, Target, Kroger, Tyson and just about everyone else who is partial to a triple decker All Day Breakfast sandwich. But he also announced a 74pc plunge in pre-tax profits to �12.4m on the back of �78.2m in exceptional charges. Happily the market shrugged that off, but I can't help but feel that we, as investors, would be a lot better off with Pat flogging a few more rounds of bacon and lettuce and leaving the smart arse deals alone for a bit. .
Many thanks mrprime. The revenue for p/e 30/9/17 was around $3 billions, so $50 billions is barely an extra penny ha'pence in the pound. And I don't like the sound of benefits ahead, it usually means serious cock ups in the near future. Still, as least the SP has stopped falling.
This is great news mrprime, particularly in view of the long slide of the share price. But GNC must be selling a hell of a lot of sarnies to justify the recent rise in the SP. Any more news? For a bunch of Micks the management are being uncharacteristically quiet.
It could be that Virgin has learned from its predeccessor Northern Rock. The latter was tightly run (well, until it went bankrupt that is) but had no worthwhile deposits and had to buy in money, which it meant that was punching above its weight. Virgin seems a bit more cautious. Sentiment and money don't mix, but Virgin provides a better service than most and have a reputation as decent employers, so if the world has not collapsed by midday Tuesday, I will take a punt.
According to these guys... [url]http://www.insider.co.uk/news/virgin-money-reveals-launch-sme-11530381[/url] and [url]https://www.standard.co.uk/business/virgin-money-in-fresh-bid-to-woo-small-firms-a3692846.html[/url] ..Virgin expects to see its profits from the mortgage market to fall, but hopes to take up the slack by opening a SME savings account in January 2018. Is that the case and does anyone think that they are in with a chance?
It is like my leeks. Every year they sit there looking weak and sad and spindly and then after a few months they grow strong and succulent and a welcome addition to the stewpot. But the waiting is a drag.
I have done some sums, which are based on rubbish data so I will be forwarding a vastly inflated bill to anyone I think is fool enough to pay. Looking at the retail sector on the BBC's website, most of the retailers expect to increase their profits next year and have a mean P/E of 18 The ones that hope to stumble along as best they can (which includes Dixons) have a mean P/E of 13. If this means anything (and I will be the first to admit that it does not), then Dixons, which although it is clearly one of God's walking wounded but does have a P/E of 6, should ultimately double its share price to about 300p. Naturally, the above assumes that Dixon's won't go bust which, I admit is something of an assumption.Happily,from the look of things Ocado and Next are on their last legs and will go first. As the market rarely provides more than two complete wipeouts a year, we might luck out after all.
"Guys come on, the whole retail sector is out of fashion at the moment. A few months ago I was in oil, and it was all doom and gloom there. Look at the price of oil and oil shares now." That is true enough and I long for some good news. But I think that it is reasonable to point out that eve if it is only a dead cat bounce, most of the retail sector has gained a point or two.But Dixon's has continued to lead the race to the bottom. And now I come to think about it, Petrofac was twice its current SP at Christmas, which is why I am out of it.
I hate to be a downer (pun intended), but here we have a company that appears almost solely reliant on selling mobile phones, which are pretty much last year's fashion. Someone cheer me up and say that there is a lot more to Dixon's than that and in a few months the shares will have risen to heights beyond the dreams of actresses. If you think that the company's next sales push will be something on the lines of Closing down sale. Everything must go! please do not bother to reply.
"The phone side is taking some flack but what is seen to be going out of the warehouse in regards to white goods" Good point. Woolworths stumbled along for years with a declining share price and reliant on selling fairy lights and tinsel at Christmas. There are plenty of old codgers like me who are happy to rely on �20 mobiles from Argos. Time for Seb James to get off his backside and start selling dishwashers and fridges and all those other white goods that the womenfolk like and he seems to have forgotten about.
"The phone side is taking some flack but what is seen to be going out of the warehouse in regards to white goods" Good point. Woolworths stumbled along for years with a declining share price and reliant on selling fairy lights and tinsel at Christmas. There are plenty of old codgers like me who are happy to rely on �20 mobiles from Argos. Time for Seb James to get off his backside and start selling dishwashers and fridges and all those other white goods that the womenfolk like and he seems to have forgotten about.
"Seb has a lot to answer for though he sold �1 m of hs own shares a few months before the profit warning and was rumoured to be leaving for ITV." Which would have been tough on ITV but that would have been their problem. The problem for the small investors is that while he or she doesn't expect miracles, they do expect a reasonable level of competence. Instead the management of big business seems to have a culture of failing upwards.
" I recently came back to England and visited several stores in the Midlands and trade seemed brisk " I had a similar experience at Brent Cross in London when my son went shopping for a new phone. The staff were helpful and well informed and the shop was full. Then my son went home and bought a cheaper version on ebay. And I imagine that a lot of other folk did as well. I hope Seb James leaps into action and persuades every man, woman and child in the country to buy two iphones and three washing machines, but I can't see it happening.
Me too, although I bought my first lot at 370p. When I screw up, I make a big screw up. I have always found the staff at Dixons helpful and well informed and the senior management remarkably dim. Maybe the best solution would be to promote the junior staff to the boardroom and Seb James to the shop floor?
"Citigroup today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Dixons ****hone (LON:DC. ) and set its price target at 230p." A few months back most analysts had the SP in the high 300s. If bull excreta was music, the average analyst would be a brass band.
Blimey, it is too. Seven pence and three farthings a share and all for sitting on my backside. I am begining to warm to Seb James.
The only one I can find is from 8 September. The target price is 340p. The other analysts for this month are RBC at 215p, Numis at 185p and Credit Suisse at 280p. That averages out at 255p. Thank God Analyst are neverwrong.