Member Info for HumpyDumpy

Over £6 million more debt and just bought another outfit - this time a low level player in the massively over saturated legal market of Bristol. Happy daze. Combine that with Coffin Mew to create a Westcountry powerhouse! I’m sure the likes of Burges Salmon, TLT, Foot Anstey and others are quaking in their boots!

I don’t think I used the word moment enough in my last post so I thought I’d use it one more time!

Who cares what the asking price is! It’s the selling price that matters. That report about asking prices on Rightmove is just ridiculous! I wrote to Gillian Andersen asking for a massage. I didn’t get one!
Go to pretty much any site office on your average housing estate and they will be throwing offers at you. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors at the moment. I’m a holder so in a way I welcome them, but I think we’re in temporary suspension of reality phase at the moment. Having said that, I’m hopeful things won’t be quite as bad as things were looking a few months ago. Time will tell, but I don’t believe a true picture is being painted by the housebuilders at the moment.

I have no confidence in this company. I’ve held shares for some time and the performance is miserable. Yes, lots of outside factors have impacted this - but in my opinion their brands are just not strong enough. Presumably marketing spend is also one of the areas they’ve cutback. We had a baking hot summer, and a World Cup, and still this fails to perform. I’m not selling as I can’t bring myself to crystallise my loss on this, but I take no pleasure in holding these and don’t see anything on the radar that’s going to improve performance. If anyone has anything tangible and positive to say in response, I’m open to listening!

The German floods were a truly catastrophic event. What has hit DLG is incomparable and should have been easily factored into their premiums (ie their income). This did not happen overnight. They had time to deal with things and haven’t. Instead the shareholders are paying. Having said all that, I agree long term that it’s very important they don’t shirk their responsibilities to their customers - they should however have charged their customers more!

Just caught up on this. An insurance company that cancels its dividend after 1 week of quite cold weather. WTF!!!!

Welcome back Todd! I for one have missed your posts on this board. It’s like having Prince Harry pop up and comment! Keep it coming!

Looks like the trading update was already baked in!

I was at the Exeter wagamama at lunchtime yesterday. Queue almost as far as Yo Sushi. Trouble is, inside the restaurant wasn’t full - looked to me that they just didn’t have enough staff working to fill the place. Still, no questioning it was busy. I just wish the rest of the stable was as strong as waga. Some of the other horses they’ve got should be shot.

I’ve got a decent sized Lloyds holding. I look in here every now and then for any interesting thoughts/comments/news. Have yet to see any. Just a load of people constantly bickering their days away. Why do you do it? I can feel the bile. It can’t be good for any of you. I recently got dragged into a war of words with someone I disagreed with on another board. It achieved nothing and was a waste of my time and theirs. I stopped posting as I realised it was pointless and of no benefit to me or them. I’d recommend cutting this board loose. It adds nothing to no one. Phone a friend, go out for a meal with friends. What you’re all doing is an utter waste of your time. Last post from me on this board. Merry Christmas everyone.

Nothing not to like here so far as I can see. About time these started to re rate. Bricks and mortar retail may be dead in places - but Primark is the clear exception and now with some online presence at last. The diversity and pricing power in the rest of their stable is the icing on the cake for me. Very comfortable holding these.

I’ll never understand the markets. A company investing in its future and successfully increasing its long term client base in profitable areas and we get clobbered! As you say, at least the buy backs are better value. I’m happy to hold here.

Believe it or not I don’t have a vendetta against this company so this will be my last post. The reason I have posted on this is that the general popular belief seems to be that all law firms are successful, lawyers are loaded, so how can you not make money on this at such a low level. I can kind of understand that, but my problem with this company is that it doesn’t seem to know what it is or what it wants. That in my opinion is extraordinarily dangerous. Unless you are a magic circle or massive US law firm, you simply can’t afford to take the risks they took with Arden and take your eye off your core business. Yes, there’s a new broom here, but so far as I can see the reputational damage has already been done, and I simply cannot see how their bizarre mixture of international practice and low margin high street type work (as practised out of Bristol for example) works. Law firms are not cheap to run. They have massive fixed overheads and for the type of work you need to do to earn money you need big reputations. I think that is what they have thrown away and for that reason I would never invest here. Anyway, that’s my view and each is entitled to their own. I hope for holders the firm turns its fortunes around and you earn some good returns, but I’ll park my money elsewhere. Good luck all.

Really? You’d rather stick with Hellman’s than have a holiday or download a movie for the family? Interesting priorities, and not those that will be shared be many. People trading down in their droves. I’m a holder, but volumes are gonna go down, with price rises the only hope in the short term - but that is not good for longer term prospects and getting new long term consumers on board.

Hi JL76 - fair play it’s going up at the mo, but this ain’t my bag.

Agreed InvestorStallone. Maybe it doesn't bode well. Who knows. Time will tell.

I always miss what it is the markets want to see in these updates, but this looks better than I expected. Am I missing something?

I think you'll see that this has been on other people's radars for a lot longer than that JL76 - and not for good reasons. Looking at the other companies you have commented on you are clearly a bottom feeder. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but don't pretend you know anything about this business. If you're having a punt, have a punt, no problem with that - but don't allude to having some kind of inside track on this if you don't (which I'm pretty confident you don't). If you do, you should not of course be posting anything about this company.
I see from the RNS there's a new appointment today, and this appears to have been at least the third law firm they've been at within the past 5 years. Bodes well!!

Sharebel - If the share price is really influenced by one 18 year old spewing garbage on a board I really do fear for us all! No idea what is causing the rise here, but like you I wouldn't touch this with a barge pole.
Having said that, if JL76 is a day trader and just made some profit, fair play to him. I'm not into day trading so days like this are inconsequential to me. My only concern is if some easily influenced people actually act on the rubbish that he has posted across multiple boards. Do your own research people!!!

I'm here JL76!!