Member Info for JamesOxford

The RNS showed sales up, margins stable and profit guidence down. In my view the JD Sports share price drop early AM today by circa 13% was overdone entirely.

I expected sales up, but did not expect profit guidence to be lowered again. In my view, the revised profit guidence of £915-935 million allows management considerable 'wiggle room'.

Given sales are up, profit margins are stable, and the GBP is weaker vs USD, I expect that end of year results in terms of profits will be sound, and possibly ahead of management's profit guidence. In any case, a profit of £915-935 million is very solid in this current retail and macro economic climate.

With Trump shortly to enter office, I expect the US economy and business and consumer confidence to grow strongly as Trump is pro-America, pro-growth, and pro-business. JD Sports has a solid footprint in the US, so will benefit from the booming US economy.

It is for the above reasons I added earlier today at 86p, rather than wait for the dust to settle over the next couple of days.

GLA

Every stock has a 'share price bottom' sooner or later. It is pointless in trying to guess where the bottom is.

The most important point is that AH and co have been at the helm for only 12 months. AH and co have had to make the 'hard' decisions. AH has had to 'unwind' Capita's interests in areas that are not (and never were) central to Capita's core business model and proposition. From what I have seen over the past 12 months, AH and co have made excellent decisions to date.

I have full confidence in AH and co. Capita will be a lean, focused and profitable company in the not too distant future. I've been involved in many turnarounds both in my work (EG consolidating, restructuring, and refinancing debts) and as an investor. It is clear to me that Capita will be a successful turnaround story within a short time of 12-18 months.

SavageKeyboard's posts here make about as much sense as it does for his beloved Rachel's visit to China.

Why did Rachel visit China? What was the point? Rachel knows that Trump cannot stand China and will most likley impose tarrifs against China. Why wouldn't Rachel move towards China, and thereby away from Trump and the US. Why antagonise Trump and the US? Why did Rachel take her former boss Andrew Bailey to China? None of it makes sense. Rachel came back with a dud of a 'deal' of £600 million and in the process has probably put Starmer quite a way back in the queue with regards to meeting Trump. Rachel has done Starmer no favours at all. Remember that Trump arranged to met Theresa May before any other world leader. Let's see which leaders Trump meet before Stamer. Since the budget, I have not met one economist (on the right or left) who has shown support for this Labour Govt. Rachel has a very short amount of time left to fix the problems she has created. I would say she has until March, after that if this course continues, Rachel will need to resign.

I am seriously concerned about SavageKeyboard's precious Labour Govt and the direction of the UK economy.

@SavageKeyboard. If you have no agenda, then why are your posts anti-Capita at virtually every opportunit? Your posts are not balanced at all. To me, the majority of your posts are bordering on 'hatred' of Capita. IMO

@SavageKeyboard. I do agree with many posters here about your defamation statements about Capita. You clearly have an agenda. You are on very thin ice.

@KevinRound. Fair enough, each to their own.

Personally, I'll be adding as the drill continues i.e. on the next news. I think this will be big.

@SavageKeyboard 'Eviking - just found the line you lifted from the article.... that's interesting and yes I get that it can generate revenue...'

I note the above admission from SavageKeyboard (the self-confessed working-class PI) who says he does his 'due diligence' on Capita...???

Make your own mind up about SavageKeyboard's 'credentials'. Good grief.

@SavageKeyboard. You ought to take a much needed break from this Capita discussion board. Everyone here knows your thoughts about Capita i.e. put Capita down at every possible opportunity.

I compare your continued posts to graffiti on a wall in a railway station. It's rather distasteful and pointless. As a commuter you pay as little notice to the graffiti as possible. It's just 'there' as a blight on the wall, and you think wouldn't it be nice if the authorities came along and cleaned the blight from the wall, and prosecuted the graffiti 'artist' who keeps defacing and vandalising the station.

In summary SavageKeyboard, it's time you moved on.

@Simplies 'Finally to agree to AI services within Civil Service. Capita has been working on this for several years Expect several contacts using AI in 2025.'

Agreed. Starmer's speech on AI left alot to be desired (i.e. somewhat 'muddled' as usual). However, Starmer has now sent a clear message that the Labour Govt will adopt AI and it will filter down into everyone's lives in one way or another.

It is funny, as 'U-turn Starmer' announced in August 2024 that the Labour Govt had scrapped the Tory’s £1.3 billion AI investment (i.e. £800 million to build a supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, and £500 million to set up an AI Research Resource, which would have helped to fund computing power for AI'.

Anyway, in my role as a banker, I have been involved in financing AI and technology at senior levels with private and public companies over the last 18 months. It is evident that over the last few months, AI has become 'mainstream' and is now on the agenda for most companies. The pace of investment has picked up markedly due to the Labour Govt's increase in NIC tax and increase to minimum wages.

Capita will be a big beneficiary of AI and AI-generative technology based solutions both internally and externally (outsourcing services). The fact is that not all companies have the desire to invest in AI - and would rather focus on their business - and therefore choose to out-source to companies like Capita to benefit from AI in terms of increased productivity and efficiency, and cost savings.

I have no doubt whatsover that over the next 12-18 months, Capita will be a turnaround story that other investors will look at and think 'If only I invested when it was 13p...!' Lol

@Trenners In terms of the Capita share price, I do think the share price is at bottom at .132p so I would be happy to add again when it hits that mark. That said, it would not surprise me if it dips to .1290p at some point over the next week or two (along with most other LSE stocks) as Labour's badly-managed economy becomes embedded.

The fact is that Labour's budget has killed the economy, and with it business and consumer confidence. Typical Labour, higher taxes, higher spending (EG. Labour has raised wages for the NHS, who had under Tories recently received a wage rise!). Meanwhile, typical Labour has increased taxes on businesses (typical Labour attitude 'Businesses can afford it'). If Labour do not balance the books and soon, there will be real pain in the UK in the coming months as businesses expediate the termination of their staff and increase thgeir prices. Then we will be in the perfect storm of increased unemployment, increased inflation and increased interest rates...

It is unlikey the Fed will drop rates later this month.

However, the pressure ought to be on the BoE to drop rates on 6 February to provide some type of respite to businesses and consumers alike. If this comes to pass, it 'should' provide a boost to the stock market, but any rise in the stock market may be tempered by the BoE commentary.

In the short-term it is a concern. However, it depends on investors' timeframe. For me, it is an excellent time to add across many stocks, as it's always darkest before the dawn. Let's hope that with Labour, the dawn does arrive at some point!

@Trenners. And before you ask, no I do not work for iWeb...or Lloyds!

@Trenners. I did not make it up when I said I bought at .132p - why bother? I've never used AJ Bell, so cannot comment on that. I used to use HL but moved to iweb (owned by Lloyds) - which is a no-frills trading platform- a few years back due to the lower trading/margin spread and lower transaction fees etc. When I buy/sell, I always cross-check with Google Finance (under live share prices) and due to the low volumes of trades under Capita recently the iWeb quoted buy price has been the same (or very near) to Google's live share price. For example, right now iWeb buy price is .133616p and Google live share price is .1336p.

@Trenners Who (i.e. what trading platform) do you use to buy/sell shares?

@KevinRound To sell at 4p is not adviseable, far, far too cheap. There's an old saying: 'Don't throw the baby out with the bath water'! If all goes to plan Zephyr's share price should tick up to circa 12-15p. IMO & DYOR

@Falcon-Flyer It was clear to me you posted incorrectly and it was an honest mistake, and you then owned it and apologised. No damage done at all. IMO

@Taverham Retail AI is designed to free-up staff so they have the time to provide personal one-to-one shopping experience.

@Trenners 'Of course @JO managed to buy back in at 13.2p - well done - all those years as an investment banker are obviously paying off'

Not quite sure why you posted the above Trenners. You imply I was 'lucky' to add further at .132p the other day. The fact is the Capita share price has been circa .132p most of AM today. The Capita share price has more or less flat-lined and teh volumes of shares traded is very low. Top up if you like....hardly rocket-science!

@Finley1 When I mentioned retail AI I was not refering to self-checkouts! Lol

I have been involved in financing AI and technology based solutions for corporations over the last 18 months. Make no mistake AI investment is growing at a massive pace, and the results are amazing. Within the retail sector, AI is transforming businesses in almost every way possible (including reducing in-store theft), whether it be within retail stores, or web/ecommerce, inventories, supply chains, logistics, security etc.

DYOR on retail AI - it will change your mind as to the benefits and cost efficiencies to be achieved.

TomBeef: 'I’d quite like to see the board announce a share buyback with some of the profits, maybe over the next year or so. That would make the SP rocket.'

I doubt a share buyback would be announced and/or would be beneficial to JD's share price.

I would prefer that JD Sports continue with their strategy of circa 200 new stores per year, make new acquisitions, and with any excess cash/profit invest in retail AI-based technology and pay down debt. This would mean a larger store footprint, increased market share, sales growth, improved productivity and efficiencies, and manageable debt levels. All of which combined will increase JD Sports share price over the next 5 years as profits achieve, and then consistently exceed £1 billion per year.

NorthernMagis I would add: When Trump takes office with his emphasis on oil and 'drill, drill, drill' - Zephyr's share price will receive a further boost.