Member Info for Leapgrog

It was my platform - you have to telephone them to place an order for this security. Not that they tell you this.

SP behaving strangely this morning. My BUY orders rejected. Suspicious.

So much for govt ingerence. "Good luck with that", you'd have advised them!
Where did that leave Telecom Plus? It had another strategy, not short-term switch-and-burn, a strategy it initiated 20 years ago. Its supply side is to buy bulk long term. Its customer side is to offer all services in one convenient bill, perhaps more expensive than if you managed things yourself, but you sign up and have nothing more to trouble you. It pulls in new customersnot with screaming headline offers, but through a network of 40,000 "partners", ie word-of-mouth.

In the current crisis, this strategy has left it as "last man standing".

This means an unexciting but competently run company providing a stable income (divi) stream. Not of much interest to the trader I wouldn think.

THE RESULTS
Revenues up 6%, customers up 0.5%, total services (energy, broadband, mobile) up a fraction. Earnings down a fraction (settlement with Ofgem cost £1m). Mostly from TEP's supply contract with e.on (elec and gas). Interim dividend 27p no change yielding 1.27% at 1446p. Then add expected 30p Final would give 3.94% forward yield.
THE STORY
The little profit utilities make goes out in divis and repairing or upgrading the network. SSE or NG as examples.
But govt thought utility customers needed better deals so the utility companies were put into competition with new intermediaries who were buying wholesale and selling retail. Competition pushed pricing into the short term with switching and even utilities Co.s themselves making special offers.
All well and good? Except that now offers began to appear at below cost, with new customers being walked up to a more sustainable price.
After complaints, the regulator again intervened, thinking a price cap reviewed bi-annually would solve this.
Along came sky-high gas prices (quite why is another fascinating story) and these new intermediate suppliers came tumbling like nine pins.
So much for govt ingerence. "Good luck with that", you'd have advised them!
Where did that leave Telecom Plus? It had another strategy, not short-term switch-and-burn, a strategy it initiated 20 years ago. Its supply side is to buy bulk long term. Its customer side is to offer all services in one bill

Having bought 24/11 at £15.18, at what I thought was a bargain price for a company of this quality and record, blow me down this morning the price is sudden off at £13.50. I bought at £13.83, another 500. Let's see...
But does anyone have an explanation? Things were going so well.

How can it be that PE was prepared to pay 200p in May, presumably they'd be figuring a worth of 250 minimum, and now since September, the price sinks to sub-150?
By the end of this year, the company should be back making money and analysts forecast 10.7% revenue increase next year 2022 and 60.7% on earnings (average forecast). Figures for UK Aerospace and Defence are 5.2% and 16.4%.
How can this come to pass for a company so fullfull full of promise?

Is it the supply-chain stodge referred to here?
Is it the te hnically brill. but financially incompetent management?
Is it a downgrade for the whole sector and if so why? (Perhaos Travel is in trouble as inflation gashes away at disposable?)

I'd love to know your thoughts.

Massive volumes goi g through today, on the buy side, at pretty much the all time high

Price keeps dropping because China is controlling steel market. However, the States is on a big infrastructire uphaul. Prices are below $100 a tonne but that cannot be sustained and will rise to the new normal

This is a 680m company, with revenue after covid in 2023 expected to be 660m and earnings 30m with EPS 7.4P, divi 1%.

So, a great second half. The pres. evidently didn't convince everyone because on a bad day ( FTAS down .36% so far), SNR is down 3.56% at 1.624.
That puts it below a short-term buy-sell range of 1.65-1.76 and frankly once (ok if ever) the world economy picks up - say 2022-24 - the shares should trade in the 2 50-3.00 range plus divi. So plenty of upside.
What to take away from today's code?
Achieving net zero depends on a handful of IP-rich companies, of which SNR is one. They have the products and more importantly, SNR has the capability to manage technology change requirements and the capacity to conceive, design, ramp up and deliver.
Financial management from the figures will be stunning with ROCE at 13.5%.
I'm in, a strong buy and hold.

Yes, slow and steady is a good summary.

Hope everyone is watching the trading update, live on the seniorplc.com website.
Must say, this lookslike another engineering comoany focused on the product and technology and missing the business accent. The managers seem very cagey in explaining their business in answer to the analysts questions.
You can easily see how the business is worth 200 and likely 250-300 a share, but will this management put it into that orbit?

MONY is at its 52 week low and lower. All four business units hit hard by covid. What has really dragged it lower these last few weeks is the flame-up in suppliers' input energy prices - there's a price cap so suppliers can't raise their prices, have withdrawn their best offers to their customers, so as a price comparison website MONY has no deals to offer its customers.The price is raised twice a year in Oct and Apr. While it's too late for this Oct, a 25% rise for April has just been announced, putting MONY shares back into play. Compare MONY with TEP, up near 20% since my pick on this LSE website, and we are waiting for MONY to benefit from the energy crisis in the same way.And looking at today's uptick in price and volume it looks like this may be starting to happen, could be a turning point, though Credit Suisse has cut its target price to 250p from 290p, however news of raising the Energy Price Cap by 25% , opening up INTL travel and holidays, getting through the current crises and consumer actions fighting inflation, could all be triggers to an eventual rerating at some point over the next six months.See: DJ UK Energy Price Cap Will Rise a Further 25% in April, RBC Forecasts https://www.catalyst-commercial.co.uk/wholesale-gas-prices/

Not for nothing is Battersea the home for battered doggies. But take em in and they ll be good to you.

TEP is a good divi stock, founded decades ago and sporting a 10 year track record of reliable payouts. Not a growth stock.
Problems / answers:
1/ The regulator has stepped in to halt "price walking" - this is when a supplier offers initial discounts to pull in new customers, but then "walks" them up to a regular price. Means lots of customer frustration and energy lost churning.
HOWEVER (here's the good part), TEP does not have such a strategy - same price to all customers, old and new. What TEP competes on is quality and peace of mind. Once you sign up, that is it: all your utility bills are covered for the one price, It is transparent and predictable - you can set your budget by it.
Which is why TEP welcomes the intervention of the regulator - he will hit TEP;'s competition!
2/ The recent hike in stamp duty has spooked investors, though to me it seems minor, won't affect my dividend strategy though it will reduce by gains a little. As usual overreaction on the part of investors creates opportunities for someone looking to lower their book price and tuck away for the future.
I bought at 1032 and I bought again today at 1022.
Happy days,
Good luck everybody!!!

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/questor-cheap-shares-warning-sign-164019462.html
VALUATION
Plenty of models for valuing a company but using a standard discounted cash flow model, L&G is worth 6.77 a share, not 2.66. So that is massive. Using a dividend discount model and discounting at 10%, say, 3.68, or at 7%, 9.61. Of course, share price should follow earnings.
EARNINGS
Have gone up every year except for 2018 and 2020 . Earnings have gone up near 5% a year over the last five years and 70% last year. Analysts' estimates say 2.3% each year for the forseeable next three year.
This year's net profit margin is a whacking 17.5%.
SHARE PRICE & TSR
I expect a 50% increase in wealth at 5 years, double at ten and times 4 at 25 years. That is my retirement plan targets for my portfolio. LGEN has done 75% at the five year mark, 25% this last year and -4.2% this last week.
DEBT
Less rosy picture. Long term debts of 53b exceed assets of 47b and debt to equity is 5 to 1, better than last year when it was 8 to 1.
DIVIDENDS
Have increased every year for the last ten years, from 6.4 in 2011 to 17.6 in 2020, and have always been covered from net earnings, works out at an average annual increase of 5%. Analysts reckon on a 7.6% yield by 2023, at 20p.
MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE & STRATEGY
Average tenure is 4.4 years and the CEO is 55 years old so an experienced tems.
And if you have the time to read that article, above, you will see that they have money in high class rental accommodation for the better off retired and are moving big time into China as there is a lot of poor performance currently there but a burgeoning middle class and aging population with more and more wealth to manage.
OWNERSHIP
Of course top institutions are fully invested. One point - 12 April one sale at 2.96 a share, which shows you the main particular variable to the share price (I did the same for the August divi, selling half my holding at 2.80 and buying back at 2.62).

I sold out at a loss. I have not received the dividend due 31 July and am in touch with the depositary bank and Arden. I do not like this.

needed for a trillion dollars of bridges and infra in the States and elsewhere. The EV. You cnt really say that the commoditiies cycle has peaked

This stock is heading for its third nadir, brought on by heavy borrowing to tide it through covid. Each nadir is followed, historically anywY, by a new zenith.
What will power it to new heights?
A closer look at the actions of market leaders and traders confirm a new trend into technology and commercial real estate stocks. 
Fears of high near-term inflation are now seen as a short term blip caused by recent supply-chain hitches.
The UK government's 19 July relaxation of restrictions and strong encouragement to return to work mean businesses will restart honing business processes, methods and tools instead of focusing on re-plumbing systems from office to home.  
As this scenario plays out, we are seeing investors switching to growth stocks, largely technology companies. iEnergiser is going to see a substantial increase in demand for its services.
My only regret is at the lack of analysts covering the company. It is a specialist field and iEnergiser deserves better coverage, recognising the likely EPS trajectory and upgrade.