Member Info for MattTheBrave

....first toe in the 'buy back' water - about £1m. Should help soften the blow on horrible down days (thoug admittedly didn't work terribly well today...;(()

Very lyrical JS - I like it! I'm torn to be honest as from a macro perspective, I'm also pretty bearish. Problem is, I keep finding cheap stocks which I really like...!!!

Agree that this is not comfortable JS. However, FTSE 250 and nearly all mid-caps in freefall since the start of June, so not really a VLK-specific issue.

I've been buying today. Near single digit PE stock with 10% growth and very strong solvency II capital base combined with a very decent yield. What's not to like!!

Well, Brexit = weak pound = better £ profits for AHT. Also, if they build that wall, who do you think will provide some of the construction equipment....;) So, all good!

Ha, indeed. Great minds think alike..(let's ignore the 'fools seldom differ' bit eh?). Should also have thanked you for your post from Thursday - very informative, full of stock specific-views, and exactly the sort of posts I look for when using these BBs. (To be clear, this is NOT a side swipe at anyone else..!! ;)) Anyway, assuming you're sticking to your 25% growth target, presume your 2017 forecast will rise to around 105p now??

...but the stock continues to slip away, admittedly on extremely low volumes. May well take the next set of figures to get this moving again!

Fantastic results - and a confirmation that the Firm will now move into a phase of cash generation as well as earnings growth. Expect divvy grth and share buybacks to be the trend going forwards absent any large opportunistic acquisitions. 2017 eps looking more like 95p to a £1 now, so my 12 month target would be raised to £15. If the market wasn't down again today, I'm sure this stock would be comfortably through £10!!

Free programs like privazer are fine for the likes of you and me, ie individual consumers, but not appropriate for the institutional market who need to be absolutely sure that things can never be recovered, or be sued for data confidentiality issues. Blancco serves corporate clients' IT depts, and with the ever increasing amount of data stored electronically, combined with the high rate of IT equipment obsolescence, I feel that market growth is assured.

Good post 1.2. I think your share buy back notion is correct. If they don't go out and buy someone else, the fcf generation from the current margins should allow debt and equity repayment.

Hertz currently trades at 3.3x EBITDA. Equipment rental is the better part of the business, but 6x feels a bit rich. Ashtead is only on 5x, and I would consider this to be a much better business. I'm not sure what loan to value means in this context - debt to EV? Debt to equity? debt to tangible assets? Either way, we don't actually know how much debt would be transferred with this business anyway - I doubt it would be pro-rata, but who knows? Still , I agree it would be a big chunk of change for Ashtead to pay, particularly given recent acquisitions which have added about £400mn to net debt over the past year. Regarding my forecast, I think many investors make the mistake of making things too complicated, and missing the wood for the trees. I tend to focus on EPS as an equity holder, but then adjust what I think the target rating is based on growth, comparables and risk. I think the days of 30-40% growth are behind them , but 10-15% is a reasonable assumption - 10% growth from what I believe 2016 will be (already had 9 months of this) is 90p which is at the bottom end of my target range - I didn't look up any forecasts. Rough rule of thumb for me would be a PER in-line with growth, so 15x seems reasonable, whilst I think risks are average so would keep to the 15x . Have I poured through the P&L and BS - no, but many analysts do, and often get it wrong. What I do know well is the Company itself, having invested back in 2010 at £1. My mistake was selling a couple of years later at £4, so I've been waiting to get back in again. Thankfully, the weakness over the past 6 months has allowed me to do so! So, what's your target and why DD?

I meant of course >5%!!

True, although just think about all those Companies and their myriad of devices which will need this in future - a very clear growth market in my opinion, and these guys are one of the world's leaders!!

Don't forget the <5% dividend yield!

Thanks DD, interesting development. Could this be an acquisition target for AHT? Market still quite fragmented and they've been happy to combine organic growth with acquisitions.

... today. 3x the daily average in the first 2 hours!

...today. Stock's on 14x this years earnings, and with an order book up 43%, safe top assume further growth this year. Also good to see them state that the referendum will not affect them unduly either way. My 6 month target for the stock would be £1.80, whilst I would expect to see £2 early in 2017.

Yes, thanks LO. On small comment - I believe the EPS are actually in pence, not pounds (and certainly not £m) - otherwise this stock really would be cheap!!!! Stock looks cheapish but not astoundingly so based on those numbers to be honest. However, as you say, they look quite conservative so hopefully will be beaten!

Exactly HS.

Hi Long, thanks for your post - I guess we'll find out soon enough! One small point - institutions didn't actually buy at 240p - these shares were actually bought back by the Company using proceeds from the sale of the Repair Services business. These shares were then cancelled.