Member Info for mulledwine

Marc Bolland, Chief Executive, said: "We are pleased to report a better performance across the business in the second quarter. We took steps to address the short term merchandising issues in General Merchandise and as a result, we delivered an improved performance. Food outperformed the market on a like-for-like basis. "Eighteen months in, we are making strong progress with our plan to transform M&S into an International Multi-channel retailer. Our new International stores are performing well, and our Multi-channel business is delivering strong growth. "As we approach the all important Christmas period, we have better than ever Christmas products, to help our customers enjoy a special Christmas at home."

Half-year results: • Group sales1 up 0.9% at £4.7bn • Underlying profit before tax3 £297m (last year pro-forma4 £307m; reported £315m) • Underlying basic earnings per share3 14.6p (last year 15.6p) • Interim dividend 6.2p per share (last year 6.2p) • Net debt £2.6bn (last year pro-forma4 £2.6bn; reported £2.0bn) Statutory results: • Profit before tax £290m (last year £321m) • Basic earnings per share 14.2p (last year 16.0p)

http://www.investegate.co.uk/marks--spencer-grp/rns/half-yearly-report/201211060700073860Q/

Seymour Pierce has raised its target price for High Street retail giant Marks & Spencer from 325p to 265p after a better-than-expected set of interim figures. However, with the stock having outperformed the FTSE All Share index by almost 20% this year, the broker keeps its 'hold' rating on the shares.

N+1 Singer kept its "buy" recommendation on Dialight (DIA), with a target price of 1,355p after the company secured a lighting order worth 850,000 dollars (532,000 pounds) with a major US rig owner and operator. The broker believes that this order indicates what a unique position the company has in the lighting industry and appreciates how it has consistently accessed markets that are protected by tight regulations

Daniel Stewart reiterated its "sell" stance on Admiral (ADM) and pointed to falling rates in the industry as a main bear factor. The broker realises rates were down 3% on average in the first half of the year for Admiral and subsequently the firm's combined ratio is steadily approaching 95%, which would take over 25% from group pre-tax profits. The combined ratio measures operating expenses as a percentage of premium income

Canaccord Genuity maintained a "sell" recommendation on business support services company Rentokil (RTO) with a target price of 72p. The broker expects organic growth to have slowed from the 1.3% reported in the first half of the year due to a deterioration in the trading backdrop of continental Europe. The broker also believes that the company's parcel delivery service CityLink will continue to see a fall in revenues and that the business will remain loss making.

Outlook We remain confident that our strategy of transitioning to become a systems business will continue to deliver the results we are expecting. Our focus on business efficiencies, cash and profitability continues. Despite the difficult macro economic environment, we continue to invest in our marketing activities and sales teams in order to take advantage of the enormous potential market the Endace product portfolio can address. Our pipeline is strong and we remain confident of meeting expectations for the full year.

Endace Chief Executive, Mike Riley, commented: "The first half of FY 2013 was a period of pleasing progress for Endace. The growth in systems business and recurring income continued, demonstrating increasing demand for our network visibility solutions from both new and existing customers. During the period we made further investments in our marketing and sales teams, which we view as essential to take advantage of the growing market for high speed network visibility infrastructure solutions. Our pipeline is strong and we remain confident of meeting expectations for the full year."

HALF YEARLY RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTH PERIOD ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2012 Endace Limited (LSE/AIM: EDA, "Endace" or "the Company"), a world leader in network monitoring solutions, announces interim results for the half year ended 30 September 2012. Highlights · Continued and successful growth in areas of strategic product focus · Sales increased 3.4% against strong first half last year to US$19.2 million · Gross margins improved to 75.0% (2011: 72.6%), reflecting success in building incremental value into our systems · Pre-tax break-even position, after adjusting for share options (2011: Profit of $0.2m) · Cash at period end was US$4.3 million (2011: US$2.6 million) · Systems sales grew 8% to be 44% of total revenues (2011: 42% of revenues); annuity income grew 16% to represent 19% of total revenues (2011: 17% of revenues) · Strong sales to government sector in UK and North America · Revenue generated by channel partners increased to 40.9% of sales · Continued investment in building out sales and marketing team, including appointments to Product and Channel Marketing · Since the end of the first half, commercial release of EndaceAccess 100Gbps monitoring platform · Strong pipeline and confident of meeting full year expectations

http://www.investegate.co.uk/endace-limited-(eda)/rns/half-yearly-report/201211060700073851Q/

Questor in The Telegraph writes that Weir Group bears must have been smarting yesterday, as the shares were the biggest gainer on the FTSE 100 after its third-quarter update. Questor continues to like Weir and the markets in which it operates. All of its end-users are in sectors with good long term prospects. US gas prices are unlikely to stay this low, particularly as the country could start exporting gas at some point in the not too distant future. Questor remains in the bull camp. Weir is a market leader with its technology and innovation and the exploitation of shale gas is expected to spread to other areas of the world. Trading on a 2013 multiple of twelve times earnings and yielding 2.2%, the shares remain a buy.

Tempus writes that the Finnish capital -Helsinki- is the main hub through which traffic from the huge Russian market reaches the West. This explains the decision by Telecity Group to spend €33m on acquiring a market-leading position, with the purchase this summer of two operators of data centres there. Unfortunately, the market reacted negatively to the deal, fearing that Telecity, which needs a steady rate of growth in capacity, was getting to the point where it was having to pay too much for this expansion, which would dilute earnings. The shares fell 8.5% to 835p yesterday. This looks overdone and it brings down next year’s earnings multiple to about 23. The rest of the third-quarter trading statement suggests the company is still trading robustly, while the 15MW capacity added so far this year, to 83MW, is a record for the outfit. Telecity says it has sites with sufficient planning permission to get it to 135MW across Europe in three to five years. If this rate of growth can be achieved, the shares continue to look like a good long-term bet.

In The Times Tempus writes that the fall in the BG Group share price since last Wednesday’s profits warning looks unjustified. The company was not saying that large chunks of its reserves were not actually in the ground, after all, simply that some would take longer than expected to reach production. Significantly, the market in the company’s corporate bonds barely moved; any serious threat would have been reflected there. So it is another case of the market overreacting to any bad news. Analysts’ target prices for BG are all over the place, ranging from £10 to £19, though only one has a “sell“ note out. The shares, one of Tempus’ tips for this year, will take a while to recover, but, at their present level, this looks like a long-term buying opportunity.

Graham Stewart, Chief Executive of Faroe Petroleum, commented: "Although the Spaniards East well carried a reasonably high level of risk, we agreed to participate, given the upside potential in the event of success, and the fact the well was drilled at no cost to Faroe Petroleum." "The paying partners approached Faroe, as part of the Perth group, to drill the Spaniards East prospect on a Faroe held licence located close to the undeveloped Perth oil field (Faroe 33.4%). Although the well was unsuccessful, the partnership has gained useful data from the well, which will further our regional knowledge." "In the meantime, Faroe will be participating in a very active ongoing drilling programme in 2013 and we also await the results from the BP operated North Uist exploration well, west of Shetland."

Faroe Petroleum plc ("Faroe Petroleum", "Faroe" or the "Company") Results of Spaniards exploration well Faroe Petroleum, the independent oil and gas company focusing principally on exploration, appraisal and production opportunities in the Atlantic margin, the North Sea and Norway, announces the results of the Spaniards East exploration well (Faroe 8.4% - free carried). The Spaniards East well was drilled in UK block 15/21, reached a total depth of 10,694 feet and encountered 75 feet of Jurassic sands which were water wet. The well is now being plugged and abandoned. The drilling operations were undertaken by Premier Oil as operator. Faroe Petroleum had a free-carried interest of 8.4% in the well (carried by Premier, Cairn and Serica) and was not required to make any cash contribution to the dry-hole cost of this well.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/faroe-petroleum-plc-(fpm)/rns/results-of-spaniards-exploration-well/201211060708253854Q/

Whitbread Buy 31-Oct-12 £96,495.58 Richard Baker 4,094 @ 2,357.00p Whitbread Buy 05-Nov-12 £19,303.20 Susan Mary Hooper 800 @ 2,412.90p

Telecity's Chief Executive Officer has bought shares in the company in a bid to show his confidence in the company's new Finnish acquisition, which on Monday proved decidedly unpopular, with shares dropping almost nine per cent. Michael Tobin made the modest purchase of 2,000 at 843.60p. The £16,872 purchase takes his stake in the company to 616,000 shares, equal to around 0.31% of the issued share capital. The company announced that it has acquired Finnish company Academica for €28m in cash. Academica operates data centres in Helsinki, and has 1MW of operational capacity and a secured capacity pipeline of 3MW. The purchase is a strategic move to establish a leading position in this growing market, the firm said.

Summary The business has continued to achieve good underlying organic growth despite some adverse moves in foreign exchange and challenging macro conditions. The US government market and some Continental European markets are still proving to be difficult and we expect these trends to continue. The North American commercial businesses are continuing to perform strongly and the UK has shown an improved performance. Our developing markets businesses, which account for more than a third of group profits, continue to achieve strong results. Our restructuring measures taken in 2012 to reduce overhead costs and continued focus on business improvement should help margins improve in 2013.