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Placing done nice and smoothly, and hardly a surprise given the significant shareholdings of the three major holders - which remain extremely weighty at 33% of the company.
Given the apparent demand it's possible that the share price will stick at the 240p mark or even higher, but whatever the case I suspect it will remain pretty strong.
Especially given the signal given the by the 907,000 share buyback at the same price, with those shares now quickly cancelled.
Good to see the new RCF now agreed - and also (as previewed by whythefuss!):
"New Partner in USA
The Company also announces that it has finalised an exclusive long-term license and distribution deal in the United States for Gelclair, an FDA-approved oral mucositis prescription product, with Jaguar Health (NASDAQ:JAGX). This agreement, spanning 5 years, entails license fees, royalties, and product revenue payments to the Company.
"We are really pleased to have partnered Gelclair in the USA, a market where Gelclair has been present for many years," said Jerry Randall, CEO of VLG. "This new agreement will ensure the continued supply of Gelclair to US oncology patients suffering oral mucositis, and generate meaningful additional revenues for the Company in the future."
Https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/london/venture-life-VLG/share-news/Venture-Life-Group-PLC-RCF-in-Place-and-New-Partner-in-the-USA/93683690
Indeed Lesville, a very encouraging performance today given both the usual trend on results day and especially going ex-div too.
Interesting little 8,776 buy at 95.4p reported late as well.
Tamesis Partners reiterate their 160p target price and forecast 18.7c EPS this year, or exactly 15p EPS.
They summarise:
"Investments.
Total value of investments (listed and unlisted) was $51.7m as at 31 March 2024 up from ($47.2m) at as 31 December 2023). Strong growth in the investments over the quarter, driven by the gold rally as a majority of the investments are gold companies (namely Allied Gold, Predictive Discovery and WIA Gold). Predictive released their long awaited PFS this week, and WIA announced an updated MRE with a 63% increase in contained gold at their Kokoseb asset in Namibia
• Outlook.
Revenue guidance has been re-iterated at $355-375m. We expect strong improved performance across Drilling and MSALABs, while Mining is ticking along as expected. The Sukari kit has the ability to be redeployed and deliver step changes to the P&L, while the elevated commodity prices sets the scene for further potential drilling contracts. We maintain our current revenue estimate of $358m.
Investment Case
We remain positive on the outlook for a strong operational performance through 2024. Key growth projects in the Capital business are ramping well, projects continue to be won with high quality clients and rigs are being mobilised to higher quality contracts.
MSALABS is developing momentum, both at their NGM labs contract and their partnership with Barrick. The mining services business has the potential for another big contract. The company is trading on EV/EBITDA and PE multiples for FY24 of 2.4x and 6.2x, and for FY25 2.2x and 5.4x, while delivering a dividend yield of 3.4%. We remain comfortable with our 160p PT."
Agreed Lesville. Today's update shows a steady as she goes Q1, ready for the big contracts commencing this Q2 at Belinga, Reqo Diq and Nevada.
Good to see guidance for the year being reiterated, and ARPOR increased markedly to an impressive $202,000. Excellent year on year growth at MSALabs/Chrysos and at Mining offset a little Q1 weakness in Drilling.
The picture for this quarter onwards remains excellent, with Q1 generally being a weaker quarter, whilst traders who bought recently will no doubt consider this quarter's results weren't exciting enough for them.
Stifel state "1Q24 Sets Foundation for Strong 2024".
But subscription-only so no further detail:
Https://twitter.com/research_tree/status/1780851311400858091
In relation to the rising gold price, CAPD will benefit from not only the substantial additional revenues accruing to mining companies, which will benefit mining production expansion programmes and encourage drilling for new resources, but also the increased certainty as regards exploring in new geographies and regions.
WH Ireland's 140p valuation seems quite conservative imo.
With a cash pile of 37p per share, and 10p EPS forecast this year, a 140p share price would put TST on an ex-cash P/E of only 10.3.
Given this record of PBT and EPS I'd say that multiple is perfectly reasonable.
And the PEG is just 0.28, which is ludicrously cheap:
2021 - £0.2m PBT
2022 - £0.4m PBT
2023 - £0.7m PBT
2024 - £1.0m PBT (forecast)
And for EPS:
2021 - 4.0p
2022 - 6.6p
2023 - 7.6p
2024 - 10.0p (forecast)
WH Ireland today reiterated their 140p price target (increased recently from 120p).
They summarise:
"Full year results: Recurring revenue strategy delivers further profit growth
Touchstar is a supplier of mobile data computing solutions and managed services to a variety of industrial sectors. This morning’s full year results reflect the outcome of a multiyear strategy coming to fruition for the group, with recurring revenue growth of 8.7% delivering overall revenue growth of 7.1% and in turn a 60% increase in PBT to £0.7m.
Over the past few years, Touchstar has focused on enhancing the returns from their product offering through a shift towards recurring software license and hardware maintenance revenues, whilst also charging a fair rate for customer requested software updates. Each of these strands continued to grow in excess of overall revenue growth in FY2023, delivering further improvement in gross margin, reaching 63.6% in H2 2023 up 19bp from 61.7% in FY2022A.
With FY2024E reported to have started to plan, we expect this strategy to drive further organic growth in the coming years, with additional potential for expansion into new overseas markets and strategic M&A.
Trading on an FY2024E PE of 9.5x and EV/EBITDA of just 2.6x, underpinned by £3.0m of net cash (37.5% of market cap), we see scope for the shares to continue to move higher as further growth is delivered. We see fair value at 140p."
"WHI view:
With recurring revenues reaching a new high of 40.4% in the period, we are encouraged by further progress against the group’s strategic aims and believe this should help drive continued organic revenue and profit growth in future years. With the potential from new overseas markets, product improvements, and M&A, we see scope for the shares to continue to move higher as further growth is delivered. We see fair value for the shares at 140p."
Perhaps a little buying has been coming in on the back of the overnight news that the UK's largest train factory owned by Alstom (a PEG customer) has been saved with a government order of ten commuter trains...
Https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1889256/alstom-train-manufacturer-saved-transport-secretary-deal
TST's recent history and profitable turnaround is worth recording. WH Ireland's numbers are as follows:
2021 - £0.2m PBT
2022 - £0.4m PBT
2023 - £0.7m PBT
2024 - £1.0m PBT (forecast)
And for EPS:
2021 - 4.0p
2022 - 6.6p
2023 - 7.6p
2024 - 10.0p (forecast)
I'd say this is rather impressive progress! And all now backed up by the £3m cash pile and 40% recurring income.
Shore Capital also say Buy:
Https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/lon-acso-reiterated-rating-2024-04-16/
Highlights from an encouraging new interview with the CEO:
- 5 new wins for the new Freedom platform since Jan 1st alone
- won 28 new venues last year organically
- added 273 new venues from acquisitions, inclusing 50 Canadian ski resorts
- "another strong year ahead"
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL4VZRTKDXU
WH Ireland have increased this year's forecast to 10p EPS (up from 8.7p EPS).
PBT is at £1m, up from last year's £0.7m.
The dividend is also increased to 2.75p (from 2p).
The cash pile is forecast at £3.1m, from £3.4m due to the raised dividend and likely further £300k of share buybacks.
You have to assume that WHI would have been guided by TST in publishing these numbers, and IM is generally pretty cautious in his assessments.
There may have been a few short-term traders exiting who bought in the last few days, and TST's volatility is obvious in the small number of shares traded against today's drop. Certainly short-termers might look at the order book and possible H2 weighting as reasons for doubt.
But overall TST looks in fine fettle imo given the macro climate, and well backed against a derisory £7m m/cap given its high recurring income and £3m cash pile.
In addition to my previous post, there's also:
- growing recurring income now above 40% of turnover
- a big increase in overseas sales to almost 10% of turnover from just 1.3% in 2022
- usage of AI which TST has already been using "for several years"
- growth potential via cross-selling etc in CCTV and fire alarm systems
- further growth in overseas sales from a standing start, with "a number of export opportunities in 2024"
- and potential for M&A using the £3m cash pile
Incidentally, the dividend will be paid on 19th July per today's RNS, so the prior poster's query/info was completely incorrect!
Today's results reflect TST's excellent value, with PBT up 60% to £675k, 7.63p EPS, a 2.5p dividend and a £3m cash pile equivalent to 37p per share.
If you strip out the cash, then TST are on a historic P/E of just 7.6.
Most importantly, TST have confirmed that 2024 has "started to plan" and "expectations are unchanged", so WH Ireland will presumably reiterate their forecast of an increased 8.7p EPS for this year.
Plus the £3m cash pile is actually understated given some customer payments received in early January 2024 and a delayed customer go-live date deferred until 2024 (which will presumably also help 2024 revenues).
Peel Hunt say Buy - their last target price was 1,035p, but the article doesn't say if this has been increased:
Https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/1045399/accesso-operating-in-a-structurally-growing-industry-says-broker-1045399.html
"accesso operating in a 'structurally growing industry', says broker
Published: 12:57 16 Apr 2024
Accesso, the ticketing and virtual queuing specialist, trades at a discount to both US SaaS and UK SaaS/IT services peers, says broker Peel Hunt, something that it sees as unwarranted.
Results for 2023 were ahead of indications while, since the end of the year, the company has culled its lower margin B2C distribution business.
Added to the removal of the legacy staffing issues, this will help give a step up to gross margins in the current year.
New client wins across the group have been encouraging while projects such as Saudi Entertainment Ventures (where ACSO is the key provider of ticketing and visitor management technology across 21 destinations) underpin assumptions that it is operating in a structurally growing industry supported by major investment into digitalisation and the tourism and entertainment markets.
“We believe actions made against lower-margin revenue streams help support the future profitability potential and improve the model quality.
While "We continue to see scale opportunities across multiple geographies and sectors.”
'Buy' is Peel Hunt’s investment view.
Shares rose 3% to 580p on a tough day generally in the market."
Onward Opportunities Limited (ONWD) last week announced their annual results. They have a £1.2m stake in REAT, or 6% of their portfolio, and they had this to say (incidentally, the tip in the last post was from Share Prophets - asterisked out):
"With React we believe we have captured a defensive growth opportunity at a value price, and invested c.6% NAV into the company. It is a business the team have been researching since September 2022 (pre-launch) and was an early pipeline priority. Through a mix of specialist cleaning services for UK corporates, the business has a highly attractive earnings profile.
The business has three core divisions:
1. React - the heritage of the group, reactive specialist cleaning often needed for emergencies or callouts requiring specialist cleaning techniques; high margin but less predictable.
2. LaddersFree - large glass pane and cladding cleaning for UK corporates, executed through a capital-light membership model.
3. Fidelis - contract cleaning focused on public services. The business operates over 80% of its sales on contracted terms of one to five years and has been organically growing at 17%+ per annum for the past four years under a new management team. Sales are highly cash generative and yield a high contribution margin, whilst CAPEX, depreciation and amortisation are all insignificant.
Crucially now, as a result of a mix of organic and acquisitive growth and the upcoming cessation of deferred consideration payments, the business is beginning to generate strong profits and free cash flow growth from contribution margin as it exploits inherent operational gearing. If one were to look away for a moment - not knowing the company cleans large glass facades, rolling stock, and prisons - its characteristics mean it could easily be mistaken for a small, successful software company. Yet we have been able to acquire shares in React over the past six months on forward P/E multiples of 6.5x - 8.5x."
I'm impressed with this update.
EBITDA is ahead of expectations, and 37.5c adjusted EPS and presumably an increase for this year puts ACSO on a cheap rating compared to most of its sector comparators. And even more so when you strip out the $31.5m cash pile.
Most importantly the outlook is very confident. ACSO are guiding a minimum of $160m turnover (up from $149.5m), and a minimum $27.2m cash EBITDA, a lovely 15% up from last year's $23.6m.
The acquisitions have all performed well, and ACSO are global market leaders in a number of areas, incorporating machine learning, mobile solutions etc.
Unless I'm missing something it seems that ACSO are very much back on the up:
Https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/london/accesso-technology-ACSO/share-news/Accesso-Technology-Group-PLC-RESULTS-FOR-THE-YEAR-ENDED-31-DECEMBER-2023/93660941
Very prescient comment raxfactor!
So Regent are to acquire CTO for just over 164.5p. A good result for me investment-wise, but a very poor one in terms of CTO's worth, and taking advantage of the one-off dip following the very unusual contract difficulties last year.
Regent have 21%, so 24% including the directors' shares. Maybe not enough to win through if there's significant opposition or to defeat a rival bidder?
Yet another example of listed UK companies being extremely undervalued, especially a top quality company like CTO given its increasing exposure to data centres, healthcare, ESG and the like.
tipped with a 100p target following the recent contract wins:
https://*************.com/views/73973/react-group-contract-wins-including-three-material-contracts-a-trading-momentum-continuing-buy
conclusion:
"of course, the group now has to deliver on such ‘opportunities’ but they are noted to further underpin confidence in its current year performance. we’ve noted year ended 30th september 2023 ‘real’ profit around £1.6 million on revenue up to £19.6 million and forecasts for adjusted pre-tax profit to rise to above £2 million this year, with also a healthy balance sheet.
we, therefore, now further look forward to a further update on trading the group has stated it will provide next month and continue to consider a (50:1) shares consolidation-adjusted 100p+ share price, £21.5 million+ market cap, looks justifiable on the noted earnings and growth outlook. at up to 75p, still a buy."
Very interesting/intriguing news today that TIG shares have begun trading in the USA on the OTCQX, which is the premier tier of the OTC market:
"Trading on OTCQX will significantly enhance Team Internet's visibility and accessibility in the world's largest capital market"
Apparently TIG "has received interest from numerous US investors in the past and, in recent months, has hosted several meetings with US investors".
Given the CEO's comments below, perhaps this will presage an eventual move to a full US listing either away from AIM or a more premium market listing on the NASDAQ?
I wouldn't blame TIG for looking in that direction given the substantial discount compared to its US peers:
Https://uk.advfn.com/stock-market/london/team-internet-TIG/share-news/Team-Internet-Group-PLC-Commencement-of-Trading-on-OTCQX/93628568
"Michael Riedl, CEO, of Team Internet, commented: "As we mark the beginning of our trading on OTCQX, we are not just opening a new chapter for Team Internet. We reinforce our commitment to enhancing shareholder value and expanding our footprint in the United States, a market that represents nearly 50% of our revenue. This move reflects our robust performance and the investor confidence we have been fortunate to build, especially within the US, over the past year. We recognise the importance of making our shares more accessible and appealing to US investors, and qualifying to trade on OTCQX is a strategic step in that direction. We are eager to welcome new investors and invite them to join us in this exciting journey."