Tipped by Simon Thompson pt 114 Nov 2019 11:29
FYI here's Simon Thompson's IC tip from a few days ago, raising his target price to 275p...
"Watkin Jones (WJG:214p), a construction group specialising in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and private rented housing, has issued a raft of bullish updates since I last rated the shares a buy, at 207.5p, in the summer (‘Watkin Jones on for a record year’, 31 Jul 2019). The share price subsequently hit a high of 241p late last month, but has pulled back after the founding Watkin Jones family sold down 25m shares, at 210p, through an institutional placing late on Friday, 8 November to reduced their stake to 45.5m shares, or 18 per cent of the issued share capital. The institutions have got themselves a good deal and one which you can avail yourself of close to their buy in price. There are sound reasons for doing so.
In the past two decades, Watkin Jones has delivered 41,000 student beds across 123 sites, making it one of the largest players in the PBSA market. It’s a market that is still undersupplied as the UK’s current stock of 639,000 PBSA beds in the UK (Jones Lang La Salle estimate) remains well below the 750,000 intake of first year and international students, so new beds coming onto the market can be easily absorbed. Furthermore, the UK has 12 of the world's top 100 universities, which continues to attract international students to our shores, both for the high quality of education, and value on offer, too. Sterling has depreciated by more than 17 per cent against both the US dollar and euro in the past four years.
The asset class is also attracting hefty investment flows from institutional investors, enticed by an above-average yield profile compared with other mainstream property asset classes, strong and stable performance both in terms of investment yield and occupancy levels, and a relatively low-risk income stream with the ability to capture annual rental growth. Net yields are around 4.5 per cent on new London PBSA developments, and even higher still (5.2 per cent) in the regions.
This positive dynamic explains why Watkin Jones not only forward sold and completed all six PBSA developments (2,723 beds) in the 12 months to 30 September 2019, but has already forward sold all seven of the PBSA developments (2,609 beds) slated for construction in the 2019/20 financial year. Furthermore, 1,928 beds have been forward sold for delivery in the 2020/21 financial year and the directors are aiming to deliver an additional 1,300 beds in that 12-month period, too, of which agreed sales on 448 beds are in the hands of solicitors. The scaling up of the operation is part of a strategic plan to increase the delivery rate to 3,500 PBSA beds over the next five years. "
Sign In
Follow the stocks
