Member Info for rivaldo

https://www.ideagen.com/company/news/pladis-the-global-snacks-leader-launches-ideagen-s-software-for-global-sqse-operations/

"pladis, the global snacks leader, launches Ideagen’s software for global SQSE operations
Thursday, November 8, 2018

The owner of McVities will implement Ideagen’s Coruson software for its safety, quality, security and environmental responsibilities

pladis, owner of snacking brands such as McVitie’s is to launch a new software system to enhance its global safety, quality, security and environmental (SQSE) operations.

The global snacks leader will replace a series of current legacy systems with Ideagen’s Coruson software as it looks to streamline several operational processes.

Coruson will become the company’s single system for SQSE, helping pladis enhance quality, speed of manufacturing and distribution as well as the safety and security of its 26,000 staff globally.

etc"

Nice - a contract win for electrical maintenance work at 154 properties for Staffordshire Council, through to 2020 and likely 2021:

Http://www.ptsg.co.uk/news/electrical-services/ptsg-protects-staffordshire-county-council/

"Premier Technical Services Group PLC’s (PTSG) Electrical Services division has secured a contract to carry out the electrical inspection, testing and maintenance of a number of sites within the Staffordshire area.

Founded in 1900, Staffordshire County Council is the top-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Staffordshire. The Group has secured a contract to carry out electrical maintenance work on 154 of Staffordshire County Council’s properties.

The contract with the council is due to run from the 1st December 2018 to 30th November 2020; the client has proposed the option of an additional one-year extension on the project, running through until 30th November 2021.

PTSG Electrical Services will test electrical services and systems that conduct electricity around buildings to meet the BS 7671:2008 standard – a five-year mandatory requirement. The Group’s Electrical Services division has previously worked on similar projects, such as carrying out electrical testing and installations work for both Bath and North East Somerset Council, and Sandwell Borough Council."

Questor in today's Telegraph says Hold:

Https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/shares/questor-one-aim-stocks-has-lost-50pc-value-holding/

Extract:

"Questor Inheritance Tax Portfolio: Gama Aviation needs to sharpen up its act but the business still has a lot of potential

....We asked Nick Hawthorn of Downing, whose holding of Gama prompted our original tip, for his reaction.

He said his firm had not sold any of its shares but described the trading update as “very disappointing”. He said investors’ expectations had been poorly managed after Gama raised £48m from shareholders in March.

Hawthorn attributed the profits warning to increased expenditure in pursuit of growth that had yet to produce returns. He said the firm’s decision to pursue organic growth, rather than acquisitions, in its American operations would be slower to achieve results but progress was being made and returns on investment would be better in the long run.

“We believe the business has attractive attributes such as visibility on management fees and maintenance contracts and global scale, which brings a competitive advantage and barriers to entry,” he added. “We think there are also potential margin improvements available across the business.”

He pointed out that various exceptional costs should fall away over the coming months, which should result in “cleaner” financial results.

A new finance director should provide “further financial rigour” and enable the company to improve forecasting and the setting of “achievable expectations”, Hawthorn said.

For the moment we will hold on."

Bombardier have today won another €112 million rail contract - hopefully more work to come here for PEG given their relationship with Bombardier (and cheers rdsh56!):

Https://www.investegate.co.uk/bombardier-transportation/gnw/akiem-and-bombardier-sign-contracts-to-supply-a-total-of-33-traxx-locomotives/20181109100749H8482/

On a PEG of only around 1 the current share price is now pretty good value.

I've seen the highlights from the article referenced by doze. Perhaps our friends forget that the driver behind much of the recent investment derives from the development and implementation of ACSO's products across Merlin's entire global estate, which is still continuing and will really bring in the big rewards from next year with a consequent jump in profits and EPS.

Then there's the potential rollout across Princess Cruises and perhaps the whole of Carnival too.

With the additional potential from a rollout across the Universal Studios theme park estate given the first implementation at Volcano Bay.

Customer concentration has improved immeasurably since most of us were first invested here!

The new CEO, as the former head of IAAPA, has brought further heavyweight presence to the party. Presumably he has joined ACSO with high confidence in the company and its prospects since he would have known ACSO intimately from his time at IAAPA.

Share prices look forward, not back. It seems to me that ACSO's prospects are more positive than ever above and beyond the ups and downs of quarterly theme park attendance figures etc.

Skyworks last night reported that Q4 performance exceeded expectations. Which should bode very well for this year's IQE performance:

Https://finance.yahoo.com/news/skyworks-exceeds-q4-fy18-expectations-211500615.html

They do report some seasonal softness in Chinese sales for their Q1 (the quarter to December) - but they're guiding to a satisfactory mid-range performance for that quarter. The exciting bit here is that any softness is being offset by performance gains in terms of content in and contribution to the newest/latest smartphones, the commercialisation of 5G, LTE etc.

Their conference call transcript is here:

Https://finance.yahoo.com/news/skyworks-solutions-inc-swks-q4-014456976.html

Extract:

"Our conviction is based on a number of strategic catalysts. First, we're seeing a significant uptick in demand for our base station and small cell massive MIMO solutions, as carriers around the world require LTE-advanced technologies to achieve multi-gigabit speeds, driving network efficiency, higher capacity and greater coverage.

Skyworks' vast experience is at the forefront of these initial deployments, leveraging our complete portfolio, including amplifiers, circulators and switches as well as system level highly integrated engines. We are well-positioned to support the rapid deployments of the world's leading infrastructure OEMs.

Second, on the other hand of the broadband connection, our smartphone opportunity is poised for a step up in architectural complexity, which in turn drives a dramatic increase in addressable content for us. This expansion is driven by entirely new bands, complementing existing systems, reformed frequencies and expanded use of multichannel carrier aggregation.

And keep in mind, Skyworks already offers the industry's broadest portfolio for 4G LTE, proven and selected by the most discerning market-leading customers. We've demonstrated technology leadership across a vast set of critical product categories, as our market tech tested solutions resolve increasingly complex architectures, preparing us for the performance gains demand in 5G.

Our solutions uniquely cover the spectrum from low-to-high and ultra high bands, leveraging Sky1 and DRX modules to optimize transmit and receive performance. And beyond cellular, we augment this portfolio with equally innovative WiFi, power management, precision GPS and tuning solutions.

Further, we see compelling TAM growth driven by new product functionality, including 4x4 MIMO, antenna multiplexing and new millimeter wave technologies. At the same time, the broader IoT category continues to accelerate. With expanded 5G network capacity on the horizon, we expect 75 billion devices will be connected by 2025. That's three times today's installed base.

Leveraging our leadership across all major wireless standards, including 802.11ac and ax, LoRa, Bluetooth, ZigBee, threatened (ph) Z-Wave, as well as 4G LTE and 5G, we are well-positioned to capture a dispr

Berenberg today reiterated their Buy and 2100p target:

Http://investing.thisismoney.co.uk/broker-views/

Good summary of where Parx Casinos are heading (with mentions for GAN):

Https://rotogrinders.com/sports-betting/parx-online-sports-betting

Conclusion:

"While Parx initially waffled at the prospect of offering online sports betting in Pennsylavnia, it seems as though they have embraced the new gaming expansion and are set up to be a major player in both realms. Parx is on pace to be the first to market, which gives them a leg up on the competition. Being the most profitable casino in Pennsylvania, having a large existing customer base and partnering with some of the biggest names in sports betting positions Parx to be one of the market leaders in what could be one of the largest sports betting markets in the US."

Shareholders will collect a 3.85p dividend this year, rising to 4.24p next year - a 7.2% yield rising to 7.9%.

It's possible some are buying for the 1.3p interim dividend, for which you have to be on the register by this Friday.

Over the next 18 or so months shareholders should collect over 8p per share of dividends.

Given that RTC will hopefully at least achieve the forecast 10p EPS this year, rising to 11.6p EPS next year.

So the downside should in theory be minimal, whilst a decent set of results might see a rather nice re-rating. And in the meantime if the share price continues to sleep the dividends will roll in.

Bit of an upturn starting here. About time too :o))

Good to see just a 5k buy causing a 1p tick up.

Oppenheimer's latest holding crossed the 13% threshold at 2nd November, so they've bought around another 6m shares since their last declaration which was as at 31st October.

Hopefully they've continued to buy more over the last few days.

The shorters must be feeling some pressure now with a large buyer scooping up shares.

Hopefully this indicates the seller(s) have indeed been cleared out - I notice a £510,000 trade at 1700p a couple of hours ago.

ACSO have dropped to a PEG of less than 1, so anyone looking at valuation will now see much better value here.

Downing Micro-Cap Trust issued their latest monthly Investment Letter this morning. They remain confident in GMAA's prospects....

"Gama Aviation

In October, Gama announced that their 2018 full year results are likely to be $3 million behind expectations which would mean an underlying operating profit of around $17-17.5 million. We think that this will make them broadly flat versus 2017. This is very disappointing post the fundraise where expectations do not appear to have been managed appropriately. We think the downgrade is a combination of lower than expected growth combined with higher costs from operational investment, on the back of the growth strategy, which hasn’t yet generated the
expected revenue. Additionally, there has been some disruption in the business from changes like the move to Bournemouth.

Regardless, there have been some positive developments against our long-term investment thesis. Firstly, there has been progress in the US identifying the new base maintenance locations. Gama has chosen to go down the route of organic expansion which, whilst slower to generate returns, should generate a higher return on invested capital over the long term. Secondly, the Air division has demonstrated modest gross profit growth in the newer regions Asia and the Middle East which we crudely infer as an increase in the fleet and/ or management fees. The US also
demonstrated a small uplift in gross profits. Thirdly, the Ground business, whilst disappointing in Europe particularly, has some positive catalysts, not least the Bournemouth move which is expected to bring efficiency savings over the long term.

The interim results were negatively affected by one off exceptionals of $4.3 million. There were additional discontinued items which we now expect to drop away bar some onerous lease costs in Oxford which should run off from mid next year. The result should be cleaner financials going forwards, which is good progress.

We believe the business has attractive and investible attributes such as the visibility on management fees and maintenance contracts and global scale which brings a competitive advantage and barriers to entry. These quality aspects should be leveraged by management.

There is also the opportunity to grow by selective acquisition or, as above, by organically widening the service offering in established regions. This type of growth may be accompanied by an underlying business which is growing less than expected but which, nevertheless, has good long-term drivers.

We think that there are also potential margin improvements available across the business which would offer an additional route to earnings progression. We think that the introduction of a new full time CFO, effective from September, will provide further financial rigour. This should hopefully lead to the company underpromising and overdelivering as management become more adept at internal forecasting and setting achievable expectations."

Good news for IQE client Qorvo.....

Qorvo® Awarded Air Force Contract to Accelerate GaN Design, Performance and Reliability
GlobeNewswire•November 6, 2018

hTtps://finance.yahoo.com/news/qorvo-awarded-air-force-contract-130000250.html

30k just reported bought at 24.41p, well above the 24p offer price. Someone's keen.

The share price is starting to move up nicely (as it should, being so undervalued, imho anyway!).

Apparently PEG has just been tipped in Techinvest, and a poster elsewhere has commented as follows:

"Techinvest new buy @21.5p in latest issue. I liked what I read and took a position today. In very good company here. Clearly an overhang at the moment as I had no problems buying in size. A p/e of 8.7 for next year and good client base."

More contract wins on the web site - this is a decent-looking one, maintaining 350 Royal Mail properties for 3 years, so good recurring income:

Http://www.ptsg.co.uk/news/electrical-services/ptsg-secures-three-year-contract-with-royal-mail-property-facilities-solutions/

"PTSG secures three-year contract with Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solutions

Premier Technical Services Group PLC (PTSG) has secured a three-year lightning protection contract with Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solutions.

Responsible for maintaining and upgrading one of the largest corporate real estates in Europe, Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solutions owns over 2,600 sites.....

....The Group’s skilled engineers are due to visit approximately 350 properties over the next three years to service and maintain lightning protection systems....."

Nice - 325,000 shares just bought at 105p...

Tipped by Simon Thompson of the IC earlier today it seems - anyone got full access?

Https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/comment/2018/11/05/small-cap-trading-updates/

"The fact that shares in Watkin Jones (WJG:207p), a construction company specialising in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and private rented housing, held their value during October’s market rout is testament to the strength of its business offering as a full-year pre-close trading update highlighted....."

Edison produced an update note on the new acquisition whilst I was on hols which hasn't been posted here:

Https://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.com/research/report/premier-technical-services-group527982/preview/

They've increased EPS forecasts to 11.8p EPS this year and 12.5p EPS next year (with 1.8p and 1.9p dividends).

Of course, they also have the firepower to make the already flagged fire services acquisition, which should further improve next year's forecasts.

Here's an extract re the new acquisition and the conclusion:

"There is an obvious opportunity to capture post-inspection repair and maintenance revenues, which Guardian does not currently carry out and also to cross-sell services to Guardian’s client base with which there is limited overlap."

"Valuation: Adding to growth momentum

Share price weakness and an earnings-enhancing deal have increased our three year EPS CAGR from 9% to 11% now and reduced the current year 13.2x P/E and 11.8x EV/EBITDA multiples down to 12.0x and 8.4x, respectively, by FY21.