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Cavendish's post-update research hasn't been posted here, so...

They've reiterated their 175p target price.

They also reiterate their forecasts of historic 5.8p EPS and 7.4p EPS for the current year, i.e a P/E of 8.7 at 64.5p.

They summarise:

"Year-end update – Trading in-line with a stronger H2

The group’s year-end update provides good reassurance, with a strong H2 performance resulting in revenue and profit both ahead of expectations. After recent challenges, trading is responding to management action. A strong cash performance meant net debt held level, despite £3.3m spent on acquisitions. SDI is in a strong financial position to pursue its buy & build strategy. No significant change to forecasts, with potential upside from any accretive deals. The shares offer excellent value, with significant scope for a rerating as investor confidence is progressively restored."

"Valuation.

With recent challenges now responding well to management action, the confirmation that trading is in line should provide investors with greater confidence. With stronger cash flow, the company has good financial flexibility to pursue its buy & build strategy. The shares currently trade on FY25E P/E of 8.6x, which looks exceptional value in our view, and offers a significant opportunity to rerate as confidence develops that the group is on track with its turnaround, plus the opportunity for any acquisitive activity to result in EPS upgrades.

We maintain our 175p target price, offering substantial upside to current levels, with all its near peer group trading at 20-28x FY2 earnings."

From today's news - the current heatwaves in India have driven demand for power/electricity to new records:

Https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cllle947r9lo

Alliance Pharma, a key customer of VLG, has reported positively today - in particular regarding the comments re Kelo-Cote which VLG manufactures for APH. Which hopefully bodes well for VLG's trading update next month.

Key highlights were:

'a strong second half performance drove record sales for the Year and further underlying profit expansion. With continued investment planned to support new product development and increased marketing, the Group is well positioned for growth over the medium term'.

'Consumer Healthcare see-through revenue up 11% at constant exchange rates to £136.4m (2022: £125.2m) and up 9% on a reported basis'.

'Continued strong consumer demand driving significant recovery in Kelo-Cote franchise revenues in H2, with FY 2023 revenues reaching £63.2m, +29% at constant exchange rates'

Amati UK Smaller Companies have now bought in per their May newsletter published last night:

Https://www.amatiglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SMCO-Factsheet-May.pdf

"We introduced a new position, Renew Holdings, this month. Renew are a well-established engineering services group supporting critical infrastructure projects in sectors such as rail, water and environmental. It enjoys excellent long-term visibility supported by major spending commitments across its key sectors."

FYI River & Mercantile UK Microcap this morning announced their interims to March '24. In the summary of progress of their portfolio they said:

"hVIVO (+0.9) and 1Spatial (+0.5) performed strongly as the businesses continued to deliver operationally. hVIVO beat underlying profit expectations with their strong pipeline and upcoming move into a larger facility underpinning new medium-term growth targets significantly ahead of forecasts."

Rockwood Strategic PLC announced their full year results this morning. In it they disclose that CAPD was one of the new additions to their portfolio, and they summarise:

"Capital Limited 3.2% NAV, Market capitalisation £174m

The company's two key founders remain heavily involved and invested in the business they have successfully created over the last 15 years. The company started out providing drilling services to small African based mining companies and, having developed a reputation of best in class health and safety, service levels and efficiency, has gradually built a diversified client base including a number of world's major mining companies. The rig fleet is now deployed across several continents and is complimented by other services, the most important for our thesis being the 'laboratory services' division which is providing leading edge, environmentally friendly assays and sample testing to its clients.

Capital's strong margins, and attractive returns on capital will be enhanced by the strong growth of this division, competitors are valued very highly. Whilst Capital has activities across a number of metals, it still retains a bias to Gold.

We expect further growth in its key projects, realisations from its strategic equity stakes in early-stage clients and an eventual realisation of value in the laboratories business.

The valuation looks anomalous given the ROCE and growth record, its asset base and prospects."

New article confirming FNX's involvement with Soccer ("Football"!) Aid - nice summary paragraph below:

Https://www.fonix.com/blog/fonix-partners-with-soccer-aid-for-unicef-2024/

"The campaign has come a long way since Fonix started working with the team in 2018. From an initial simple text donation service, Fonix now provides operational project management, multiple SMS donation price points, a Text-to-Win donation competition, a multi-donation channel Totaliser to ensure all donations, including match-funding, are reported accurately and for the first time this year, all online donations.

The online donations platform allowed the audience to donate via card and PayPal, and as a first for Soccer Aid also via Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Soccer Aid Online Payment Portal built by Fonix"

Northumbrian Water have today announced that they're tripling their investment programme under the new AMP8 to 2030 to £3.6 billion.

And that they've appointed a number of companies to carry out this investment programme - two of which are RNWH subsidiaries, namely Enisca Browne and Seymour Civil Engineering:

Https://www.watermagazine.co.uk/2024/06/18/northumbrian-water-completes-its-procurement-in-preparation-for-amp8/

The Mello Monday presentation is excellent as usual. Some highlights:

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUt3uaeYgBg

- "it's been a great start to the financial year"

- "momentum has continued into H2" with a "healthy pipeline"

- recurring revenues are now over 85%

- "we're ready for M&A activity again"

- revenues have grown organically at 24% per annum for each of the last 4 years

- Fidelis have grown their revenues from £4.8m to £12m since acquisition

- Laddersfree are growing revenues by 30% and have added 7 new nationwide customers in the last 18 months

- REAT looked at 40 other opportunities before buying Fidelis

- acquisitions have to be earnings-accretive in the first year

- REAT are likely the only company who can provide their services nationwide

- "now extremely cash-generative" as final payments have been made for the acquisitions

- REAT is a "very defensive business", with customer expenditure being non-discretionary

- the rating is undervalued

- minimum wage increases are already built into contracts

RNWH is highlighted in the new Investors Champion monthly podcast, saying its new acquisition is a picks and shovels play on the National Grid upgrades (about 26 minutes in):

Https://youtu.be/V7mwIBtoyQU?si=PW4qI77q_1m9pUYL

More detail re Berenberg's latest upgrade:

Https://www.sharecast.com/news/broker-recommendations/berenberg-nudges-up-target-price-on-renew-holdings--16930705.html

"Analysts at Berenberg raised their target price on engineering services firm Renew Holdings from 1,250.0p to 1,200.0p on Wednesday following the group’s capital markets day last week.

Berenberg said Renew's CMD focused on growth opportunities in its existing end-markets, the collaboration efforts between operating brands within the group and reminded investors of where the M&A focus was for management.

The German bank also noted that following this "timely revisit" of the opportunity for the group, it was “pleasing” that Renew announced its third acquisition in the last 12 months – buying Excalon Holdings for up to £26.0m of consideration for underlying earnings of roughly £3.0m.

"The acquisition opens up the attractive, structural growth energy transmission and distribution market for the group, while adding yet another speciality to the group’s evolving stable of high-quality operating companies," said the analysts.

Berenberg, which has a 'buy' rating on the stock, updated its forecasts for the stock following the deal, increasing underlying earnings by approximately 4% in FY25 and FY26 and earnings per share by about 3-4%. On its revised forecasts, Berenberg said Renew trades on 14x FY24 price-to-earnings ratio."

Today's 2023 results are a relative sideshow - the £2.8m acquisition is the big news for this now £4.6m m/cap company:

- highly profitable at £401k op.profit and £652k EBITDA

- prior 14 months saw £732k op.profit and £1.249m EBITDA

- 50% recurring income

- complementary industries and services offering synergies

- acquisition is from cash (including o/d) and should be highly earnings-enhancing

It's somewhat of a gamble as it's using up PEG's cash pile. But it's good to see PEG taking the risk and upping the stakes.

The poor results are due to the hiatus in UK Rail - and to the £0.6m acquisition costs due to the nature of the transaction changing, which is too high. However:

- PEG have in the last Q4 cut overheads by £0.4m, and remained EBITDA-positive at £340k

- UK Rail is finally coming back to life

- QRO continues to be a lifesaver and Defence appears more promising now

If Rail really does turn positive then PEG has a long way to go from here.

They also hold MWE in their Portfolio, and noted here:

"Solid first quarter results from MTI Wireless Edge helped lift the shares. Cash generation was particularly strong, contributing to an increasingly healthy cash balance for the business. The share price has increased by 24.6% this year, but we feel that the upward re-rating has further to run given the quality of the underlying assets."

Techinvest said Buy in the new issue this weekend, noting that MWE has net cash of 7.6p per share and concluding:

"Recent contract wins from MTI have been impressive and the shares continue to look good value on a prospective P/E for fiscal 2024 of 12.7 and price-to-sales ratio of just 1.1. Quality metrics are also attractive, with operating margins of 10.2% and return on capital of 14.7%. The cash-rich balance sheet adds further support. Continue to buy."

Nice article about FNX reaching its 10-year anniversary since launch. The last paragraph as below makes good reading:

Https://www.telemediaonline.co.uk/fonix-turns-10-here-are-some-of-its-triumphs/

Extract:

"It launched in Ireland in 2022 and is now the market leader in interactive services there, Weisz tells us that the next 10 years starts with the company adding more more countries, expanding the options around OTT messaging, such as Whatsapp, RCS and beyond, all while embracing the exciting world of alternative payments. And all of it centres on using the mobile number as a means to engage."

The new issue of Techinvest this weekend said Buy (with the share price at 71p), concluding:

"Profitability and cash generation from operations improved over the second half of the financial year and that seems to have been a key factor in drawing buyers back to the stock following the trading update. Monmouth and Chell Instruments in particular experienced a strong second half, with the former seeing increased clean room and cabinet sales, the latter reporting improved demand for its DAQ product range. Fraser Anti-Static Techniques also saw a pick up in revenues. Scientific Vacuum Services, as expected, saw a slower period of trading after delivering a large contract in the first half o the year.

With cash generation from operations improving, SDI is now well placed to continue its buy and buid strategy following a sticky period of trading which we feel was due primarily to short-term external factors. The broker consensus forecast for the current year is net profit of £8.85m and earnings per share of 7.35p, giving a prospective P/E of 9.7. That leaves the stock looking good value in our opinion. Buy for recovery."

The new issue of Techinvest this weekend said Buy and concluded as follows:

"After a period of strong revenue growth through acquisitions primarily, the benefits of operating levearge are starting to flow through to Team Internet's bottom line. Other encouraging news was that the number of visitor sessions in the Online Marketing segment increased to 19% to 6 billion over the trailing twelve-month period, while the Online Presence segment recorded organic revenue growth of 14%.

Broker consensus forecast for fiscal 2024 points to net profit of £50.8m and earnings per share of 19.2p. These figures rise to £54.7m and 20.5p respectively for fiscal 2025. Trading on a prospective P/E of 9.4 for next year, we feel the shares remain undervalued. That situation should rectify itself as operating margins continue to rise and further consolidation of acquisitions reveals more about the intrinsic strength of the business model and product offerings. Continue to buy."

PDI announced "encouraging" drilling results last night from Bankan (where CAPD are the drilling contractors), with lots more drilling to come:

Https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02816330-6A1211173

"Encouraging results have also been received from several new areas such as Sanifolon North and Sanikourou. Drilling at Argo will continue to follow-up the best results at depth and along strike, and expand early-stage

drilling to untested areas with good potential.”

“The exploration program at Argo is advancing to the next phase, and we are excited to have commenced transitioning the Fouwagbe and Sounsoun targets into resource definition drilling programs with the resource development team. We believe this will ultimately deliver the first Mineral Resource estimates outside the NEB and BC area, highlighting the multi-deposit potential of the Bankan Gold Project.”

“PDI’s regional exploration strategy is to maintain a steady flow of targets moving through the exploration pipeline and, in line with this strategy, the regional exploration team is extending its efforts beyond the Argo permit. Drilling is underway on the Bokoro permit, initially targeting prospective geochemistry anomalies and artisanal workings. We look forward to receiving the first results from these new areas."

Peel Hunt have raised their target price by a full 100p to 1250p and say Buy:

Https://citywire.com/investment-trust-insider/news/expert-view-4imprint-intertek-cake-box-m-and-g-renew/a2444234?page=5

"‘Buy’ Renew, says Peel Hunt

Engineering group Renew (RNWH) has made a new acquisition that will springboard it into an area of ‘strategic priority’, says Peel Hunt.

Analyst Andrew Nussey reiterated his ‘buy’ recommendation and increased the target price from £11.50 to £12.50 on the Citywire Elite Companies A-rated stock, which gained 0.6% to £10.80 on Tuesday.

It has acquired the UK electricity network sector specialist Excalon for up to £26m in cash, which Nussey said was a ‘highly attractive’ deal given ‘the valuable strategic positions, existing frameworks, and skilled workforce’.

He increased his full-year 2025 profit before tax from £71m to £73.3m and noted ‘the potential for outperformance via an earn-out mechanism’.

‘Renew has consistently identified the UK electricity sector as a key strategic priority,’ said Nussey. ‘Excalon looks an excellent springboard into a substantial and complementary market.’

However, he said the £22m of cash in the business means there are also ‘exciting inorganic as well as organic growth opportunities’.

‘We increase our target price… to reflect the accretion, as well as the favourable earnings mix shift,’ Nussey said."

Excalon's latest accounts are a year out of date to 30/4/23, but are worth a look:

- at 30/4/23 Excalon had a £4.1m cash pile, making the acquisition even better value

- at that stage Excalon were making £1.9m operational EBITDA ; this is expected to improve to £3m per today's RNS, and judging by the factors which affected 30/4/23 and the very positive subsequent outlook this seems entirely possible

- "Commercial Pipeline forecasts for 2023/24 are exceptionally encouraging with key clients aggressively focusing on projects again and some key wins both with existing and new blue-chip clients. Gross profit increased due to several factors but primarily due to client and work mix being favourable relative to prior years"

- "As noted, the commercial sales pipeline of work for 2023/24 and beyond is ahead of expectations with the electricity and green energy markets showing unprecedented growth over a period aligned with the expansion of the fragmented UK infrastructure services market. Excalon are well placed within these sectors to continue our sustainable and controlled growth"

- also good to see that as with RNWH, framework contracts are protected by annual RPI contractual increases offsetting inflation and "new works tendering will remain unaffected by pricing based on new pricing indices"

Https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04450846/filing-history