Member Info for Skeletor

A dividend consistently not covered by earnings or surplus cashflow....... Any company could borrow money each year to pay shareholders a dividend but most don't and for good reasons.

Was on the verge of hitting the BUY button but did my usual one last scan of trading statements and noticed that the current and targeted EBITDA to debt ratio seemed high. This prompted me to re look at the last FY results and look at current + non current borrowings. These seem huge (over £900m) vs an operating profit of £100m. Interest was £70m so they are shipping 70% off operating profit out as interest payments?

Happy for someone to put me straight on here and re-convince me to hit the BUY button but surely this is the reason for the shorts?

Bought a few more..... hopefully not getting caught up in the hype

Only thing I can see is that a n article has been published claiming that there is less volatility in the market. i guess that has caused quite a knee jerk reaction on selling a company which enjoys volatility....? If so then I would suggest this is an excellent buying opportunity

Any ideas what happened at 2.20pm today?

Or does the dividend get taxed by the registered country (Israel) before even hitting your account?

But you said you didn’t really want foreign divi as you held in an ISA? I was wondering if there was a negative to this? Or was your ISA comment unrelated to the foreign divi?

Thanks

Hi DBNO

What happens if you get a foreign divi and shares held in ISA?

Cheers.

Also just realised that emojis come out as ? Marks by re reading post below.

After all the excellent advice and responses received on this board ?? I bought in this morning. 577p. Quite happy with that. ????

Why the big drop today then. Tempting to get in at this price on the hope there is no shocks on results day.

Against the fundamentals you are entirely correct hellyeah.... This looks like the bargain of the century even if you allow for a halving of profits in 2019....

Problem is, do we trust the balance sheet and the fundamentals? Is this the next Patisserie Valerie? You have to think that anything other than this scenario makes PLUS a great long/medium term hold at this price but I thought that at 1050 and luckily got out with only a 50pt drop.

Now being tempted back but think at the expense of missing the bottom on this i will wait for the first blue day and hope that this blue day isn't so big that I have missed all the bounce.....

My strategy to investing is 2 fold.

1. Strong yield, low P/E, no onerous debts and nothing suspicious looking like changing (Brexit aside)

2. Incredible if not high risk opportunity for capital growth such as a tech company yet to fully develop product or a medical company still clinically trialing a potential game changing drug (plenty of other examples).

Outside of this I struggle to understand what compels people to invest in companies which offer neither of the above - Especially when there are many FTSE 100 companies meeting the criteria laid out in my first example.

I come onto the LSE board, not to attack anyone currently invested but to try and understand what the compelling reason to invest would be? P/E of around 30 and a 1% yield....? Clearly there is a reason and hoping my outlook can be expanded by your answers.

Cheers

I've had these on my watchlist since they were 845p back in November! Thank god I didn't have spare funds then as I would be 20% down already! Finally bought in today at 680. Took a fairly conservative amount of my portfolio as I am also in TW and see their fortunes quite closely linked therefore thinking of the 2 investments as 1 one when considering the spread of risk across my holdings.

Feels like a great price though (especially as I was willing but unable to pay 20% more 3 months ago!) and if it stays at this level I will add but only after buying in some different sectors first.

(nb if you are reading this post in the future and the price is now significantly lower than 680 please ignore my "great price" comment)

What I'm not clear about is that they declared a $199m operating profit in 2017. IS that now in doubt or how they got there in doubt? I.e. does this $103 now contradict the $199m or did they make $199m despite the undeclared $103m loss? E.g. they made $103m more from another area of the business (also not declared) to compensate for this undeclared loss?

I guess if it is the latter and the top line Assets, debts and profits are still correct then this price represents great value albeit in a company which feels a little mismanaged and lacking trust?

Wow. Never done that before but sold out as soon as price started collapsing this morning. Feel better already. IGG is dropping as well this morning. Think I will take investment over there if it gets near 570. Good luck here guys.

Hi Tom, I saw you discussing this the other day. I can't find the article on a very quick google search although don't have a times subscription anyway. If you have a link you can post I think I have 5 free articles a week so will try and read it. Thanks

I got in at 1051 2 mins before the bell. a 7% drop on no news was too tempting. I still think on balance of todays musings I would sleep easier as a long term holder of IG but in the short term I hope PLUS has more growth potential so perhaps if/when I take profit I could transfer to IGG for a longer term hold - We will see.....

From an investor point of view there is a good value argument for going for PLUS vs IGG but as a consumer it seems from googling "what's the best" etc that IG often if not always comes out on top. There must be a reason to choose Plus500 as your platform as they have a significant customer base but wondering what that is?

Is anyone on this chat a customer of either and if so why did you choose 1 over the other?

The one thing I can see PLUS has is more languages and therefore will appeal to a wider worldwide audience although I imagine it would be quite easy to then make a case for IG having untapped markets and therefore some easy avenues for growth?

Cheers and apologies for taking over this chat board!

Sorry re-read your post and see that former guidance was 200p. Cheers.