Interesting year ahead for PLUS1 Jan 2016 18:10
Jan 1 2015 sp was £6.00. It soon rose to £740ish on the back of impressive growth, profit and divi figures, then tanked to £2.20ish after regulators said PLUS was breaking rues. Then onto £3,50 ish following PTEC £4.00 cash offer, and nearly to £5 recently when PTEC offer was withdrawn owing to regulation problems, and now to £4.20 after Numis said would not cover this stock since it had doubts on PLUS's ability to comply with all new regulatory requirements. In effect Numis has said it does not believe BOD statements issued via rns's. The last few trading updates have been very encouraging with interim profit at $54M ( up on previous year, T/O up, customer numbers up, however, profit unlikely to reach the $102M, 2014 level , This being IMO, primarily due to the 46% increase in Average Customer Acquisition Cost. The co stated it was targeting 'high value' customers, and with the increased level of advertising and reg. compliance costs, company is saying unlikely to meet 2014 profit levels. With already $50M+ from interims, I'll take a stab at $90M for full year. At quoted 60% divi payout = $54M = 47c = 32p ps. at 5% yield = £6,40 sp. I will not be surprised when prelims are announced if profit surpasses that of 2014. On the other hand, if Numis analysis is correct, and BOD have mislead investors, the sp could tank again to £2+. Class action law suits against BOD on rns's are unlikely since it conveniently covers itself on rns's with it's 'forward looking statements' get out of goal card. However, I am minded to believe BOD, and the near 15p ps interim divi, and believe sp will be £7ish before June. All in MHO of course. Healthy and Wealthy 2016 to one and all.