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Thanks! Very good write up. Particularly interesting comment about the fact that its lack of junior base means that Keys will only become MORE attractive to the rainmaker Principals/Partners, as AI changes how the legal industry delivers work. One thing I would say is that your comment about Keys needing to continually increase revenue per Principal doesn’t seem critical - as long as it’s adding new Principals, the bottom line will continue to grow, regardless

Yes I do. At the last Interims presentation, Mr Knight talked about possibly developing a bespoke AI tool. This would be a cost to Keystone but don’t forget law firms already have huge costs paying for legal research databases. Companies will still use law firms and won’t go it alone. Don’t forget, you need someone to sue when it goes belly up! You only need to look at the Keystone financial results - they are doing very well and these AI products and tools have been about for a couple of years now …

I’m a lawyer. AI will replace the very low quality end of the market. But for mid market and top end, AI will improve efficiency and allow firms to control fee inflation whilst maintaining margins. Keystone’s EPS growth comes largely from new Principal hires, which has nothing to do with AI and all about its superior and disruptive business model. Trading on a p/e of 13.7 with a 5% dividend yield and growing EPS year after year after year at an average 15%, this looks seriously misspriced to me!

When is the next trading update do you think? For some reason I had today pencilled in

Panmure Liberum: buy into weak Keystone

Keystone share price weakness presents a buying opportunity, particularly given the ongoing upgrade momentum, says Panmure Liberum.

Analyst Sanjay Vidyarthi retained his ‘buy’ recommendation and increased the target price from 960p to 980p on the law firm operating a cloud-based, decentralised model with over 400 self-employed lawyers. Shares in the group were trading down 0.52% at 579p despite a positive full-year 2026 trading update.

Vidyarthi said is delivered ‘strong recruitment activity and growth in revenue per principal’ which led him to increase his full-year 2026 earnings by 5% and 2027 by 3%.

‘Consistent upgrade momentum means that our full-year 2026 earnings per share is now 25% higher than it was a year ago,’ he said.

‘We think that the calibre of hires continues to fortify Keystone’s position at the quality end of the market. The platform model continues to deliver strong growth and cash returns.

He added that the ‘recent share price weakness presents a buying opportunity

This is starting to look very good value. Consistent track record of growth (5 year EPS CAGR of 15%). Forward EPS estimates set conservatively. Trading on a forward p/e of 16.8, which is a decent slug less than its historic valuation. Positive outlook with a very good chance of continuing on its excellent growth trajectory for many years to come. Back at the share price from early 2020, despite having more than doubled revenue and profit. Wonder if another professional services company or private equity might swoop for this disruptive business?

Should be a trading update soon?

Gold*

Working for a mining company as I do, a fatality is about as bad as it gets. I’m sure morale will be on the floor and the authorities will be (rightly) throwing their weight around. BUT it will pass. Serbia’s forecasts are based on a good price totally detached from reality. Given Serabi is on a forward p/e of 3.88, I suspect updated models plus a p/e expansion means this will probably double again from here. GLA

Very good. MUCH better than the share price would have implied! Should see an EPIC short squeeze here. Given over 7% of the shares are short, could take a while for them to close out. Fun couple of weeks ahead!

Great update. The business is clearly in a seeet spot! The only downside in my mind is that this type of announcement wouldn’t be made if a bid was imminent? Probably looking at a strategic partnership rather than a sale, unless it’s a sale of part of the business?

Really? Surely the market is not expecting a 16% dividend yield that is less than 1 times covered?!! I think a 50% cut to the dividend would be a good result and would see a share price bounce...

I wonder if AT is ripe for a short squeeze. Is it the most shorted UK listed company? The earnings profile seems to be stabilising and the share price looks to be forming a bottom and dare I say a break out of the 18 month downtrend. Just needs a catalyst to start the squeeze. Perhaps some broker upgrades, or a new contract announcement? Looking promising and have taken an full size position here for the recovery

I agree. My reading of the interview the CEO did post the last profit warning was something along the lines of: "This was a one off due to one customer going bust. We've learnt our lessons about forecasts and are taking a very cautious approach. We are are also rolling out to new stores at pace, which is not entirely reflected in the forecasts". I think now is the time to buy, post budget and with only a couple of months until the next trading update. Have taken 5352 shares at 187.13p this morning.

Retest of £7 soon enough

She’s gonna blow, Captain!

The yanks are gonna come in and buy this dip. There is another decent leg to go in this bull run.

US markets doing a big bounce - good old yanks are trained to buy the dips. Suspect we'll see a nice end to the day here at BOOM

Good stuff. Podcasting is clearly a booming industry. Usually these types of quarterly growth figures across the board signal the start of a big macro trend change - advertising clearly shifting away from the mainstream to the new way of consuming content. BOOM is in such a great spot

Its clearly not a leak leading to large buys. BUT, the march upwards has resumed and i suspect we'll see an assault towards £7 Thursday and Friday... I also seem to recall a trading update around this time last year. I know we've only just had one but do we think that we'll get another one soon?