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...and also tipped by h*tst*ckr*ckets today. Sure, it's the same lot, but these are people who can read balance sheets upside down and back to front. They have a very good track record, but their suggestion to buy up to 1.5p, with a minimum target price seem rather cautious for the good growth prospects and good visibility to earnings.

Considering how well HVO is growing these days, as well as throwing off lots of cash, institutional buyers will be very keen to get involved at 28p because most will be in it for the long term. Likely buyers are the many AIM IHT service providers who struggle to acquire shareholdings in size in most AIM shares. If this proves to be the case, they won't be flipping any shares allotted. Instead, they will be steadily acquiring more shares as new clients join their service. On balance, this is very good news for shareholders.

My guess, ironknut, is that the weakness is little more than an investor trying to sell a tranche of shares. As you will appreciate, there is very little liquidity in most AIM stocks and so when there is an overhang, price movements on the downside can get overdone. Indeed, the more the shares fall, the more fear creeps in and buyers go to ground. We know from a recent update that the company is trading perfectly well. On fundamentals, the rating is not that cheap, but then better quality AIM stocks rarely are. With a little patience, I foresee the shares recovering.

I think my main 2 points from today's update is that stock write-downs will happen and near term growth will slow. Re the former, the balance sheet can take the hit, for what is a relatively small part of the business. Re the latter, the low rating is discounting slowing growth. However, that is not the same thing as saying the shares are good value. The rating has been this 'cheap' on a no. of occasions in the past. For the shares to re-rate, reassuring news will be required and I don't see that happening before the next results. It may even be for much of 2024, bearing in mind the importance of Christmas trading to a retailer.

I'll be interested to see what Master Investor makes of this update in the next day or two because they were very bullish. If you don't subscribe, it is worth doing so because it provides a no. of good tips, with many articles written well. The service is also free.

As Hardboy said, today's update is a bit of a curate's egg. The bad news though, to me, is a lot more concerning. The watch market has been too strong for too long, with a considerable no. of spivs buying new watches, typically Rolex's, to flip them. When Burberry and Watches of Switzerland warned on profits recently, as with other high end / upmarket fashion and jewellery businesses, the finger was pointed at the Chinese. Today's warning from HAT reinforces a message that the watch market has seriously imploded, in double quick time. If so, there will be a big write-down in the value of HAT's stock and there could be little in the way of a recovery in the watch market in 2024.

Profits warnings, as they say, come in 3s. So soon after saying how well trading was going, it suggests that today's announcement will not be the last where forecasts get downgraded. Store openings will also probably have to go on hold.

I have traded this stock well, several times. Not this time though. Would I add to my position now? No. The fundamentals, like the low p/e and attractive yield, suggest holding. However, as with many AIM stocks, quality of earnings need to be considered and with HAT's operations focused on the less well off, for those not invested, why bother? There are plenty of other cheap and undervalued AIM stocks, as well as retailers, where newsflow is much better.

To state the obvious, it is Friday tomorrow. Whilst the old days of account trading are long gone, you still see plenty of profit taking at the end of weeks, especially in takeover and/or speculative shares that have been pushed up a lot. I would not be surprised to see HVO down to the 27s or so, if not lower, before it could push on into the 30s. Unless, of course, this month's trading update gives another good reason to buy / hold.

Hmmm, LSE don't like *************! Abbreviated, it is ShPr, run by T Winnifrith.

To add to the comments in the last 24 hrs...

If Canaccord is still selling lines of stock, maybe to meet redemptions, with AIM now bouncing off its lows and so many shares massively below levels seen in the past year or so, in spite of many announcing decent trading updates / results, it may not be a negative sign. Simply, there are bargains to be had at these lower levels of the AIM market and cash can be required to build positions in new companies. Certainly, this is how I manage my parents' AIM (IHT mitigation) portfolios, sometimes top-slicing, to free up liquidity to invest in other shares.

Also, the lack of news flow might not be a negative, albeit to be in a vacuum with the shares drifting on thin volume is always frustrating. Kooth is trying to secure deals with State side authorities. I am sure these will be very bureaucratic organisations where things do not happen quickly or in a timely manner. The last thing that Kooth's management would want to do is to over-promise and under-deliver. It is better that they keep schtum and allow the business to develop, updating the market when things are concrete.

Stt1, you need to understand that one reason most companies list on stockmarkets is that it gives the people running them a way of rewarding themselves, whether via LTIPs, options or general share issues. Sure, some over-reward themselves, with price hurdles that are too easily achieved and all these share issuances are at the expense of shareholders whose interests become diluted. However, there is little wrong with rewarding success and what Mo Khan and his colleagues are now achieving at hVIVO are to be congratulated.

Ultimately, at the company grows, institutional investors will climb aboard. Currently, that is not possible without a share issuance. Why though would the company need to issue shares when it is already throwing off excess cash?

I suggest you stop looking for negatives in this stock and enjoy the ongoing, upward rise because news flow continues to improve and the shares could easily rise a lot further and/or the company be taken out, at a huge premium, by a big pharmaceutical company looking for its own drug testing unit.

Thank you again, ShearClass. Your awareness of things State side is quite extraordinary and so helpful. I imagine that news re Pennsylvania will be forthcoming very soon now.

If you look at the graph, the shares have suffered these quick collapses on more than one occasion in recent years. Each time it has been right to buy into the weakness and it should be no different this time, with current trading good and the economy heading into problems in 2024.

I said yesterday that I was not buying a whole unit. Today, I topped up at c.400p. Very happy.

this is a hotstockrockets (i.e tom winnifrith / *************) favoured company. it has been tipped 3x in recent months, with an original target price north of 150p. bearing in mind the recent contract win and today's impressive trading update, i suspect a 4th article is imminent. in all probability, with so little liquidity, the shares could continue to rise appreciably into 2024 and so i suggest buying into today's rise (i paid 136p for > 10k).

Thanks for the url, LeeC7. A 565p share price forecast looks fair to me and with an attractive dividend payout as well and society, sadly, needing to use pawnbrokers so much these days, I think today's sell-off is little more than selling into a lack of liquidity. I have bought at 426p and will enjoy the bounce back (in my dreams!).

Morning. I see that Shore Capital has produced a research note today, with a headline of 'Upward pressure on costs'. I cannot access it, so I have no idea if the headline is misleading, but as NOMAD and broker to the company, it is difficult to believe that the article is negative overall.

I have traded this stock several times before and excessive price falls in H&T are not uncommon. With trading good and the rating cheap, I view this morning's c.9% setback as another buying opportunity. However, I won't buy a usual whole unit - perhaps 2/3rds of what I normally buy just in case something is awry!

Thank you, ShearClass, for your customary well-informed and interesting comments in your last 2 messages. They are very helpful and reassuring. I am in for the long term (usually when I say that, it is case of a short term (problematic) holding becoming a long term holding, but not this time!) and I am so impressed with what this company is both aiming to do, to help those with mental health problems, as well as has achieved to date.

Hi ShearClass. May I just pick your brain on costs for Kooth. Obviously, the company raised a good amount of cash a few month ago and there has since been a lot of expenditure, especially on recruitment in the U.S. However, with the size of the California contract and there being a good chance that Kooth will secure a potentially lucrative contract for the State of Pennsylvania, is there not a worry that Kooth is simply so small and it will need a lot more cash than has been raised recently because the last thing that the company will want is for problems to mount about roll-out etc, with potential fines or whatever might be written into the contracts if Kooth does not deliver what it has promised?

I think a lot of the recent weakness will be due to the CEO selling 300,000 shares at c.345p in late July. Whilst it only represented just under a 5th of his holding, the downward move in the share price on the day of the announcement suggests that the market was not impressed with this news.

I've gone from a 10% profit, to a 10% loss, in a matter of weeks, in a sector (defence) where news flow should remain positive into 2024 and beyond. Keep the faith!

Thank you again, ShearClass. Your comments, allied to this potential transformative Californian contract for Kooth, remind me of that quote of John Maynard Keynes "When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, Sir?". Mind you, he also said "In the long run, we are all dead"!

As someone who had to take early retirement, partly owing to severe mental health difficulties, yesterday I decided to take the plunge, tucking away 8,000 in my SIPP at 233.8p. Whether the investment works or not, at least I am supporting a good cause.

Hi ShearClass. I have followed with interest your understanding of balance sheets / P&ls, both with Kooth and TinyBuild. Thank you for such helpful insight and comments.

With Kooth, it is forever loss-making. Whilst I understand that the business is incurring costs to grow, to ask a silly question, how and when will it make money? The Californian contract will considerably boost revenues, but also costs. Do you know what sort of profits and earnings may be possible looking a year or two ahead?

Hi Walkley. Do you have any idea of forecasts for 2022? Multiplying the EPS x 2, for an annual figure, gives a p/e of <5x which is ludicrously cheap. However, the statement is clearly indicating that such strong growth recently will not repeat itself in the second half and, like many other management statements, there are all refs to supply chains problems, rising prices etc. to err on the side of caution. Nonetheless, I cannot help but feel that the shares are way too cheap, especially considering the quality of the management team and prospects.