The hedge fund at the heart of Glisten
The unacceptable face of chocolate
The opening page of the chapter on derivatives in my copy of Holmes, Sugden and Gee’s manual on interpreting company reports starts with the observation that companies enter into derivative contracts mostly to reduce risk.
Then it warns that there is another side of the derivatives business that is:
Sheer speculation: the...
Porvair’s porous profits
It’s all about earnings
Since Porvair’s (PRV) trading statement on 2 December was published two days after its year end, it should be an accurate guide to the full year accounts the company publishes in January.
So it’s rejection of the market’s appraisal, captured in the distinctly downward sloping chart on the left, caught my attention:
Looking...
A Smart property purchase
Maybe not smart enough…
A hundred years ago company reports in this country didn’t contain much information of use to shareholders. They didn’t even report sales. That’s one of the reasons that for most of stockmarket history the dividend has been the valuation metric of choice.
Opening J Smart & Co (Contractors) (SMJ) annual report takes...
Surveillance reveals Quadnetic
Intruder in the Thrifty 30.
This week I’m adding Quadnetics (QDG) to the Thrifty 30 model portfolio. It makes surveillance technology and sells integrated surveillance systems.
There’s plenty of hype about the need to control terrorism and loutish behaviour so, just to reassure you that I’m not being suckered in to paying too much. I’m...
The hanging gardens of Alumasc
Working hard for pensioners
Alumasc (ALU) might be a customer of Waterman, the engineering contractor I profiled last week.
It’s a a group of companies making building materials for large commercial and public sector property developments, and houses.
It also owns a precision engineering company, and a manufactures taps and other equipment for dispensing drinks in...
Backing bombed-out Waterman to rebuild again
Not the best company, but…
"The patterns of boom and recession in the British economy and the post war history of commercial property developers have shaped the Waterman Group to a considerable degree."
Our History – Waterman
Waterman’s history is pretty fascinating. Founded by Harold-Waterman in 1952, the engineering consultancy helped rebuild Britain after the Second...
Big name stocks for all seasons
Magic squared
Things are looking up for the stockmarket according to Edmund Ng, an Analyst at Morgan Stanley. In a research note published the day before Halloween, he recommended investors buy shares in quality, stable, growth companies that typically perform well in bull markets.
During the panic culminating last March, investors abandoned companies with weak finances, and...
As I was going to (buy) St Ives
I wondered whether it would survive
It’s doubly ironic that St Ives (SIV) chooses to feature a direct mail campaign promoting Google Maps in its annual report.
Admittedly it also devotes pages to a giant carrier bag it made to promote Sainsbury’s Finance, brochures for the Brooklands Bentley car, a peelable front cover for Wallpaper*...
Plumbing the depths with Wolseley
I’ve caught a big fish in my net, and I’m not altogether happy about it. Wolseley (WOS) is the world’s largest distributor of plumbing, heating, and building supplies, Unless you’ve come across it as an investor you might never have heard of it.
The company owns an army of businesses that go by their own...
Casting around for value
In practice:
The contrarian’s sector
As contrarian ideas go, the auto industry is hard-core, yet, despite having added engineering consultancy Ricardo to the Thrifty 30 model portfolio last week I haven’t finished with the sector.
While some manufacturers have maintained their research and development efforts to design leaner, cleaner vehicles, shielding Ricardo from the worst of the...
Reward, without the risk
In theory:
The holy grail
Contrary to conventional notions of risk and reward, buying shares in safe companies really does improve returns. That’s the message from a research note published last year by Morgan Stanley.
It published an alluring chart, which depicts what goes on over a stockmarket cycle (click on it for a larger version):
The story...
Ricardo engineers value in awful auto sector
In practice:
Diversification: good, diworseification bad
I fell in love with Ricardo (RCDO) when I saw the artwork on the front cover of its annual report:
The bold, calm design oozes technology, quality and environmental concern, which represent a big danger for investors in the automotive engineering consultancy.
It’s easy to get carried away by the promise of fuel...
