Softcat has announced its latest results, which are in line with expectations.
The IT infrastructure technology and services company has seen strong results thanks to a growth in demand.
“The team has continued to perform well during the first quarter and we saw good growth from both mid-market and enterprise corporate customers as well as the public sector,” said Graeme Watt, the group’s CEO.
“Customer demand has remained high and the hardware supply situation is stable. We’ve a lot still to do in the next nine months but the team is delivering with confidence and is benefitting from being able to spend more time together in our offices.”
Softcat shares have steadily grown over the year. Share price has surged 36.93% in the year to date.
Pets at Home revenues surged 18% to £677.6m in the six months to the 7th October. Like for like sales increased 28.6%.
“Our business has never been more robust,” said Peter Pritchard, chief executive. “Notwithstanding some near-term, industry-wide challenges, we continue to grow ahead of our plans and, based on trading year to date, we are on track to report a record year of sales and profit growth,”
The number of homes with a pet in the UK increased over lockdown, which has helped to boost the group’s results.
Investors will be receiving a payout of 11.3 pence per share. Last year, the payout was 6.3 pence. Expected profits for the full year are expected to be at the top end of expectations.
The Pets at Home share price has been down over the past week.
“The race to buy pets during the pandemic has pepped up Pets at Home no end. Many people introduced a feline or canine addition to their household during lockdown and now these furry friends need looking after,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“Where Pets at Home deserves credit is in sharpening its proposition to take advantage of this wave of new business.
“Demand not just for goods like food, treats and toys but also for veterinary and grooming services has shot up and Pets at Home has been well placed to take advantage as previous investment in boosting its paw print and adding new expertise has paid off.
AO World has cut its profit forecast for the second time this quarter, amid supply chain issues and rising costs.
Although the company saw a successful year over lockdown, it is showing growing concerns around global shipping and product shortages.
Revenues at the electrical goods retailer could be down 5% this year. Expected profits for the year fell from £35m-£50m that was forecast just eight weeks ago to £10m-20m.
“At the start of our financial year in April, we planned for continued revenue growth and built up our cost base accordingly. However, since then, growth in the UK has been impacted by the nationwide shortage of delivery drivers and the ongoing disruption in the global supply chain, and the German online market has seen significantly increased competition,” said the retailer in a statement.
“As we now look to the second half, we continue to see meaningful supply chain challenges with poor availability in certain categories, particularly in our newer products where we have less scale, experience and leverage. In addition, shipping costs, material input prices and consumer price inflation remain challenging uncertainties.”
“As a result of these factors, the all-important current peak trading period is significantly softer than we anticipated only eight weeks ago.”
In the first half of the year, the group made a pre-tax loss of £10m. This is compared to £18m profit the year previously.
Eneraqua Technologies is well positioned to take advantage of the increasing focus on energy and water efficiency and the associated incentives for investment in these areas.
The annual social housing heating system renewal market is valued at £2.77bn and Eneraqua Technologies has a tiny market share. The UK market for the water flow technology is around £100m and there are opportunities overseas. Generally, competition is in different in each market.
The cash raised is being used to grow the market position in the energy market and build up a stronger position in the water sector. Ther...
Free to play mobile games developer and publisher Leaf Mobile Inc plans to add a standard listing to its Toronto Stock Exchange listing and PrimaryBid is offering investors the chance to participate in the associated fundraising, which could raise around £6m. The offer closes at 4pm on 24 November.
The mobile games market is growing by 10% a year and could be worth more than $100bn by 2023. Games account for nearly three-quarters of app store spending. Canada-based Leaf Mobile produces games for Apple iOS and Android – the latter generates 62% of revenues.
Earlier this year, Leaf...
The FTSE 100 bounced back from last week’s selling in early Monday as a raft of positive corporate stories took attention away from concerns over inflation, the associated potential monetary policy tightening and lockdowns in Europe.
However, the index wasn’t able to hold onto gains and sank into the afternoon session.
The FTSE 100 was 0.4% stronger at 7,255 in mid morning trade on Monday having closed at the lowest since 25th October on Friday.
“The FTSE 100 rose 0.4% to 7,255 thanks to strength among banks, miners and telecoms stocks, the latter sector helped by a private equity takeover approach for Milan-listed Telecom Italia,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
By lunchtime the FTSE 100 retraced all its gains and traded negatively.
Royal Mail was again the FTSE 100’s top riser as investors continued to pick up shares following a strong set of results last week and the promise of shareholder distributions.
Travel shares were also among the top risers as they bounced back from heavy selling at the end of last week sparked by fresh lockdowns and restriction in Europe due to a rise in Coronavirus cases.
IAG and Rolls Royce were both up over 2%, albeit off the highest levels of the session.
Precious metals miner Polymetal was the FTSE 100 biggest loser, falling inline with gold as the risk aversion evident last week diminished.
Castillo Copper has provided an update on their Picasso Lithium Project following the visit of a geology team.
The visit found pegmatite 10km in size that was significantly larger than prior government findings which are though to potentially be linked to lithium mineralisation.
The Picasso Lithium Project is located near Norseman in Western Australia and is diversifying Castillo’s asset base outside of their core copper projects.
There will be further investigations into the outcropping in the north-eastern quadrant of the prospect where the high-density pegmatite corridor is located.
Source: Castillo Copper
“The geology team’s visit to the Picasso Lithium Project delivered encouraging news, confirming that a 10km zone of pegmatites is apparent in the tenure’s north-east quadrant,” said Simon Paull, Managing Director of Castillo Copper
“The Board’s preliminary conclusion, based on due diligence undertaken to date, is the Picasso Lithium Project is prospective for lithium mineralisation and delivers significant incremental exploration potential.”
Cinema operator, Everyman Media Group, has released a trading update for the 2021 FY year to 30th December 2021 and said they saw admissions ahead of expectations.
Assuming there are no more COVID restrictions in 2021, Everyman expects revenue to be no less than £46.3m producing EBITDA of no less than £7m.
This would be a dramatic increase from the £24.2m revenue recorded in 2020 FY but well below the £64.9m recorded in 2019 FY.
Everyman shares rose to 145p in early trade on Monday.
“Everyman’s shares jumped 8% after it said more people have been visiting its posh cinemas than expected, giving a nice boost to earnings. Cinema demand is highly dependent on the quality of the film slate and there have been quite a few popular titles released in recent months to help put bums on seats,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
Red Capital is the latest vehicle floated by Marwyn Capital founder David Williams. He has floated other standard list shells and one on Aquis called Quantum Exponential – although he is not a director there. Red Capital is seeking acquisitions in technology and services sectors, although it is trying to remain as flexible as possible.
Fellow director Simon Webster has a background in the software and technology sector. He was chief executive of software company CPA Global, which merged with New York Stock Exchange listed Clarivate in October 2020. He also founded SHUFL Capital. The directors ...
Share consolidations are normally undertaken so that a company is more attractive to investors. They think that penny or sub-penny share prices attract speculators and not more serious investors. However, most share prices take an initial dip and many drift lower over the medium term.
One positive is that the bid/offer spread can be narrowed. Penny shares can have enormous spreads.
Remote tracking technology developer Starcom is changing its name to t42 IoT Tracking Solutions (LON: TRAC) and it is also consolidating eight shares into one new share. This happens on Monday 22 November.
The compa...
