In a Solid State
In practice:
Running fast into a headwind
Perhaps it’s the remarkably chipper state of the market that’s forcing me to look for bargains amongst the smallest of companies.
Solid State’s market value is £3m and it employs just 14 people manufacturing rugged and industrial computers and batteries and 25 people selling them and other manufacturers’ electronic components.
Most of [...]
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
In practice:
Catch a share near its low
Starting off where I finished last week, clicking through the companies I’ve profiled over the last year to determine which are suitable for the Thrifty 30 portfolio, I’m rejecting Business Post (BPG) again.
Although most of my junk mail and a lot of actually quite useful mail seems to [...]
Total Systems is a value conundrum
In practice:
Full fat spread
As if producing ‘total systems’ weren’t enough, Total Systems’ (TTS) main product is called, Ultima (brochure - pdf). It’s software that administers polices for insurers and brokers so they can issue quotations, manage renewals, and settle claims.
From the case studies on its website, customers like Dixons, which uses Ultima for [...]
Step forward… The real Thrifty 30
In practice:
I name this portfolio…
Regular readers will be familiar with my Thrifty 30 portfolios. They are portfolios of thirty shares in financially strong companies at cheap prices. I first tried it on this blog, then I had a go for Money Observer [pdf]. Up to now, though, I have not maintained a Thrifty 30 portfolio. [...]
Not so Trifast
In practice:
Back to the future
Judging by Malcolm Diamond’s letter to shareholders in July, Trifast (TRI) is in poor shape. The new chairman, and Jim Barker, the new chief executive, wrote a to-do list:
…to apply ourselves quickly to lift the very low staff morale, to negotiate renewed long-term banking facilities, to re-establish a global [...]
The cheapest six stocks in August
In practice:
Six of the ‘best’
Here are the six cheapest stocks on the market. As Dr Keith Anderson, the inventor of the econometric method for divining them likes to say, they’re six of the best.
They’re not the best companies, they’re the six most unappreciated shares on the market. People may not like them for good [...]
Not-For-Me
In practice:
Just an opinion
Judging by the numbers, Photo-Me, the UK’s dominant photobooth operator is a buy. It’s ranked 26th on my list of good companies at cheap prices.
The shares cost eleven times average earnings (profits), which is cheap, but not desperately so, and it’s financially strong, scoring eight out of nine on the F_Score.
Many [...]
Good companies at cheap prices
In practice
A random walk down Wall Street
How soon my ‘extended break’ ended. Now it feels like a mini-break and while I’m looking forward to resuming our discussions about the state of the market, and interesting companies, a bit of me is still in the middle of the Atlantic
All I got from Bermuda (apart [...]
Becoming a Cropper
In practice:
Moors and mills, and long-distance love
The share price of James Cropper (CRPR), a Lake District paper manufacturer, is in long-term decline, interrupted by brief spouts of enthusiasm. It’s a heady mixture, a declining share price in a relic of our great industrial past.
The company has not been a good long-term investment in recent [...]
Seduced by Celsis
In practice:
What’s not to like?
Barring a small surge to 240p in 2007, and subsequent backwash to 140p last year, it’s difficult to detect much life in Celsis’ share price. Investors’ enthusiasm for the company seems to be flagging as it grows and in the second half of this century it’s mostly traded sideways.
Could a [...]
