Is HMV in the ‘buggy whip’ business?
With the invention of cars, the buggy whips used for driving horses became redundant. With the invention of downloads, the future’s bleak for music retailers, then.
While HMV (HMV) reported higher like-for-like sales last Christmas, it was only good news relative to what had gone before. Sales have barely risen over the last two or three […]
The cheapest six shares on the market #5
Dr Keith Anderson scans the whole market for the cheapest six stocks based on their size, industry and long-term earnings power.
It’s time for Dr Keith Anderson’s quarterly selection of the cheapest six shares on the market.
I’ve explained the maths behind the selection process before*1 but, to summarise, Keith adjusts the price earnings ratio to […]
DEATH: The new growth industry
As profits keep rising at Dignity, investors seem to think the company is set for growth. But how exactly has it turned our steady death rate into a growth industry?
Unfortunately it’s not quietly bumping people off. What a great scoop that would be!
Neither is Dignity (DTY) on my ‘approved list‘ of companies with low debt […]
Explosive growth as easy as ABC
As any Arsenal fan will tell you, attack is the best form of defence. So is it possible to find a share that has such momentum that not even the current market gyrations can stop it rising?
Could Abcam (ABC) be that stock? Before I explain what it does. Here’s how I discovered it.
I’m interested in […]
French Connection - not quite a bargain
French Connection’s price has fallen from 500p to 100p yet this iconic company is still no bargain. Are we FCUKing crazy?
It’s very easy to be carried away by optimistic sounding earnings forecasts. Projections of 123% earnings growth per year for three years originally attracted me to French Connection.
Reality is less enticing. French Connection’s price has […]
All to play for at Meldex
It’s too early to congratulate shareholders in Meldex. The company says it’s received an approach. We don’t know who made it, and we don’t know how much it might be for. But at least it means one thing. Somebody thinks Meldex has something worth paying for.
That’s interesting. For a long time, it seemed as if […]
ABF: Anatomy of a hatchet job
I’m a bit nervous about a forthcoming iBall episode (for broadcast next week). In it I compared a perfectly good company to an uninspiring rock cemented together by sludge from the bottom of a river and based my analysis on a ratio I’ve never been comfortable with. Time for an explanation.
There’s much to like about […]
We’ll fight them on the brown field sites
Judging by the cover of its annual report, there’s little doubt Inland (INL) is at odds with the UK planning system. This bloodthirsty cartoon adorns it, and the enemy (many of them beheaded and disembodied) are councillors.
Inland’s buying up land to sell on with planning permission to property developers, and, as so often happens, its […]
Cussons - the story behind the story
What makes a dull old soap manufacturer worthy of yesterday’s iBall and January’s Stock to Watch column in Moneywise magazine?
From a writer’s perspective, the frustrating thing about TV - even Internet TV - is you can’t get much detail into four minutes. The frustrating thing about magazine columns, especially one the size of mine in […]
Oh my GSH
When I said there’s money in social housing, perhaps I should have extended that to any building. Just like Connaught, GSH (GSH), which maintains somewhat larger buildings (for companies like Tesco, British Airways, and ITV), is on a high.
Unlike Connaught it doesn’ t have nine years of earnings figures we can use as a […]
