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Should We Worry About Space Hellas S.A.'s (ATH:SPACE) P/E Ratio? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll show how you can use Space Hellas S.A.'s (ATH:SPACE) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity.Space Hellas has a price to earnings ratio of 26.13, based on the last twelve months. That means that at current prices, buyers pay €26.13 for every €1 in trailing yearly profits. Check out our latest analysis for Space Hellas Theformula for P/Eis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Space Hellas: P/E of 26.13 = €4.93 ÷ €0.19 (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to paya higher pricefor each €1 the company has earned over the last year. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.' Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers. Space Hellas's earnings per share grew by -9.3% in the last twelve months. And its annual EPS growth rate over 5 years is 89%. We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. As you can see below, Space Hellas has a higher P/E than the average company (20.6) in the it industry. Its relatively high P/E ratio indicates that Space Hellas shareholders think it will perform better than other companies in its industry classification. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should always consider the P/E ratio alongside other factors, such aswhether company directors have been buying shares. One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio. Space Hellas has net debt equal to 25% of its market cap. While that's enough to warrant consideration, it doesn't really concern us. Space Hellas's P/E is 26.1 which is above average (16.7) in the GR market. With modest debt relative to its size, and modest earnings growth, the market is likely expecting sustained long-term growth, if not a near-term improvement. Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' Although we don't have analyst forecasts, shareholders might want to examinethis detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of courseyou might be able to find a better stock than Space Hellas. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Moncler S.p.A. (BIT:MONC) A Financially Strong Company? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Investors looking for stocks with high market liquidity and little debt on the balance sheet should consider Moncler S.p.A. (BIT:MONC). With a market valuation of €9.6b, MONC is a safe haven in times of market uncertainty due to its strong balance sheet. These firms won’t be left high and dry if liquidity dries up, and they will be relatively unaffected by rises in interest rates. Assessing the most recent data for MONC, I will take you through the key ratios to measure financial health, in particular, its solvency and liquidity. Check out our latest analysis for Moncler Over the past year, MONC has maintained its debt levels at around €96m which accounts for long term debt. At this constant level of debt, MONC currently has €546m remaining in cash and short-term investments , ready to be used for running the business. Moreover, MONC has generated cash from operations of €466m during the same period of time, resulting in an operating cash to total debt ratio of 483%, meaning that MONC’s debt is appropriately covered by operating cash. With current liabilities at €377m, the company has maintained a safe level of current assets to meet its obligations, with the current ratio last standing at 2.4x. The current ratio is the number you get when you divide current assets by current liabilities. Usually, for Luxury companies, this is a suitable ratio since there's a sufficient cash cushion without leaving too much capital idle or in low-earning investments. A debt-to-equity ratio threshold varies depending on what industry the company operates, since some requires more debt financing than others. As a rule of thumb, a financially healthy large-cap should have a ratio less than 40%. With a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.0%, MONC's debt level is relatively low. MONC is not taking on too much debt commitment, which may be constraining for future growth. We can test if MONC’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. As a rule of thumb, a company should have earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of at least three times the size of net interest. For MONC, the ratio of 719x suggests that interest is comfortably covered. Large-cap investments like MONC are often believed to be a safe investment due to their ability to pump out ample earnings multiple times its interest payments. MONC’s high cash coverage and low debt levels indicate its ability to utilise its borrowings efficiently in order to generate ample cash flow. Furthermore, the company exhibits an ability to meet its near-term obligations, which isn't a big surprise for a large-cap. This is only a rough assessment of financial health, and I'm sure MONC has company-specific issues impacting its capital structure decisions. I recommend you continue to research Moncler to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for MONC’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor MONC’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is MONC worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether MONC is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Here's How P/E Ratios Can Help Us Understand Mold-Tek Technologies Limited (NSE:MOLDTEK) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll look at Mold-Tek Technologies Limited's (NSE:MOLDTEK) P/E ratio and reflect on what it tells us about the company's share price. Looking at earnings over the last twelve months,Mold-Tek Technologies has a P/E ratio of 12.48. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 8.0%. Check out our latest analysis for Mold-Tek Technologies Theformula for P/Eis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Mold-Tek Technologies: P/E of 12.48 = ₹53.8 ÷ ₹4.31 (Based on the year to March 2019.) A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to paya higher pricefor each ₹1 the company has earned over the last year. That is not a good or a bad thingper se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future. Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. A lower P/E should indicate the stock is cheap relative to others -- and that may attract buyers. Mold-Tek Technologies's 112% EPS improvement over the last year was like bamboo growth after rain; rapid and impressive. The sweetener is that the annual five year growth rate of 37% is also impressive. With that kind of growth rate we would generally expect a high P/E ratio. The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. If you look at the image below, you can see Mold-Tek Technologies has a lower P/E than the average (15) in the construction industry classification. Mold-Tek Technologies's P/E tells us that market participants think it will not fare as well as its peers in the same industry. Since the market seems unimpressed with Mold-Tek Technologies, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. If you consider the stock interesting, further research is recommended. For example, I often monitordirector buying and selling. Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. The extra options and safety that comes with Mold-Tek Technologies's ₹111m net cash position means that it deserves a higher P/E than it would if it had a lot of net debt. Mold-Tek Technologies trades on a P/E ratio of 12.5, which is below the IN market average of 15.3. The net cash position gives plenty of options to the business, and the recent improvement in EPS is good to see. One might conclude that the market is a bit pessimistic, given the low P/E ratio. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' Although we don't have analyst forecasts, you might want to assessthis data-rich visualizationof earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Many Mondi plc (LON:MNDI) Shares Do Institutions Own? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! The big shareholder groups in Mondi plc (LON:MNDI) have power over the company. Large companies usually have institutions as shareholders, and we usually see insiders owning shares in smaller companies. We also tend to see lower insider ownership in companies that were previously publicly owned. Mondi is a pretty big company. It has a market capitalization of UK£8.8b. Normally institutions would own a significant portion of a company this size. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about MNDI. Check out our latest analysis for Mondi Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index. Mondi already has institutions on the share registry. Indeed, they own 59% of the company. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. When multiple institutions own a stock, there's always a risk that they are in a 'crowded trade'. When such a trade goes wrong, multiple parties may compete to sell stock fast. This risk is higher in a company without a history of growth. You can see Mondi's historic earnings and revenue, below, but keep in mind there's always more to the story. Since institutional investors own more than half the issued stock, the board will likely have to pay attention to their preferences. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Mondi. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily. The definition of company insiders can be subjective, and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Mondi plc. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own UK£8.8m of stock. It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checkingif those insiders have been buying. With a 40% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over MNDI. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Mondi better, we need to consider many other factors. I like to dive deeperinto how a company has performed in the past. You can findhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. But ultimatelyit is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look atthis free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Before You Buy Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. (BIT:MN), Consider Its Volatility Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Anyone researching Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. (BIT:MN) might want to consider the historical volatility of the share price. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. First, we have company specific volatility, which is the price gyrations of an individual stock. Holding at least 8 stocks can reduce this kind of risk across a portfolio. The other type, which cannot be diversified away, is the volatility of the entire market. Every stock in the market is exposed to this volatility, which is linked to the fact that stocks prices are correlated in an efficient market. Some stocks are more sensitive to general market forces than others. Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stock's exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, it's worth noting that Warren Buffett pointed out in his 2014 letter to shareholders that 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' Having said that, beta can still be rather useful. The first thing to understand about beta is that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one. See our latest analysis for Arnoldo Mondadori Editore Given that it has a beta of 1.59, we can surmise that the Arnoldo Mondadori Editore share price has been fairly sensitive to market volatility (over the last 5 years). If this beta value holds true in the future, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore shares are likely to rise more than the market when the market is going up, but fall faster when the market is going down. Share price volatility is well worth considering, but most long term investors consider the history of revenue and earnings growth to be more important. Take a look at how Arnoldo Mondadori Editore fares in that regard, below. Arnoldo Mondadori Editore is a noticeably small company, with a market capitalisation of €407m. Most companies this size are not always actively traded. It takes less money to influence the share price of a very small company. This may explain the excess volatility implied by this beta value. Since Arnoldo Mondadori Editore tends to moves up when the market is going up, and down when it's going down, potential investors may wish to reflect on the overall market, when considering the stock. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it's well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as Arnoldo Mondadori Editore’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for MN’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor MN’s outlook. 2. Past Track Record: Has MN been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of MN's historicalsfor more clarity. 3. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how MN measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with thisfree list of prospective options. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Could The Surevin BPO Services Limited (NSE:SUREVIN) Ownership Structure Tell Us Something Useful? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Every investor in Surevin BPO Services Limited (NSE:SUREVIN) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. I quite like to see at least a little bit of insider ownership. As Charlie Munger said 'Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.' With a market capitalization of ₹299m, Surevin BPO Services is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutional investors have not yet purchased shares. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about SUREVIN. See our latest analysis for Surevin BPO Services Small companies that are not very actively traded often lack institutional investors, but it's less common to see large companies without them. There are many reasons why a company might not have any institutions on the share registry. It may be hard for institutions to buy large amounts of shares, if liquidity (the amount of shares traded each day) is low. If the company has not needed to raise capital, institutions might lack the opportunity to build a position. It is also possible that fund managers don't own the stock because they aren't convinced it will perform well. Surevin BPO Services's earnings and revenue track record (below) may not be compelling to institutional investors -- or they simply might not have looked at the business closely. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Surevin BPO Services. As far I can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar. The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. Our information suggests that insiders own more than half of Surevin BPO Services Limited. This gives them effective control of the company. That means they own ₹205m worth of shares in the ₹299m company. That's quite meaningful. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You canclick here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. The general public holds a 32% stake in SUREVIN. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. It's always worth thinking about the different groups who own shares in a company. But to understand Surevin BPO Services better, we need to consider many other factors. I like to dive deeperinto how a company has performed in the past. You can accessthisinteractive graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow for free. Of coursethis may not be the best stock to buy. Therefore, you may wish to see ourfreecollection of interesting prospects boasting favorable financials. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Why We Think Blue Star Limited (NSE:BLUESTARCO) Could Be Worth Looking At Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Attractive stocks have exceptional fundamentals. In the case of Blue Star Limited (NSE:BLUESTARCO), there's is a financially-sound company with a strong history and a buoyant future outlook. Below is a brief commentary on these key aspects. For those interested in understanding where the figures come from and want to see the analysis, read the fullreport on Blue Star here. BLUESTARCO is expected to churn out cash in the short term, with its operating cash flow predicted to expand at a triple-digit growth rate. This is expected to flow down into an impressive return on equity of 26% over the next couple of years. BLUESTARCO delivered a bottom-line expansion of 27% in the prior year, with its most recent earnings level surpassing its average level over the last five years. The strong earnings growth is reflected in impressive double-digit 22% return to shareholders, which is an notable feat for the company. BLUESTARCO's ability to maintain an adequate level of cash to meet upcoming liabilities is a good sign for its financial health. This implies that BLUESTARCO manages its cash and cost levels well, which is a crucial insight into the health of the company. With a debt-to-equity ratio of 39%, BLUESTARCO’s debt level is reasonable. This implies that BLUESTARCO has a healthy balance between taking advantage of low cost debt funding as well as sufficient financial flexibility without succumbing to the strict terms of debt. For Blue Star, I've compiled three pertinent factors you should look at: 1. Valuation: What is BLUESTARCO worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether BLUESTARCO is currently mispriced by the market. 2. Dividend Income vs Capital Gains: Does BLUESTARCO return gains to shareholders through reinvesting in itself and growing earnings, or redistribute a decent portion of earnings as dividends? Ourhistorical dividend yield visualizationquickly tells you what your can expect from BLUESTARCO as an investment. 3. Other Attractive Alternatives: Are there other well-rounded stocks you could be holding instead of BLUESTARCO? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
‘Fauda’ Writer Moshe Zonder & ‘Your Honor’ Producer Alon Aranya Set Israel-Iran Spy Thriller ‘Tehran’; Cineflix Rights Takes Global Click here to read the full article. Moshe Zonder , writer of Netflix’s Fauda , has teamed with Alon Aranya , who is producing Showtime’s forthcoming Bryan Cranston-fronted drama Your Honor , on Israel-Iran espionage thriller Tehran . Cineflix Rights has boarded the eight-part drama, which is produced for Israeli broadcaster Kan. Tehran (w/t) is the story of Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad computer hacker-agent undertaking her very first mission in the heart of a hostile and menacing city, which also happens to be the place of her birth. Tasked with disabling an Iranian nuclear reactor, her mission has implications not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world order. When the Mossad mission fails, Tamar goes rogue in Tehran as she rediscovers her Iranian roots and becomes romantically entwined with a pro-democracy activist. Tamar’s soul-searching leads her to become even more conflicted about her mission, while the tension mounts as Iranian authorities tighten the net in their desperate search to locate her and her Mossad colleagues. Related stories Rapper Stormzy Joins 'Noughts + Crosses'; Fugitive Launches Slate; Cineflix Boards 'The Minister' -- Global Briefs ABC Developing Romantic Drama 'Until the Wedding' Based On Israeli Format Digital Distributor Syndicado Strikes U.S. Volume Deal With Cineflix Rights Tehran is created by Zonder, Dana Eden and Maor Kohn. The series is written by Moshe Zonder and Omri Shenhar. The Gordin Cell and Stockholm director Daniel Syrkin directs the series, which is exec produced by Aranya, Eden and Shula Spiegel. Tehran is produced by Donna Productions and Shula Spiegel Productions in association with Paper Plane Productions . Zonder said, “Tehran deals with the secret war led by Mossad and the Israeli Air Force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. At the center of this spy-thriller packed with action, suspense and romance, we find a young female Mossad agent, born and raised in Iran. Through her journey and the unfolding drama around her, Tehran aims to shed new light on the Israeli-Iranian conflict, and take on universal struggles around immigration, identity and patriotism, to examine whether it is possible to become free from these restraints.” Story continues Alon Aranya, who brokered the deal with Cineflix Rights, said, “I’m very proud to be making Tehran with such great partners. Tehran is not only a powerful drama series but also an insightful and relevant story for viewers around the world. The show will be the first of several premium international dramas Paper Plane Productions is currently working on with U.S. and European partners.” Julien Leroux, SVP, Global Scripted Co-Productions, Cineflix Media, added, “ Tehran has all the characteristics of the globally successful dramas which have come out of Israel in the past few years. The series’ compelling plot and breathtaking action draws in an audience with its high-stakes twists and turns, but also provokes them to question where loyalties lie. I’m thrilled to be working with Moshe Zonder and such a talented group of creatives to bring this high-quality drama to the global market.” Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .
Trump to Tucker Carlson on Fox News: Homelessness Is a Phenomenon That Started Two Years Ago During his interview with President Trump that aired on Monday night on Fox News, Tucker Carlson got the president to weigh in on a topic that he and other Fox News hosts have devoted copious amounts of airtime to latelyhomelessness in largely Democratic-run cities and states. And, according to Trump, the homeless problem is a rather recent phenomenon. Noting that they were in Japan during the presidents visit to the G-20 summit, Carlson contrasted the cleanliness of their metro areas to large American cities, adding that there is no graffiti or people going to the bathroom on the streets in Japan. Fox News After the president mildly protested that only some of our cities are like that, the Fox News star said that New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles all have a major problem with filth. Why is that? Carlson wondered aloud. Its a phenomenon that started two years ago, Trump declared. Its disgraceful. I'm going to maybeI am looking at it very seriously. After seemingly claiming homelessness in America only arose over the past 24 months, the president went on to suggest that police officers are getting sick simply by walking near homeless peoplelikely referencing reports that some Los Angeles police officers have shown signs of typhoid fever. The officers all work in a precinct that was recently fined for unsanitary working conditions. You cant have whats happeningwhere police officers are getting sick just by walking the beat, he exclaimed. I mean, theyre getting actually very sick, where people are getting sick, where the people living there are living in hell, too." While stating that mental illness is part of the reason for homelessness, Trump went on to blame the liberal establishment for exacerbating the problem before claiming he ended it very quickly in Washington, D.C., when he became president. Homelessness has been falling in D.C. steadily for the past three years . Trump, meanwhile, groused about the situation in San Francisco, pointing out that he owns property there and that there were areas that you used to think as very special but have now become terrible. Story continues So were looking at it very seriously, Trump added. We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. Its inappropriate. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
With A -16% Earnings Drop, Did Hotung Investment Holdings Limited (SGX:BLS) Really Underperform? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Measuring Hotung Investment Holdings Limited's (SGX:BLS) track record of past performance is an insightful exercise for investors. It enables us to reflect on whether the company has met or exceed expectations, which is a powerful signal for future performance. Below, I will assess BLS's recent performance announced on 31 March 2019 and compare these figures to its historical trend and industry movements. See our latest analysis for Hotung Investment Holdings BLS's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2019) of NT$310m has declined by -16% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 1.1%, indicating the rate at which BLS is growing has slowed down. Why is this? Well, let's look at what's transpiring with margins and whether the entire industry is feeling the heat. In terms of returns from investment, Hotung Investment Holdings has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 5.2% instead. However, its return on assets (ROA) of 4.7% exceeds the SG Capital Markets industry of 2.5%, indicating Hotung Investment Holdings has used its assets more efficiently. Though, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Hotung Investment Holdings’s debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 8.9% to 5.4%. While past data is useful, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Generally companies that endure a prolonged period of decline in earnings are going through some sort of reinvestment phase Though if the whole industry is struggling to grow over time, it may be a indicator of a structural shift, which makes Hotung Investment Holdings and its peers a higher risk investment. I recommend you continue to research Hotung Investment Holdings to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for BLS’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor BLS’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are BLS’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 March 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Retro-themed diner Capitol Milk Bar goes for a classic menu of burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore has been bustling with food and drink additions since its opening last October , welcoming concepts like 15 Stamford by Alvin Leung , Berthold Delikatessen, Frieda Restaurant , and The Bar at 15 Stamford into its fold. Now, one more newcomer joins in, bringing with it the rose-hued tint of nostalgia. Capitol Milk Bar is touted as the “reincarnation” of Magnolia Snack Bar, the once-favorite hangout of Singaporeans back in the ’60s. The ice cream and milkshake joint expanded across the island through the years, but shuttered its last outlet in the late ’80s, only to reappear in a new form at the hotel this year. Those who remember the old school haunt may see this modern-day version as a blast to the past, with elements like vintage posters, neon signs, ceramic mosaic floors, and red booth seats. For the rest of us, it’s essentially a retro diner serving a classic selection of burgers, hot dogs, milkshakes, and floats. Classic New Yorker 1m hot dog. Photo: Capitol Milk Bar Items on the menu are apparently named after famous figures who have crossed paths with the old Capitol Building and its theater, but really, we’re just here for the food. Like the 1m-long jumbo-sized hot dog that you can order to share with your buds. For $36, the humongous Classic New Yorker option comes stuffed with pork sausage, mustard, ketchup, cucumber relish, and crispy onions, with sides of curly fries and/or sweet potato fries. Capitol burger. Photo: Capitol Milk Bar If you prefer a burger, the Stamford ($18) packs 150g of black angus beef patty in an egg wrap topped with cheddar and black pepper mushroom sauce. Buns come in your choice of charcoal brioche, multi-grain, or sesame wheat, all of which are made in-house. Other options include the Capitol, with pulled pork, arugula, pickled cucumber, yuzu cabbage slaw, and apple butter barbecue sauce, or the Sir Douglas Fairbanks, which stuffs smoked salmon into a focaccia roll with herbs, preserved lemon gel, cucumber apple yogurt, and pistachio cream cheese. Story continues Milkshakes. Photo: Capitol Milk Bar To keep those calories coming, the range of ice creams, milkshakes, and floats offer a sugary high, with ice cream flavors like chocolate fudge cookie, peanut butter, calamansi, and Thai coconut. For a milkshake treat ($14 each), you can pick from concoctions such as the Dinosaur, made of chocolate powder, marshmallow, malt balls, and chocolate Pocky, or the locally-inspired Chendol one, blending red bean, pandan jelly, gula melaka, and coconut flakes. FIND IT: Capitol Milk Bar is at #01-84B, Arcade @ The Capitol Kempinski Hotel Singapore. 6715-6874. Daily 11am-9pm. MRT: City Hall This article, Retro-themed diner Capitol Milk Bar goes for a classic menu of burgers, hot dogs, and milkshakes , originally appeared on Coconuts , Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!
Watch NASA test the Orion module's launch abort system at 7AM ET Before the Orion capsule takes astronautsto the moon, NASA first has to make sure that it can keep its passengers safe in case things don't go according to plan. In fact, the agency will put the spacecraft's launch abort systemto the testtoday, July 2nd. NASA will launch a test version of the module from Cape Canaveral in Florida this morning, letting it fly to an altitude of about six miles at more than 1,000 miles per hour before the abort process is initiated. When it does, the abort motor will start up and pull the module away from the booster, while the attitude control monitor will be in charge of steering it into position so it can be jettisoned back to Earth. The whole process will only take three minutes, but NASA is bound to spend a lot more time than that crunching the data it collects from the capsule's 900 sensors, including microphones and temperature and pressure instruments. Mark Kirasich, Orion's program manager, explained: "This test is extremely important. Our Launch Abort System is a key safety feature of the spacecraft — it will protect the crew members who fly onboard Orion during the most challenging part of the mission, which is the ascent phase." The test's launch window will begin at 7AM ET and will last for four hours until 11AM. NASA will begin its live coverage of the event at 6:40AM ET, and you canwatch it all go downon the agency's website or through the video embedded below.
Why We’re Not Keen On Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group S.p.A.’s (BIT:MZB) 6.3% Return On Capital Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll look at Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group S.p.A. (BIT:MZB) and reflect on its potential as an investment. To be precise, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that will inform our view of the quality of the business. First up, we'll look at what ROCE is and how we calculate it. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities affect its ROCE. ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Author Edwin Whitingsaysto be careful when comparing the ROCE of different businesses, since 'No two businesses are exactly alike.' The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group: 0.063 = €39m ÷ (€910m - €298m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) So,Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has an ROCE of 6.3%. View our latest analysis for Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group One way to assess ROCE is to compare similar companies. Using our data, Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group's ROCE appears to be significantly below the 10% average in the Food industry. This could be seen as a negative, as it suggests some competitors may be employing their capital more efficiently. Separate from how Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group stacks up against its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms is mediocre; relative to the returns on government bonds. Readers may find more attractive investment prospects elsewhere. You can see in the image below how Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group's ROCE compares to its industry. Click to see more on past growth. Remember that this metric is backwards looking - it shows what has happened in the past, and does not accurately predict the future. ROCE can be deceptive for cyclical businesses, as returns can look incredible in boom times, and terribly low in downturns. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Since the future is so important for investors, you should check out ourfreereport on analyst forecasts for Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group. Liabilities, such as supplier bills and bank overdrafts, are referred to as current liabilities if they need to be paid within 12 months. The ROCE equation subtracts current liabilities from capital employed, so a company with a lot of current liabilities appears to have less capital employed, and a higher ROCE than otherwise. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group has total liabilities of €298m and total assets of €910m. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 33% of its total assets. Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group's middling level of current liabilities have the effect of boosting its ROCE a bit. Despite this, its ROCE is still mediocre, and you may find more appealing investments elsewhere. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Ximen Mining Corp to Open The Kenville Gold Mine in Nelson, BC. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 2, 2019 / Ximen Mining Corp. (XIM.V) (1XMA.F) (XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen")announces it is proceeding with activation of the existing exploration permit at the Kenville Gold Mine for 1200 metres of underground development and 20,000 metres of diamond drilling. The Kenville Gold Mine is the first recorded underground mine in British Columbia, having started production in 1890 and mined into the 1950's. The historical production records show 65,381 ounces gold produced from 158,842 tonnes milled, for a recovered grade of 12.8 grams per tonne (0.37 ounce per ton) gold. The mine was a track mine, utilizing a conventional room and pillar style of stope mining for narrow vein extraction, with jacklegs and slushers used for mining. The host rock is a very competent granodiorite and the historical areas of the mine remain open without ground support. The Kenville gold deposit consists of multiple, gold-silver bearing quartz veins hosted by diorite. Between 2007 and 2008, 13,000 metres of diamond drilling was conducted that targeted previously un-tested areas southwest of the historic mine, and detailed sampling was conducted within the mine on the 257 Level. Based on this work and historical information, mineral resources were estimated (see Ximen News Release dated April 8, 2019). After the resource estimate was made, an additional 14,106 metres of surface diamond drilling was conducted between 2009 and 2012, which intersected a new vein system in the areas south and west of the existing mine. Several holes intersected multiple, stacked quartz veins, and at least 4 new veins were identified. The system has potential dimensions of over 700 by 250 metres, which remains open in multiple directions. The newly discovered areas of veining are the target of the current mine development plan. The table below lists some highlight drill intercepts from the 2009-2012 drill programs. Note that there are numerous additional drill intercepts great than 5 grams per ton.Abbreviations: g/t = grams per tonne; oz/ton = ounces per short ton Note: The above table is based on information provided by previous operators that is considered historical. Although it is known that the drill programs were directed by experienced personnel and a quality control program was employed to monitor assay results, a qualified person has not verified the previous results on behalf of Ximen Mining Corp. Ximen believes the results are representative of the undeveloped mineralization at the Kenville property. UNDERGROUND MINE PLAN The first step is to drive a new underground decline with rubber tired trackless equipment that will facilitate both lateral and vertical development. This will provide access to the center of a series of vein intercepts from the 2009-12 surface drilling. The new decline will be driven to a target of 524 metres. Underground drilling will then be done to outline areas of potentially mineable material, starting as the decline is advanced. About 4500 metres of underground drilling is expected to be required to outline sufficient material for a bulk sample of 10,000 tonnes. The project is estimated to take 6 months from the start of the new decline. Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., VP Exploration for Ximen Mining Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, approved the technical information contained in this News Release. On behalf of the Board of Directors,"Christopher R. Anderson"Christopher R. Anderson,President, CEO and Director Investor Relations:Mr. William Sattlegger, 604-488-3900ir@XimenMiningCorp.com About Ximen Mining Corp. Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100 percent interest in all three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen`s two Gold projects are The Gold Drop Project and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past-producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently both the Gold Drop Project and the Treasure Mountain Silver Project are under option agreements. The option partners are making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of these projects. Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, in the USA under the symbol XXMMF, and in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XMA and WKN with the number as A2JBKL. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Ximen Mining Corp 888 Dunsmuir Street - Suite 888, Vancouver, B.C., V6C 3K4 SOURCE:Ximen Mining Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/550487/Ximen-Mining-Corp-to-Open-The-Kenville-Gold-Mine-in-Nelson-BC
House prices almost flat in the UK as uncertainty stalls growth Building work in London. Photo: Matt Crossick/ EMPICS Entertainment Property prices are almost flat in the UK as uncertainty stalls growth in the housing market, according to new figures. Prices inched up 0.1% between May and June, taking the average property price to almost £217,000, according to the Nationwide house price index released on Tuesday. But the small increase still marked a return to growth, after prices had dipped 0.2% the previous month. The annual rate of property price growth dipped from 0.6% in the 12 months to May to 0.5%. Survey data suggests that new buyer inquiries and consumer confidence have remained subdued in recent months, Robert Gardner, Nationwides chief economist, said. UK annual house price growth remained below 1% for the seventh consecutive month in June, at 0.5%. READ MORE: Boris Johnson could scrap stamp duty on homes under £500,000 He said trends in the broader UK economy were likely the main factor affecting growth. Continued uncertainty over Brexit, changes to stamp duty, and other property tax reforms are widely thought to have dampened growth in recent years. While healthy labour market conditions and low borrowing costs will provide underlying support, uncertainty is likely to continue to act as a drag on sentiment and activity, with price growth and transaction levels remaining close to current levels over the coming months, Gardner said.
For some firms, South Korea's economy feels like it's already in recession By Joori Roh SEOUL (Reuters) - Kang Dong-wan, the head of an electronic goods supplier for South Korea's biggest global brands, says it feels like Asia's fourth-largest economy is in a recession as business conditions have deteriorated further after a tough 2018. A trade war between China and the United States has slowed sales abroad, domestic demand remains sluggish, and operating costs have risen along with a cap on weekly working hours and a 29% increase in minimum wages in the past two years. For Kang's company, Alps Electric Korea Co Ltd, which supplies components to big firms such as Hyundai Motor Co, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc, this meant a 40% drop in sales year-on-year to 600 billion won ($515.95 million) in 2018. The three big firms, whose combined revenue is equivalent to more than a fifth of South Korea's annual economic output of $1.5 trillion, saw their profits tumble last year and had to cut orders placed on thousands of suppliers across the country. Kang's own suppliers are struggling. Some went bankrupt. Kang let go of 15% of the staff last year and says that if the external environment continues to deteriorate another 30% could be at risk. "The current economy seems worse than it was back in 2008, during the global financial crisis," Kang said in his office in Hanam Industrial Complex in the city of Gwangju, some 270 km (167.77 miles) southwest of Seoul. "The worst scenario for us will be our unit only doing design work and our production being tossed to countries with cheaper labour such as China or Mexico." The consensus view of economists is that South Korea will avoid an outright recession - two consecutive quarters of negative growth - thanks to the government's active implementation of budgeted spending plans for the year, though the risk of a slump keeps growing with each passing month. South Korea last slipped into a recession in 2009. While the economy shrank 0.4% in the first quarter, its worst performance in a decade, the government is betting on higher fiscal spending to support a modest rebound in growth in the second quarter. That will be little comfort to businesses which are yet to see any notable improvement in demand at home and overseas. In fact, trading conditions appear to have deteriorated over recent quarters and have raised expectations that the Bank of Korea, which hiked interest rates in November, will likely cut them back as early as this month to boost domestic demand. Later this week, South Korea's finance ministry is widely expected to downgrade this year's economic growth target, currently at 2.6%-2.7% and nearly a full percentage point above analysts' consensus. SPREADING GLOOM A scan of stock exchange filings shows many firms are in the same boat as Alps Electric Korea. Operating profits for Yest Co Ltd, a semiconductor equipments manufacturer, fell 98.2% year-on-year in the first quarter. Tonymoly Co Ltd, a South Korean cosmetic brand popular among Chinese customers, reported a 3.7 times larger operating losses in the first quarter, while operating profit of its peer Amorepacific Corp slid 20.9%. "Hope.. it's hard to have hopes. Right now it's hard to find any clear positives for the economy," said Kang Hyun-ju, a research fellow at Korea Capital Market Institute. Both leading and lagging economic indicators suggest there will be no let-up in pressure for South Korea Inc. in the short term, as the Sino-U.S. trade war upends global supply chains and hurts demand. The won currency, seen as a proxy for global trade activity, slumped to near two-year lows in May. Depressed global demand has hit South Korea's manufacturers particularly hard. The nation's exports plunged in June for their seventh consecutive month of contracting sales, while shipments to China were down nearly a quarter from last year - the worst in a decade. A business survey on Monday showed factory activity shrank the most in four months in June as the global trade slowdown deepened, prompting companies to cut back production and shed more jobs. The Korea Auto Industries Coop. Association says some primary suppliers have gone bankrupt. A slight improvement in the job market this year after unemployment hit nine-year highs in January is being driven by state hiring, with the manufacturing and construction sectors bleeding jobs every month. Even if fortunes turn around globally, it will take time for South Korea to recover, as a large inventory build-up in recent quarters will need to be cleared before production ramps up. Its inventory-to-shipments ratio hit 118.5% in May, the highest since September 1998 when the economy was in the throes of the Asian financial crisis. "We can't even guess the outlook for the second half," said Ahn Ki-hwaun, vice president at Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, lamenting a "lack of demand." ($1 = 1,162.9000 won) (Reporting by Joori Roh; Editing by Marius Zaharia, Choonsik Yoo & Shri Navaratnam)
What Kind Of Investor Owns Most Of Yongmao Holdings Limited (SGX:BKX)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you want to know who really controls Yongmao Holdings Limited (SGX:BKX), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.' With a market capitalization of S$63m, Yongmao Holdings is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. In the chart below below, we can see that institutional investors have not yet purchased much of the company. Let's delve deeper into each type of owner, to discover more about BKX. Check out our latest analysis for Yongmao Holdings Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices. Since institutions own under 5% of Yongmao Holdings, many may not have spent much time considering the stock. But it's clear that some have; and they liked it enough to buy in. If the business gets stronger from here, we could see a situation where more institutions are keen to buy. We sometimes see a rising share price when a few big institutions want to buy a certain stock at the same time. The history of earnings and revenue, which you can see below, could be helpful in considering if more institutional investors will want the stock. Of course, there are plenty of other factors to consider, too. Yongmao Holdings is not owned by hedge funds. As far I can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar. While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. Our most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Yongmao Holdings Limited. As individuals, the insiders collectively own S$3.7m worth of the S$63m company. It is good to see some investment by insiders, but I usually like to see higher insider holdings. It might be worth checkingif those insiders have been buying. The general public, with a 11% stake in the company, will not easily be ignored. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. It seems that Private Companies own 81%, of the BKX stock. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research. I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. I always like to check for ahistory of revenue growth. You can too, by accessing this free chart ofhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. Of coursethis may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreefreelist of interesting companies. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Calculating The Intrinsic Value Of The Berkeley Group Holdings plc (LON:BKG) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! In this article we are going to estimate the intrinsic value of The Berkeley Group Holdings plc (LON:BKG) by taking the foreast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. I will be using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! Companies can be valued in a lot of ways, so we would point out that a DCF is not perfect for every situation. Anyone interested in learning a bit more about intrinsic value should have a read of theSimply Wall St analysis model. Check out our latest analysis for Berkeley Group Holdings We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value: [{"": "Levered FCF (\u00a3, Millions)", "2020": "\u00a3117.3m", "2021": "\u00a3384.0m", "2022": "\u00a3342.5m", "2023": "\u00a3316.3m", "2024": "\u00a3300.6m", "2025": "\u00a3291.2m", "2026": "\u00a3285.9m", "2027": "\u00a3283.3m", "2028": "\u00a3282.6m", "2029": "\u00a3283.1m"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x1", "2021": "Analyst x3", "2022": "Analyst x2", "2023": "Est @ -7.64%", "2024": "Est @ -4.98%", "2025": "Est @ -3.12%", "2026": "Est @ -1.82%", "2027": "Est @ -0.9%", "2028": "Est @ -0.26%", "2029": "Est @ 0.18%"}, {"": "Present Value (\u00a3, Millions) Discounted @ 7.51%", "2020": "\u00a3109.1", "2021": "\u00a3332.2", "2022": "\u00a3275.6", "2023": "\u00a3236.7", "2024": "\u00a3209.2", "2025": "\u00a3188.5", "2026": "\u00a3172.2", "2027": "\u00a3158.7", "2028": "\u00a3147.2", "2029": "\u00a3137.2"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= £2.0b After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. For a number of reasons a very conservative growth rate is used that cannot exceed that of a country's GDP growth. In this case we have used the 10-year government bond rate (1.2%) to estimate future growth. In the same way as with the 10-year 'growth' period, we discount future cash flows to today's value, using a cost of equity of 7.5%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = UK£283m × (1 + 1.2%) ÷ (7.5% – 1.2%) = UK£4.6b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= £UK£4.6b ÷ ( 1 + 7.5%)10= £2.21b The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is £4.18b. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of £32.7. Compared to the current share price of £37.44, the company appears around fair value at the time of writing. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent. The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Berkeley Group Holdings as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.5%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.945. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Berkeley Group Holdings, I've put together three essential aspects you should further examine: 1. Financial Health: Does BKG have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does BKG's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of BKG? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every GB stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Sopra Steria Group SA's (EPA:SOP) CEO Overpaid Relative To Its Peers? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Vincent Paris has been the CEO of Sopra Steria Group SA (EPA:SOP) since 2015. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid. Check out our latest analysis for Sopra Steria Group Our data indicates that Sopra Steria Group SA is worth €2.1b, and total annual CEO compensation is €942k. (This number is for the twelve months until December 2018). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at €500k. We examined companies with market caps from €884m to €2.8b, and discovered that the median CEO total compensation of that group was €703k. It would therefore appear that Sopra Steria Group SA pays Vincent Paris more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Sopra Steria Group, below. On average over the last three years, Sopra Steria Group SA has grown earnings per share (EPS) by 10% each year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue is up 6.5%. Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's nice to see a little revenue growth, as this is consistent with healthy business conditions. You might want to checkthis free visual report onanalyst forecastsfor future earnings. Sopra Steria Group SA has served shareholders reasonably well, with a total return of 20% over three years. But they would probably prefer not to see CEO compensation far in excess of the median. We compared the total CEO remuneration paid by Sopra Steria Group SA, and compared it to remuneration at a group of similar sized companies. Our data suggests that it pays above the median CEO pay within that group. However we must not forget that the EPS growth has been very strong over three years. We also note that, over the same time frame, shareholder returns haven't been bad. You might wish to research management further, but on this analysis, considering the EPS growth, we wouldn't call the CEO pay problematic. CEO compensation is one thing, but it is also interesting tocheck if the CEO is buying or selling Sopra Steria Group (free visualization of insider trades). If you want to buy a stock that is better than Sopra Steria Group, thisfreelist of high return, low debt companies is a great place to look. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
A Closer Look At Cerillion PLC's (LON:CER) Uninspiring ROE Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Many investors are still learning about the various metrics that can be useful when analysing a stock. This article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE). To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Cerillion PLC ( LON:CER ). Cerillion has a ROE of 5.5% , based on the last twelve months. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each £1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made £0.055 in profit. See our latest analysis for Cerillion How Do I Calculate ROE? The formula for ROE is: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Cerillion: 5.5% = UK£711k ÷ UK£13m (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. What Does Return On Equity Mean? Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. A higher profit will lead to a higher ROE. So, all else being equal, a high ROE is better than a low one . That means ROE can be used to compare two businesses. Does Cerillion Have A Good ROE? Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. The limitation of this approach is that some companies are quite different from others, even within the same industry classification. As shown in the graphic below, Cerillion has a lower ROE than the average (9.2%) in the Software industry classification. AIM:CER Past Revenue and Net Income, July 2nd 2019 That certainly isn't ideal. We prefer it when the ROE of a company is above the industry average, but it's not the be-all and end-all if it is lower. Nonetheless, it might be wise to check if insiders have been selling . Story continues How Does Debt Impact ROE? Virtually all companies need money to invest in the business, to grow profits. That cash can come from issuing shares, retained earnings, or debt. In the first two cases, the ROE will capture this use of capital to grow. In the latter case, the debt required for growth will boost returns, but will not impact the shareholders' equity. That will make the ROE look better than if no debt was used. Combining Cerillion's Debt And Its 5.5% Return On Equity While Cerillion does have some debt, with debt to equity of just 0.18, we wouldn't say debt is excessive. Its ROE isn't particularly impressive, but the debt levels are quite modest, so the business probably has some real potential. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality. But It's Just One Metric Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better. But ROE is just one piece of a bigger puzzle, since high quality businesses often trade on high multiples of earnings. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. So you might want to take a peek at this data-rich interactive graph of forecasts for the company . Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Asia Markets Take a Respite U.S. equity markets rallied to all-time highs after the trade; however, prices closed well off the intraday high-water marks as an economic reality check set in as global manufacturing data slowed noticeably. So, despite the discernible dovish shift in the central bank’s narrative, investors ‘don’t want to run too far ahead of economic realities even more so with the soft-pedalling nature of the G20 trade detente. They are spurred on by President Donald Trump agreeing to ease a ban on American companies supplying Chinese tech giant Huawei. Wall Street investors did stampede into tech shares. Investors are positioning for an enormous lift to U.S. tech sector exports, not to mention the massive wave of front-loading orders as China will take this opportunity to ramp up on inventories in case the President has a change of heart. With the positive results from the G20 summit triggering a significant risk-on move, but the fear is from here, is that the Fed may not go 50bp so. Friday’s US employment report will be critical. With the market focused on every nugget of Fed speak Fed Vice Chair Clarida was in focus on Monday. But there’s nothing new – just a repeat of previous comments on the framework review and didn’t provide any comments on the outlook for monetary policy. Any while impossible to quantify the Fed’s exercise in verbal gymnastics, but something we commented on two weeks ago after a BTV interview post FOMC and I still feel the same after reading yesterday’s transcript. Is that Vice Chair Clarida doesn’t sound like a policymaker in a rush to cut interest rates, certainly not by 50 bp anyway? I think the Vice Chair holds the consensus view for Fed Policy, so his silence on policy matters suggest the short end will continue to slide back towards a 25 bp cut ahead of Friday’s most critical US Payroll report. After gushing higher at yesterday’s open,oil priceslaggard in the N.Y. session, even after OPEC members ratified their decision to maintain supply discipline by nine months. But with the cat out of the bag on Saturday, the move had already been priced in into the equation during the post-G20 opening salvo. So, OPEC + confirmation didn’t provide a new catalyst but instead left oil trader debating Russia’s increasing role in controlling oil markets. But then traders found themselves running too far ahead of the economic realities after a swath of disappointing manufacturing reports from the U.S., China and Europe provided a not too subtle reminder that the outlook for global growth remains quite harmful to risk sentiment. So, oil prices pared gains after worries about oversupply persisted, sliding back from an early rally as OPEC extended supply cuts until March 2020. And while I believe the ‘weekend’s display of solidarity between Saudi Arabia and Russia shows “ROPEC” is here to stay. Sure, it’s all about the bottom line revenue for OPEC+, but given the relative “break-evens” between Russia and Saudi Arabia production, the Kingdom is much more incentivised to keep oil prices high. But this also suggests that going forward Russia could have OPEC over the proverbial barrel especially when it comes to sweetening the pot to keep the Russian Oil conglomerates happy who have been most vocal about breaking the agreement. Which begs the question, how does the rest of OPEC feel about Russia influence? Also, I think trader is in a quandary trying to figure out the U.S. administrations stance on Iran post G-20 as one of my critical takeaways from G-20 is that it seems the national security hawks ‘don’t have the Presidents ear after all, especially as President Trump turns to focus on his election 2020 campaign. The President even extended an olive branch to Turkey, and with China likely to step up diplomatic efforts in the region as part of a g20 concessions, could we be in for a gradual escalation in middle tension and a subtle unwinding of risk premia? It’s something worth keeping an eye one. Finally, the U.S. dollar surged by the most in 3 1/2 months on Monday, naturally weighing on the appeal of greenback-denominated commodities. Gold plummets by as much as 2% on Monday as the US dollar rallied amid a stampede of investors into to higher-risk assets post G-20 agreement Also weighing on gold sentiment is that the short end of the US rate curve is shifting back shift back toward a 25 bp cut in July vs 50 bp ahead of the US payroll data Friday. If this shift intensifies, we could press lower. The Gold sell-off has been quite intense, but we are still clear of the enormous $1375 pivot zone and with the Euro the clearest bellwether for dollar sentiment we think a move below EURUSD 1.1250Gold marketis in for massive collisions with crucial support levels. The battle of the doves continues to play out onthe EURUSDwhile the manufacturing data wasn’t high on either side of the pond the risk-friendly environment post-G-20 has many G-10 traders recalculating their US rate cut probabilities as there has been decided shift overnight away for 50 bp lock in July. But something that continually rings in the back of my head and probably one of the biggest pushbacks against the short USD view, if you don’t buy USD and invest in US assets what assets are you going to buy instead??? The 200dma continues to provide one of the clearest pivots and sentiment signals for this battle of the doves. While the trade truce could be temporary, I feel much more constructive about Asia EM Fx than I do say the Euro, but the shift back toward a 25 bp Fed cut July from 50 bp, it has taken a bit of wind out of the Ringgit sails. Also, the market continues to lean towards the position that the US will escalate trade tensions again, but the longer the cease-fire hold, the more positive this could be for risk sentiment suggesting, dare I say “, but this time it’s different.”. The concession on Huawei was huge and continues to support risk sentiment. Despite the repricing lower in the July Fed rate cure probability, I’m running against the grain on this one because US inflation expectations are dangerously close to spiralling downward, I think the Fed moves 50bp in July for no other reason than to ignite the inflationary flames. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Pound Drops to 2-Week Lows Ahead of ADP Jobs Report • USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Bearish Rising Wedge Pattern Set into Action • Asian Shares Lower, but Australian Market Bucks the Trend • U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis – July 3, 2019 Forecast • Crude Oil Pummeled, Where Is It Going Next? • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – US ADP Report Should Set the Tone Today
Labour looks at nationalising BT following proposal from Jeremy Corbyn ally The Marine One helicopter flies past the BT Tower. Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty Images The office of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is considering policy proposals detailing the nationalisation of BT (BT-A.L) drawn up by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), multiple sources have told Yahoo Finance UK. According to current market prices, a nationalisation of BT with full compensation would cost £19.4bn ($24.6bn). The CWU drew up their proposals following their 2018 General Conference. In the motion, it noted: “as a Union we should seek an equally important commitment from Labour on public ownership within the telecoms industry. We therefore instruct the NEC to actively promote the case for a new model of public ownership that includes democratic control in the postal and telecoms sectors in the interests of workers and customers, and to advance this policy within the TUC and the Labour Party.” Sources in both the CWU and Labour confirmed that the policy was circulated following the conference, and was circulated with Corbyn’s office around six months ago. One source familiar with the policy paper said it was “pretty blue sky thinking,” and said key shadow cabinet members would be supportive of the policy, however Corbyn’s office were sceptical. A source close to Corbyn told Yahoo Finance UK that it was standard for unions to push for policies adopted at their conferences, and that it was not currently Labour policy. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and his team are thought to be keener on the policy, having been enthusiastic about democratic ownership proposals, as is Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey. Sources close to McDonnell maintain that there are numerous way industries could be brought into public ownership, including via the use of methods such as worker co-operatives. McDonnell and Long-Bailey previously commissioned the ‘Alternative Models of Ownership’ discussion paper as shadow cabinet members, which discussed the potential nationalisation of telecoms companies. The paper noted how nationalised companies, or ‘State Owned Enterprises’ (SOEs), are most commonly found in naturally occurring monopolies, such as telecoms. The paper later stated: “The paucity of internet and telecoms provision in much of the UK, compared to other countries is testimony to the inequalities produced by a profit oriented system that does not invest sufficiently in national service provision. Providing a nationalised state owned service in such circumstances is more equitable.” Sources close to McDonnell’s office do not believe that there would be any legal issues in future nationalisation, including a potential nationalisation of BT.
Has Colefax Group plc (LON:CFX) Been Employing Capital Shrewdly? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll evaluate Colefax Group plc (LON:CFX) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. To be precise, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that will inform our view of the quality of the business. First up, we'll look at what ROCE is and how we calculate it. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Last but not least, we'll look at what impact its current liabilities have on its ROCE. ROCE measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. In general, businesses with a higher ROCE are usually better quality. Ultimately, it is a useful but imperfect metric. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussinhas suggestedthat a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'. Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for Colefax Group: 0.18 = UK£5.8m ÷ (UK£47m - UK£14m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2018.) Therefore,Colefax Group has an ROCE of 18%. View our latest analysis for Colefax Group ROCE is commonly used for comparing the performance of similar businesses. Using our data, Colefax Group's ROCE appears to be around the 15% average of the Consumer Durables industry. Independently of how Colefax Group compares to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms appears decent, and the company may be worthy of closer investigation. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how Colefax Group's past growth compares to other companies. When considering ROCE, bear in mind that it reflects the past and does not necessarily predict the future. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is only a point-in-time measure. Since the future is so important for investors, you should check out ourfreereport on analyst forecasts for Colefax Group. Liabilities, such as supplier bills and bank overdrafts, are referred to as current liabilities if they need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way the ROCE equation works, having large bills due in the near term can make it look as though a company has less capital employed, and thus a higher ROCE than usual. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. Colefax Group has total assets of UK£47m and current liabilities of UK£14m. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 30% of its total assets. Current liabilities are minimal, limiting the impact on ROCE. With that in mind, Colefax Group's ROCE appears pretty good. Colefax Group shapes up well under this analysis,but it is far from the only business delivering excellent numbers. You might also want to check thisfreecollection of companies delivering excellent earnings growth. For those who like to findwinning investmentsthisfreelist of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Trump 'demands US military chiefs stand next to him' at 4th of July parade Donald Trump has reportedly requested the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines stand next to him during a special Fourth of July event. The US president has said a display of US military tanks will be part of the Salute to America event he is headlining in Washington on Thursday. There is also expected to be a military demonstration by the US Navy Blue Angels and other aircraft. Mr Trump has asked the chiefs for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines stand next to him as aircraft from each of their branches of the military fly overhead, the New York Times reports . The event is likely to raise concerns over Mr Trumps desire to parade US military forces through the streets of the capital in a similar manner to authoritarian regimes such as North Korea, Iran and China. Mr Trump has wanted a military parade of tanks and other military hardware in Washington after he witnessed a similar parade on Bastille Day in Paris in 2017, but the plan was eventually scuttled partly because of the cost. Were going to have some tanks stationed outside, the US president said on Monday. He appeared to acknowledge local officials' concerns over the damage the heavily armoured tanks could do to city streets, adding: Youve got to be pretty careful with the tanks because the roads have a tendency not to like to carry heavy tanks. So we have to put them in certain areas, but we have the brand new Sherman tanks and we have the brand new Abrams tanks. Sherman tanks were used by the US during the Second World War, but have been out of service for decades. The M1A1 Abrams tank is currently the main US battle tank. Were going to have a great Fourth of July in Washington, DC. Itll be like no other, Mr Trump said. Itll be special and I hope a lot of people come. And its going to be about this country and its a salute to America. Im going to say a few words and were going to have planes going overhead, the best fighter jets in the world and other planes too, he said. Story continues The Council of DC tweeted its opposition to the event on Monday: We have said it before, and well say it again: Tanks, but no tanks. We have said it before, and well say it again: Tanks, but no tanks. (PS: The @DeptofDefense agrees, see highlighted area below) pic.twitter.com/ock2EORKNz Council of DC (@councilofdc) July 1, 2019 Mr Trump plans to deliver a speech at the Lincoln Memorial during his Salute to America, which has been added to the regular schedule of Independence Day events in the capital. The annual fireworks display will go off closer to the Lincoln Memorial instead of the Washington Monument, as has been the long-standing tradition. The event is open to the public and free of charge, but a ticket-only area in front of the memorial is being set aside for VIPs, including members of Trumps family, friends and members of the military, the White House said. The Republican National Committee has been offering its major donors tickets to Mr Trumps speech, according to HuffPost . Politicians and local officials have voiced concerns Mr Trumps speech could alter the tone of what has traditionally been a nonpartisan celebration of Americas independence from Britain by delivering a political speech, after he formally announced his bid for re-election in June. Additional reporting by agencies
How Does Birla Corporation Limited (NSE:BIRLACORPN) Stand Up To These Simple Dividend Safety Checks? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Could Birla Corporation Limited (NSE:BIRLACORPN) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. Unfortunately, it's common for investors to be enticed in by the seemingly attractive yield, and lose money when the company has to cut its dividend payments. A 1.3% yield is nothing to get excited about, but investors probably think the long payment history suggests Birla has some staying power. Some simple analysis can offer a lot of insights when buying a company for its dividend, and we'll go through this below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Birla! Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Birla paid out 23% of its profit as dividends, over the trailing twelve month period. With a low payout ratio, it looks like the dividend is comprehensively covered by earnings. As Birla has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A quick check of its financial situation can be done with two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments. Essentially we check that a) the company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. With net debt of 2.60 times its EBITDA, Birla's debt burden is within a normal range for most listed companies. We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. With EBIT of 1.64 times its interest expense, Birla's interest cover is starting to look a bit thin. Consider gettingour latest analysis on Birla's financial position here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Birla's dividend payments. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was ₹4.50 in 2009, compared to ₹7.50 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.2% a year over that time. Companies like this, growing their dividend at a decent rate, can be very valuable over the long term, if the rate of growth can be maintained. Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Over the long term, dividends need to grow at or above the rate of inflation, in order to maintain the recipient's purchasing power. It's good to see Birla has been growing its earnings per share at 15% a year over the past 5 years. Rapid earnings growth and a low payout ratio suggests this company has been effectively reinvesting in its business. Should that continue, this company could have a bright future. When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. It's great to see that Birla is paying out a low percentage of its earnings and cash flow. We like that it has been delivering solid improvement in its earnings per share, and relatively consistent dividend payments. Birla has met all of our criteria, including having strong cash flow that covers the dividend. We definitely think it would be worthwhile looking closer. Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 4 Birla analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with ourfreereport on analyst estimates for the company. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try ourcurated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
An Intrinsic Calculation For Cohort plc (LON:CHRT) Suggests It's 49% Undervalued Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! How far off is Cohort plc (LON:CHRT) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the foreast future cash flows of the company and discounting them back to today's value. I will be using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. See our latest analysis for Cohort We're using the 2-stage growth model, which simply means we take in account two stages of company's growth. In the initial period the company may have a higher growth rate and the second stage is usually assumed to have a stable growth rate. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: [{"": "Levered FCF (\u00a3, Millions)", "2020": "\u00a311.6m", "2021": "\u00a315.0m", "2022": "\u00a317.8m", "2023": "\u00a320.2m", "2024": "\u00a322.1m", "2025": "\u00a323.7m", "2026": "\u00a325.0m", "2027": "\u00a326.0m", "2028": "\u00a326.9m", "2029": "\u00a327.6m"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x2", "2021": "Analyst x1", "2022": "Est @ 18.57%", "2023": "Est @ 13.37%", "2024": "Est @ 9.73%", "2025": "Est @ 7.18%", "2026": "Est @ 5.39%", "2027": "Est @ 4.14%", "2028": "Est @ 3.27%", "2029": "Est @ 2.66%"}, {"": "Present Value (\u00a3, Millions) Discounted @ 7.48%", "2020": "\u00a310.7", "2021": "\u00a313.0", "2022": "\u00a314.3", "2023": "\u00a315.1", "2024": "\u00a315.4", "2025": "\u00a315.4", "2026": "\u00a315.1", "2027": "\u00a314.6", "2028": "\u00a314.0", "2029": "\u00a313.4"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= £141.1m We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 1.2%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 7.5%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = UK£28m × (1 + 1.2%) ÷ (7.5% – 1.2%) = UK£447m Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= £UK£447m ÷ ( 1 + 7.5%)10= £217.19m The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is £358.32m. In the final step we divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of £8.83. Compared to the current share price of £4.5, the company appears quite good value at a 49% discount to where the stock price trades currently. The assumptions in any calculation have a big impact on the valuation, so it is better to view this as a rough estimate, not precise down to the last cent. The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Cohort as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 7.5%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.940. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Valuation is only one side of the coin in terms of building your investment thesis, and it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price to differ from the intrinsic value? For Cohort, I've compiled three further factors you should further examine: 1. Financial Health: Does CHRT have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does CHRT's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of CHRT? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the LON every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
BitForex Trading Championship - 15,000 USDT Prize Pool NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE /July2, 2019 /BitForex unveils the launch of their new perpetual contract simulation program following a string of critical success in Korea, which includes BitForex CEO Garrett Jin's appearance alongside South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon at the K.E.Y Platform summit 2019 in Seoul. BitForex places itself ahead of the curve by announcing a new perpetual trading derivatives program, set to launch soon. Users will be able to participate in a testing phase using virtual BTC and real market data to try out the system before its official launch in early July. In addition to using real-market data with virtual coins to create a no-risk environment for traders to gain experience, BitForex has organized an impressive 15,000 USDT prize pool to entice participants with the thrill of competing on leaderboards for real-world prizes. A perpetual contract is a futures contract that does not make a final delivery and is a financial derivative. From a trading perspective, it is similar to a traditional futures contract. For the digital asset investment market, it is a suitable product for mass-market crypto traders, and conforms to the concept of decentralization of blockchain assets. In 2016, BitMex first officially proposed their concept for perpetual contracts in crypto, and launched their BTC sustainability contract soon after. Since this, the transaction volume of perpetual contracts has been on the rise. Even in a market with poor overall volume, BitMex's perpetual contract has maintained a steady growth trend. In 2018, OKEx started offering similar services on BTC and ETH. Currently, BitMex and OKEx are the two largest companies in the cryptocurrency exchange industry - no other cryptocurrency exchanges had followed suit until BitForex. With its large Asian and South-East Asian userbase, BitForex's token liquidity puts it in a unique position to bring a new service to users who may not have had access to it previously, effectively cornering a sector of the market. BitForex is inviting all users to register for the trial, which will see all participants granted 10 virtual BTC for testing the system with (or aggressively compete on the leaderboards) - a risk-free way for users to get comfortable with a new system. "We are doing our best to make this as accessible to all traders as we can. Cryptocurrency trading can seem daunting at first, so the test phase represents not only an opportunity for us to work out any potential kinks in the system before the official launch, but also serves as a chance for users to try their hand at perpetual contracts without the fear of losing their tokens due to inexperience. As an extra bonus, we're putting up 15,000 USDT in prizes to make things a little more interesting for our users"- Garrett Jin, BitForex CEO & Founder. To learn more about BitForex, or to sign up and start trading, follow the link below: Register Find us on:www.bitforex.com Catch all the latest BitForex news:blog.bitforex.com About BitForex BitForex is a global Top 10 cryptocurrency exchange dedicated to providing 3+ million users with safe, professional, and convenient digital currency trading services. BitForex is leading the trend of the cryptocurrency exchange industry by effectively providing a wide range of trading tools including token trading, margin trading, and derivatives - constantly adapting to new market needs with the continuous introduction of new features. BitForex is Headquartered in Hong Kong, and operational teams in South Korea, Singapore, the U.S., and more. press@bitforex.com SOURCE:BitForexView source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/550601/BitForex-Trading-Championship--15000-USDT-Prize-Pool
Read This Before Buying Sanne Group plc (LON:SNN) For Its Dividend Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Dividend paying stocks like Sanne Group plc (LON:SNN) tend to be popular with investors, and for good reason - some research suggests a significant amount of all stock market returns come from reinvested dividends. Yet sometimes, investors buy a popular dividend stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. With a 2.0% yield and a four-year payment history, investors probably think Sanne Group looks like a reliable dividend stock. A low yield is generally a turn-off, but if the prospects for earnings growth were strong, investors might be pleasantly surprised by the long-term results. That said, the recent jump in the share price will make Sanne Group's dividend yield look smaller, even though the company prospects could be improving. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Sanne Group for its dividend, and we'll go through these below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Sanne Group! Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, Sanne Group paid out 107% of its profit as dividends. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, from the perspective of an investor who hopes to own the company for many years, a payout ratio of above 100% is definitely a concern. We update our data on Sanne Group every 24 hours, so you can always getour latest analysis of its financial health, here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the data, we can see that Sanne Group has been paying a dividend for the past four years. During the past four-year period, the first annual payment was UK£0.028 in 2015, compared to UK£0.14 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 49% per year over this time. The dividend has been growing pretty quickly, which could be enough to get us interested even though the dividend history is relatively short. Further research may be warranted. Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. Earnings have grown at around 4.5% a year for the past five years, which is better than seeing them shrink! Still, the company has struggled to grow its EPS, and currently pays out 107% of its earnings. Limited recent earnings growth and a high payout ratio makes it hard for us to envision strong future dividend growth, unless the company should have substantial pricing power or some form of competitive advantage. Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. First, it's not great to see how much of its earnings are being paid as dividends. Second, earnings growth has been ordinary, and its history of dividend payments is shorter than we'd like. To conclude, we've spotted a couple of potential concerns with Sanne Group that may make it less than ideal candidate for dividend investors. Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 9 Sanne Group analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with ourfreereport on analyst estimates for the company. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Want To Invest In Aliaxis SA (EBR:094124352)? Here's How It Performed Lately Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! In this commentary, I will examine Aliaxis SA's (EBR:094124352) latest earnings update (31 December 2018) and compare these figures against its performance over the past couple of years, as well as how the rest of the building industry performed. As an investor, I find it beneficial to assess 094124352’s trend over the short-to-medium term in order to gauge whether or not the company is able to meet its goals, and ultimately sustainably grow over time. See our latest analysis for Aliaxis 094124352's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 December 2018) of €137m has declined by -4.3% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 5.0%, indicating the rate at which 094124352 is growing has slowed down. Why could this be happening? Well, let’s take a look at what’s occurring with margins and whether the whole industry is feeling the heat. In terms of returns from investment, Aliaxis has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 11% instead. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 5.1% is below the BE Building industry of 5.2%, indicating Aliaxis's are utilized less efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Aliaxis’s debt level, has increased over the past 3 years from 11% to 12%. Aliaxis's track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn't tell the whole story. Companies that are profitable, but have unpredictable earnings, can have many factors influencing its business. You should continue to research Aliaxis to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for 094124352’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor 094124352’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are 094124352’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2018. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
What Is NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited's (HKG:777) Share Price Doing? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKG:777), which is in the entertainment business, and is based in China, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the SEHK over the last few months, increasing to HK$24.3 at one point, and dropping to the lows of HK$18.28. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether NetDragon Websoft Holdings's current trading price of HK$19.28 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at NetDragon Websoft Holdings’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. Check out our latest analysis for NetDragon Websoft Holdings According to my relative valuation model, the stock seems to be currently fairly priced. In this instance, I’ve used the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio given that there is not enough information to reliably forecast the stock’s cash flows. I find that NetDragon Websoft Holdings’s ratio of 16.55x is trading slightly above its industry peers’ ratio of 12.79x, which means if you buy NetDragon Websoft Holdings today, you’d be paying a relatively fair price for it. And if you believe NetDragon Websoft Holdings should be trading in this range, then there isn’t really any room for the share price grow beyond what it’s currently trading. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since NetDragon Websoft Holdings’s share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market. Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by 95% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for NetDragon Websoft Holdings. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation. Are you a shareholder?It seems like the market has already priced in 777’s positive outlook, with shares trading around its fair value. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at 777? Will you have enough conviction to buy should the price fluctuate below the true value? Are you a potential investor?If you’ve been keeping an eye on 777, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around its fair value. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for 777, which means it’s worth further examining other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on NetDragon Websoft Holdings. You can find everything you need to know about NetDragon Websoft Holdings inthe latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in NetDragon Websoft Holdings, you can use our free platform to see my list of over50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is FRoSTA Aktiengesellschaft's (FRA:NLM) 12% ROE Better Than Average? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. We'll use ROE to examine FRoSTA Aktiengesellschaft (FRA:NLM), by way of a worked example. Our data showsFRoSTA has a return on equity of 12%for the last year. That means that for every €1 worth of shareholders' equity, it generated €0.12 in profit. Check out our latest analysis for FRoSTA Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for FRoSTA: 12% = €20m ÷ €169m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets. ROE measures a company's profitability against the profit it retains, and any outside investments. The 'return' is the yearly profit. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, as a general rule,a high ROE is a good thing. Clearly, then, one can use ROE to compare different companies. By comparing a company's ROE with its industry average, we can get a quick measure of how good it is. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. You can see in the graphic below that FRoSTA has an ROE that is fairly close to the average for the Food industry (11%). That's not overly surprising. ROE tells us about the quality of the business, but it does not give us much of an idea if the share price is cheap. If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. In this manner the use of debt will boost ROE, even though the core economics of the business stay the same. FRoSTA has a debt to equity ratio of 0.25, which is far from excessive. The fact that it achieved a fairly good ROE with only modest debt suggests the business might be worth putting on your watchlist. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. Companies that can achieve high returns on equity without too much debt are generally of good quality. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to check this FREEvisualization of analyst forecasts for the company. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Why Etex N.V. (EBR:094124453) Looks Like A Quality Company Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. We'll use ROE to examine Etex N.V. (EBR:094124453), by way of a worked example. Over the last twelve monthsEtex has recorded a ROE of 13%. Another way to think of that is that for every €1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn €0.13. See our latest analysis for Etex Theformula for return on equityis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Etex: 13% = €140m ÷ €1.1b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is all earnings retained by the company, plus any capital paid in by shareholders. You can calculate shareholders' equity by subtracting the company's total liabilities from its total assets. Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else equal,investors should like a high ROE. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. However, this method is only useful as a rough check, because companies do differ quite a bit within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Etex has a superior ROE than the average (11%) company in the Building industry. That's what I like to see. I usually take a closer look when a company has a better ROE than industry peers. For exampleyou might checkif insiders are buying shares. Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. The cash for investment can come from prior year profits (retained earnings), issuing new shares, or borrowing. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Etex has a debt to equity ratio of 0.67, which is far from excessive. The fact that it achieved a fairly good ROE with only modest debt suggests the business might be worth putting on your watchlist. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality. Return on equity is a useful indicator of the ability of a business to generate profits and return them to shareholders. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. All else being equal, a higher ROE is better. But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. The rate at which profits are likely to grow, relative to the expectations of profit growth reflected in the current price, must be considered, too. You can see how the company has grow in the past by looking at this FREEdetailed graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
CORRECTED-Boost for populists? Italian debt back to pre-coalition govt levels (Corrects maturity of bond in fourth paragraph to 10-year from one-year) * Rome cuts 2019 budget deficit target to placate EU * Italian 10-yr yield at over one-year low * ECB speakers double down on stimulus pledge * Spain, Portugal yields at new record lows * Money markets price in 50% chance of July rate cut * Euro zone periphery govt bond yields http://tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr By Abhinav Ramnarayan LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - Italian government bonds have erased the losses suffered after the formation of an anti-establishment government in June 2018, boosted by the promise of European Central Bank stimulus and hopes for detente in a budget row with Brussels. Many euro zone government bond yields have retreated to new record lows this week as ECB policymakers unite behind a pledge for more stimulus, with Italian debt in particular benefiting from the promise of more central bank largesse. In addition, Italy cut its 2019 budget deficit target on Monday in an effort to avoid European Union disciplinary action over its public finances, potentially easing another major concern for markets. Italian 10-year government bond yields hit a new one-year low of 1.916%, a level last seen in May 2018 before the government of League and 5-Star Movement was formed. The closely-watched spread between Italian and German 10-year government bond yields was at its tightest level since September 2018, when budget clashes between Italy and the EU were in full swing. "The move is at least partly driven by the general massive drop in (euro zone bond) yields from expectations of a very expensive ECB policy," said DZ Bank rates strategist Christian Lenk. "There is also growing optimism of a budget agreement, and a feeling that the European Commission has been less aggressive than expected in punishing Italy," he said, referring to the EU's decision not to immediately impose sanctions on Rome for breaching a budget promise. He added however, that he does not share the market's optimism, and expects budget clashes to resume in the autumn when Italy is formulating its 2020 budget, potentially hurting Italian debt in the process. Other euro zone government bond yields edged lower, having dipped to record lows on Monday on the back of dovish comments from ECB policymakers. Germany's 10-year government bond yield, the benchmark for the region, briefly hit a new record low of -0.365%, but was broadly unchanged on the day. Spanish and Portuguese 10-year yields dropped by about a basis point each, hitting new record lows of 0.326% and 0.402% respectively. Euro zone money markets are now pricing in a 50% chance of a 10 basis point rate cut by the ECB in July, up from the 40% chance priced in last week. (Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
What Should You Know About Speedy Hire Plc's (LON:SDY) Earnings Trend? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Speedy Hire Plc's (LON:SDY) most recent earnings update in June 2019 signalled that the company experienced a large tailwind, leading to a high double-digit earnings growth of 57%. Below, I've laid out key numbers on how market analysts predict Speedy Hire's earnings growth outlook over the next few years and whether the future looks even brighter than the past. I will be looking at earnings excluding extraordinary items to exclude one-off activities to get a better understanding of the underlying drivers of earnings. Check out our latest analysis for Speedy Hire Market analysts' consensus outlook for the coming year seems buoyant, with earnings rising by a robust 31%. This growth seems to continue into the following year with rates arriving at double digit 45% compared to today’s earnings, and finally hitting UK£35m by 2022. Although it’s useful to understand the growth rate each year relative to today’s level, it may be more insightful to determine the rate at which the business is moving on average every year. The pro of this approach is that it removes the impact of near term flucuations and accounts for the overarching direction of Speedy Hire's earnings trajectory over time, which may be more relevant for long term investors. To calculate this rate, I've appended a line of best fit through analyst consensus of forecasted earnings. The slope of this line is the rate of earnings growth, which in this case is 14%. This means, we can expect Speedy Hire will grow its earnings by 14% every year for the next few years. For Speedy Hire, there are three fundamental factors you should further examine: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is SDY worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether SDY is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of SDY? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
How Much Are Clipper Logistics plc (LON:CLG) Insiders Spending On Buying Shares? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So shareholders might well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inClipper Logistics plc(LON:CLG). Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, rules govern insider transactions, and certain disclosures are required. We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. As Peter Lynch said, 'insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.' Check out our latest analysis for Clipper Logistics Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by CFO, Member of Executive Board & Executive Director David Hodkin for UK£764k worth of shares, at about UK£3.18 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, even at a higher price than the current share price (being UK£2.82). It's very possible they regret the purchase, but it's more likely they are bullish about the company. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels. In the last twelve months insiders purchased 324k shares for UK£1.0m. But they sold 180k for UK£514k. Overall, Clipper Logistics insiders were net buyers last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. By clicking on the graph below, you can see the precise details of each insider transaction! Clipper Logistics is not the only stock insiders are buying. So take a peek at thisfreelist of growing companies with insider buying. There was some insider buying at Clipper Logistics over the last quarter. Independent Non-Executive Director Stuart Watson shelled out UK£10k for shares in that time. It's good to see the insider buying, as well as the lack of recent sellers. But in this case the amount purchased means the recent transaction may not be very meaningful on its own. For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. Clipper Logistics insiders own about UK£95m worth of shares (which is 33% of the company). This kind of significant ownership by insiders does generally increase the chance that the company is run in the interest of all shareholders. Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. The net investment is not enough to encourage us much. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders own shares in Clipper Logistics and we see no evidence to suggest they are worried about the future. If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check thisfreereport showing analyst forecasts for its future. Of courseClipper Logistics may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of high quality companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Are Insiders Selling Biffa plc (LON:BIFF) Stock? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! It is not uncommon to see companies perform well in the years after insiders buy shares. The flip side of that is that there are more than a few examples of insiders dumping stock prior to a period of weak performance. So we'll take a look at whether insiders have been buying or selling shares inBiffa plc(LON:BIFF). Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock on the market. However, such insiders must disclose their trading activities, and not trade on inside information. Insider transactions are not the most important thing when it comes to long-term investing. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Harvard Universitystudyfound that 'insider purchases earn abnormal returns of more than 6% per year.' Check out our latest analysis for Biffa The CEO & Executive Director, Michael Robert Topham, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for UK£294k worth of shares at a price of UK£2.23 each. So we know that an insider sold shares at around the present share price of UK£2.06. While we don't usually like to see insider selling, it's more concerning if the sales take price at a lower price. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it's not too bad (but it's still not a positive). Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid UK£245k for 120k shares. But they sold 626k for UK£1.4m. All up, insiders sold more shares in Biffa than they bought, over the last year. The chart below shows insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below! If you like to buy stocks that insiders are buying, rather than selling, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). We've seen more insider selling than insider buying at Biffa recently. We note insiders cashed in UK£1.2m worth of shares. Meanwhile Managing Director of Municipal Division Roger Edwards bought UK£155k worth. Since the selling really does outweigh the buying, we'd say that these transactions may suggest that some insiders feel the shares are not cheap. Looking at the total insider shareholdings in a company can help to inform your view of whether they are well aligned with common shareholders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Our data indicates that Biffa insiders own about UK£6.0m worth of shares (which is 1.2% of the company). Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing! The stark truth for Biffa is that there has been more insider selling than insider buying in the last three months. Zooming out, the longer term picture doesn't give us much comfort. When you combine this with the relatively low insider ownership, we are very cautious about the stock. So we're not rushing to buy, to say the least. Therefore, you should should definitely take a look at thisFREEreport showing analyst forecasts for Biffa. Of courseBiffa may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of high quality companies. For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Brief Commentary On Smiths Group plc's (LON:SMIN) Fundamentals Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Smiths Group plc (LON:SMIN) is a company with exceptional fundamental characteristics. Upon building up an investment case for a stock, we should look at various aspects. In the case of SMIN, it is a dependable dividend-paying company that has been able to sustain great financial health over the past. Below is a brief commentary on these key aspects. If you're interested in understanding beyond my broad commentary, take a look at thereport on Smiths Group here. SMIN is financially robust, with ample cash on hand and short-term investments to meet upcoming liabilities. This implies that SMIN manages its cash and cost levels well, which is a key determinant of the company’s health. SMIN appears to have made good use of debt, producing operating cash levels of 0.26x total debt in the prior year. This is a strong indication that debt is reasonably met with cash generated. Income investors would also be happy to know that SMIN is a great dividend company, with a current yield standing at 2.8%. SMIN has also been regularly increasing its dividend payments to shareholders over the past decade. For Smiths Group, I've put together three important factors you should further examine: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SMIN’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor SMIN’s outlook. 2. Historical Performance: What has SMIN's returns been like over the past? Go into more detail in the past track record analysis and take a look atthe free visual representations of our analysisfor more clarity. 3. Other Attractive Alternatives: Are there other well-rounded stocks you could be holding instead of SMIN? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Does Svedbergs i Dalstorp AB (STO:SVED B) Have A Good P/E Ratio? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). To keep it practical, we'll show how Svedbergs i Dalstorp AB's (STO:SVED B) P/E ratio could help you assess the value on offer. Looking at earnings over the last twelve months,Svedbergs i Dalstorp has a P/E ratio of 12.88. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 7.8%. Check out our latest analysis for Svedbergs i Dalstorp Theformula for price to earningsis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Svedbergs i Dalstorp: P/E of 12.88 = SEK22.1 ÷ SEK1.72 (Based on the year to March 2019.) A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to paya higher pricefor each SEK1 the company has earned over the last year. That is not a good or a bad thingper se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future. Companies that shrink earnings per share quickly will rapidly decrease the 'E' in the equation. That means even if the current P/E is low, it will increase over time if the share price stays flat. Then, a higher P/E might scare off shareholders, pushing the share price down. Svedbergs i Dalstorp's earnings per share fell by 22% in the last twelve months. But over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have increased by 12%. And it has shrunk its earnings per share by 1.2% per year over the last three years. This growth rate might warrant a low P/E ratio. The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. The image below shows that Svedbergs i Dalstorp has a lower P/E than the average (18.7) P/E for companies in the building industry. This suggests that market participants think Svedbergs i Dalstorp will underperform other companies in its industry. Since the market seems unimpressed with Svedbergs i Dalstorp, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. It is arguably worth checkingif insiders are buying shares, because that might imply they believe the stock is undervalued. One drawback of using a P/E ratio is that it considers market capitalization, but not the balance sheet. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. Theoretically, a business can improve its earnings (and produce a lower P/E in the future) by investing in growth. That means taking on debt (or spending its cash). Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio. Svedbergs i Dalstorp has net debt equal to 43% of its market cap. While that's enough to warrant consideration, it doesn't really concern us. Svedbergs i Dalstorp's P/E is 12.9 which is below average (17) in the SE market. With only modest debt, it's likely the lack of EPS growth at least partially explains the pessimism implied by the P/E ratio. Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. Although we don't have analyst forecasts, you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking outthis more detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of courseyou might be able to find a better stock than Svedbergs i Dalstorp. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is Next Fifteen Communications Group plc's (LON:NFC) High P/E Ratio A Problem For Investors? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll show how you can use Next Fifteen Communications Group plc's (LON:NFC) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity.Next Fifteen Communications Group has a price to earnings ratio of 35.94, based on the last twelve months. That corresponds to an earnings yield of approximately 2.8%. See our latest analysis for Next Fifteen Communications Group Theformula for P/Eis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Next Fifteen Communications Group: P/E of 35.94 = £6.3 ÷ £0.18 (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2019.) The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. That is not a good or a bad thingper se, but a high P/E does imply buyers are optimistic about the future. P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings. Next Fifteen Communications Group's 51% EPS improvement over the last year was like bamboo growth after rain; rapid and impressive. The cherry on top is that the five year growth rate was an impressive 59% per year. With that kind of growth rate we would generally expect a high P/E ratio. The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. As you can see below, Next Fifteen Communications Group has a higher P/E than the average company (21.1) in the media industry. Next Fifteen Communications Group's P/E tells us that market participants think the company will perform better than its industry peers, going forward. The market is optimistic about the future, but that doesn't guarantee future growth. So investors should delve deeper. I like to checkif company insiders have been buying or selling. The 'Price' in P/E reflects the market capitalization of the company. That means it doesn't take debt or cash into account. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth. Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio. Next Fifteen Communications Group's net debt is 1.0% of its market cap. The market might award it a higher P/E ratio if it had net cash, but its unlikely this low level of net borrowing is having a big impact on the P/E multiple. Next Fifteen Communications Group's P/E is 35.9 which is above average (16.4) in the GB market. While the company does use modest debt, its recent earnings growth is superb. So to be frank we are not surprised it has a high P/E ratio. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' So thisfreereport on the analyst consensus forecastscould help you make amaster moveon this stock. But note:Next Fifteen Communications Group may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20). We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Are Investors Undervaluing Sunningdale Tech Ltd (SGX:BHQ) By 48%? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll do a simple run through of a valuation method used to estimate the attractiveness of Sunningdale Tech Ltd (SGX:BHQ) as an investment opportunity by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. See our latest analysis for Sunningdale Tech We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. To begin with, we have to get estimates of the next ten years of cash flows. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. Generally we assume that a dollar today is more valuable than a dollar in the future, so we need to discount the sum of these future cash flows to arrive at a present value estimate: [{"": "Levered FCF (SGD, Millions)", "2020": "SGD30.5m", "2021": "SGD34.6m", "2022": "SGD37.8m", "2023": "SGD40.6m", "2024": "SGD43.0m", "2025": "SGD45.0m", "2026": "SGD46.8m", "2027": "SGD48.5m", "2028": "SGD50.0m", "2029": "SGD51.5m"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x1", "2021": "Analyst x1", "2022": "Est @ 9.48%", "2023": "Est @ 7.32%", "2024": "Est @ 5.82%", "2025": "Est @ 4.76%", "2026": "Est @ 4.03%", "2027": "Est @ 3.51%", "2028": "Est @ 3.15%", "2029": "Est @ 2.89%"}, {"": "Present Value (SGD, Millions) Discounted @ 10.24%", "2020": "SGD27.7", "2021": "SGD28.4", "2022": "SGD28.2", "2023": "SGD27.5", "2024": "SGD26.4", "2025": "SGD25.1", "2026": "SGD23.7", "2027": "SGD22.2", "2028": "SGD20.8", "2029": "SGD19.4"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= SGD249.4m The second stage is also known as Terminal Value, this is the business's cash flow after the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 2.3%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 10.2%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = S$51m × (1 + 2.3%) ÷ (10.2% – 2.3%) = S$663m Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= SGDS$663m ÷ ( 1 + 10.2%)10= SGD250.19m The total value, or equity value, is then the sum of the present value of the future cash flows, which in this case is SGD499.64m. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of SGD2.62. Compared to the current share price of SGD1.36, the company appears quite undervalued at a 48% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. If you don't agree with these result, have a go at the calculation yourself and play with the assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Sunningdale Tech as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 10.2%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.332. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price to differ from the intrinsic value? For Sunningdale Tech, I've compiled three important factors you should look at: 1. Financial Health: Does BHQ have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does BHQ's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of BHQ? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the SGX every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is There More To Grasim Industries Limited (NSE:GRASIM) Than Its 7.6% Returns On Capital? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we are going to look at Grasim Industries Limited (NSE:GRASIM) to see whether it might be an attractive investment prospect. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires. First of all, we'll work out how to calculate ROCE. Then we'll compare its ROCE to similar companies. And finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities are impacting its ROCE. ROCE measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. In brief, it is a useful tool, but it is not without drawbacks. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussinhas suggestedthat a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'. The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for Grasim Industries: 0.076 = ₹128b ÷ (₹2.1t - ₹446b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) So,Grasim Industries has an ROCE of 7.6%. See our latest analysis for Grasim Industries When making comparisons between similar businesses, investors may find ROCE useful. Using our data, Grasim Industries's ROCE appears to be around the 9.2% average of the Basic Materials industry. Independently of how Grasim Industries compares to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms is low; especially compared to the ~7.6% available in government bonds. It is likely that there are more attractive prospects out there. Grasim Industries's current ROCE of 7.6% is lower than 3 years ago, when the company reported a 11% ROCE. So investors might consider if it has had issues recently. The image below shows how Grasim Industries's ROCE compares to its industry, and you can click it to see more detail on its past growth. Remember that this metric is backwards looking - it shows what has happened in the past, and does not accurately predict the future. ROCE can be deceptive for cyclical businesses, as returns can look incredible in boom times, and terribly low in downturns. ROCE is, after all, simply a snap shot of a single year. Since the future is so important for investors, you should check out ourfreereport on analyst forecasts for Grasim Industries. Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way ROCE is calculated, a high level of current liabilities makes a company look as though it has less capital employed, and thus can (sometimes unfairly) boost the ROCE. To check the impact of this, we calculate if a company has high current liabilities relative to its total assets. Grasim Industries has total assets of ₹2.1t and current liabilities of ₹446b. Therefore its current liabilities are equivalent to approximately 21% of its total assets. With a very reasonable level of current liabilities, so the impact on ROCE is fairly minimal. That's not a bad thing, however Grasim Industries has a weak ROCE and may not be an attractive investment. You might be able to find a better investment than Grasim Industries. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out thisfreelist of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings). If you are like me, then you willnotwant to miss thisfreelist of growing companies that insiders are buying. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Does V-Guard Industries Limited's (NSE:VGUARD) CEO Pay Reflect Performance? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Mithun Chittilappilly has been the CEO of V-Guard Industries Limited (NSE:VGUARD) since 2012. This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid. View our latest analysis for V-Guard Industries According to our data, V-Guard Industries Limited has a market capitalization of ₹104b, and pays its CEO total annual compensation worth ₹42m. (This figure is for the year to March 2019). Notably, that's an increase of 65% over the year before. We think total compensation is more important but we note that the CEO salary is lower, at ₹11m. As part of our analysis we looked at companies in the same jurisdiction, with market capitalizations of ₹69b to ₹221b. The median total CEO compensation was ₹41m. So Mithun Chittilappilly is paid around the average of the companies we looked at. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance. You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at V-Guard Industries, below. Over the last three years V-Guard Industries Limited has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 7.6% per year (using a line of best fit). Its revenue is up 12% over last year. This revenue growth could really point to a brighter future. And the improvement in earnings per share is modest but respectable. So while performance isn't amazing, we think it really does seem quite respectable. Shareholders might be interested inthisfreevisualization of analyst forecasts. Most shareholders would probably be pleased with V-Guard Industries Limited for providing a total return of 144% over three years. So they may not be at all concerned if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for companies around the same size. Remuneration for Mithun Chittilappilly is close enough to the median pay for a CEO of a similar sized company . The company isn't showing particularly great growth, but shareholder returns have been pleasing. So all things considered I'd venture that the CEO pay is appropriate. Shareholders may want tocheck for free if V-Guard Industries insiders are buying or selling shares. Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
What Kind Of Shareholder Appears On The Deep Industries Limited's (NSE:DEEPIND) Shareholder Register? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! A look at the shareholders of Deep Industries Limited (NSE:DEEPIND) can tell us which group is most powerful. Institutions will often hold stock in bigger companies, and we expect to see insiders owning a noticeable percentage of the smaller ones. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.' With a market capitalization of ₹4.5b, Deep Industries is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Our analysis of the ownership of the company, below, shows that institutions don't own many shares in the company. We can zoom in on the different ownership groups, to learn more about DEEPIND. View our latest analysis for Deep Industries Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing. Since institutions own under 5% of Deep Industries, many may not have spent much time considering the stock. But it's clear that some have; and they liked it enough to buy in. So if the company itself can improve over time, we may well see more institutional buyers in the future. It is not uncommon to see a big share price rise if multiple institutional investors are trying to buy into a stock at the same time. So check out the historic earnings trajectory, below, but keep in mind it's the future that counts most. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Deep Industries. As far I can tell there isn't analyst coverage of the company, so it is probably flying under the radar. While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board; and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board, themselves. I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions. Our information suggests that insiders own more than half of Deep Industries Limited. This gives them effective control of the company. So they have a ₹2.9b stake in this ₹4.5b business. Most would argue this is a positive, showing strong alignment with shareholders. You canclick here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. The general public holds a 23% stake in DEEPIND. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run. We can see that Private Companies own 5.9%, of the shares on issue. It's hard to draw any conclusions from this fact alone, so its worth looking into who owns those private companies. Sometimes insiders or other related parties have an interest in shares in a public company through a separate private company. We can see that public companies hold 3.8%, of the DEEPIND shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure, but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership. I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. I like to dive deeperinto how a company has performed in the past. You can findhistoric revenue and earnings in thisdetailed graph. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere.So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
‘Disappointed’ by Central Bank Blockchain, Russia’s Largest Bank Eyes Alternatives The Takeaway • Masterchain, a blockchain project backed by Russia’s central bank, is falling behind on its goals two years after inception. • Sberbank, the leading bank in Russia, is unsatisfied with the system’s speed, security and overall efficiency after testing it. • The bank is looking to shift its work to other enterprise platforms, Sberbank’s blockchain lab head said. Masterchain, the bank blockchain project developedunder the auspices of the Russian central bank, is missing the mark, the project’s key participant told CoinDesk. Sberbank,Russia’s largest bank, has decided to wind down its participation in Masterchain, said Oleg Abdrashitov, head of the institution’s blockchain lab. Calling the system inefficient, insecure and slow, Abdrashitov said his bank will shift its blockchain work to other, more widely used enterprise platforms. Related:Russia’s Sberbank Uses Smart Contract to Settle Three-Way Repo Deal “Masterchain does not satisfy the requirements for Sberbank’s use cases, so for all future exploration we will use enterprise blockchain platforms such as Hyperledger Fabric or Quorum,” Abdrashitov said. To be clear: Sberbank will finish what it started with Masterchain, but won’t initiate any new work. In an interview last month, Abdrashitov offered a rare window into the discreet world of enterprise blockchain projects, where dissatisfied participants usuallyexit projects quietly. His candor is especially notable coming from such a large player: Sberbank commands a50 percent shareof the Russian mortgage market, the focus of Masterchain’s initial use case. Masterchain was launched in 2017 by the FinTech Association (AFT) — an entity itselffounded that year by the Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank. The blockchain project had the support of the five largest banks in the country: Sberbank, Alfa Bank, VTB, Raiffeisenbank Russia (a subsidiary of the Austrian Raiffeisen) and Otkritie. The cost of Masterchain’s development is not public. However, according to earlierpublic disclosures, the 13 members of the Fintech Association are paying $120,000 to $230,000 a year to participate, which means the project may have burned through a couple million dollars over the last two years. Related:Russian Firm Will Reward Staff With Crypto Tokens Tied to Profits Neither the Bank of Russia nor the AFT responded to requests for comment by press time. Masterchain’s trial use case – a decentralized depository system for digital mortgage bonds – makes a lot of sense for banks, Abdrashitov said. The National Settlement Depository (NSD) is charging a fraction of a percent of the value of every mortgage bond it’s keeping as a custodian, but for Sberbank it means millions of dollars every year. A decentralized system, on the other hand, requires investment at the stage of building, but once working, it would be much cheaper to use, Abdrashitov said. Just not this system. For starters, the Masterchain mortgage pilot, started last fall, was supposed to go into production, or real-world deployment, next month, but it’s unlikely to be ready that soon due to slow technical development on the part of the FinTech Association, Abdrashitov said. “We have not received a new release of the Decentralized Depository System from AFT yet and haven’t tested it, so the proposed July start date is in question,” he said. Eugenia Ovchinnikova, Raiffeisenbank Russia’s head of tech research and digital innovation, confirmed that there is no date for the production launch currently because Raiffeisen is “closing infrastructure, legal and technical questions with AFT and inside the bank.” Part of the problem, according to Abdrashitov, is that Masterchain is not, to borrow a phrase from U.S. regulators,sufficiently decentralized. Supervised by the central bank, Masterchain is private and permissioned by design. In other words, the blockchain is visible only to participants and only approved parties can run a node to verify transactions, unlike bitcoin or ethereum, where the ledger is public and anyone can download the software. That in itself wasn’t an issue for Sberbank, but Masterchain became too centralized even for this format, Abdrashitov said, as “its operation fully depends on the FinTech Association’s central server that controls mining and consensus.” Like ethereum, Masterchain requires participants to pay gas, or small amounts of the native digital currency, for transactions, which isn’t the case on the major enterprise platforms Sberbank is now gravitating toward. But in Masterchain, tokens for paying gas are distributed by the association’s node, Abdrashitov said, and if Sberbank’s node needs more and starts mining itself, it gets switched off the network. Nobody ever explained to him why or by what principle this happened, he said. Raiffeisen’s Ovchinnikova said the tokens for paying gas have been distributed among participants for free, and the wallets are refilled from time to time automatically. However, she said, network participants don’t have to rely on AFT for tokens, as they can share them with each other. The system is also very slow, Abdrashitov said. One mortgage bond, in the form of a 30-kilobyte zip file, takes three minutes to upload into Masterchain. “Business people are not used to dealing with something where you push a button and then you go take a break [until it works],” he said. “The leadership is looking at that and gets disappointed in the blockchain tech. We are spending shareholders’ money [on blockchain exploration]. We need solutions that are practical.” The reason for this sluggishness, according to Abdrashitov, is that Masterchain is basically public ethereum’s architecture put in a permissioned environment for a closed network of five participants. Further, the system is not secure for a small network of just a handful of nodes, Abdrashitov said. “Proof-of-work systems are good for thousands of participants, but if there are only five, it’s easy for one of them to rewrite the ledger.” The product is so unreliable that when it enters the production phase, Sberbank plans to use both Masterchain and the legacy system, so that the experimental tech layer has a secure backup and the operation doesn’t collapse. It also turned out that it’s impossible to use Masterchain for several purposes at once: for every use case, a new network has to be rolled out, Abdrashitov said. It’s frustrating the project is in such a condition, he said, as the system would be viable if the developers did just one thing from the very beginning: replace the proof-of-work consensus with an enterprise-friendly one. Sberbank, which is about 50 percentownedby the Bank of Russia, is examining enterprise platforms like Hyperledger Fabric and Quorum (initially developed by IBM and JPMorgan, respectively) for future exploration of use cases like over-the-counter trading, trade finance, payments and mortgage lending, Abdrashitov said. The bank has conducted several pilots on Fabric: itissuedbond certificates for the Russian telecom company MTS;repurchase agreements, starting with one for the investment company Interros; and a trade finance project with electronics retail chain M-Video and its suppliers. Raiffeisen is also trialing multiple platforms in parallel with Masterchain, Ovchinnikova said, including Fabric, R3’S Corda and Raiffeisenbank’s proprietary ethereum-based framework, dubbed R-chain. She wouldn’t say whether the bank is prioritizing any platform. As for Masterchain, Ovchinnikova sounded more sanguine than Abdrashitov about the initial setbacks, concluding: “We’re ok with the fact that the very first trials of the new technologies don’t look close to what’s required on the production stage.” Edit (13:16 UTC, July 2 2019):The original headline for this article overstated the situation by saying Sberbank was “quitting” Masterchain. Sberbank won’t initiate any new work with the project, but it will finish what it started. Sberbankimage via Shutterstock • Russia’s Largest Banks Are Piloting Bitcoin and Crypto Portfolios • Sberbank Buys Commercial Bonds Issued Over Blockchain Platform
What is a double-spend attack? A double-spend attack is a problem unique to digital currencies in which one user can spend the same digital asset more than once. This is possible as end users can reproduce digital information easily. Bitcoin has been countering the double-spending problem successfully, but not all cryptocurrencies use the same consensus algorithm. So, just because Bitcoin has been keeping users safe against double-spend attacks, that doesn’t mean all your transactions are secure. Here’s all you need to know about double-spending and how a double-spend attack can affect a cryptocurrency. Double-spend attacks explained Double-spending is a transaction that uses the same input as another transaction that has already been validated on the network. A double-spend attack obviously isn’t possible with physical fiat money. When you spend $5 to get a coffee, for example, you give the physical note away and can’t use it a second time. When it comes to using credit cards, a third party – the bank – guarantees that the money from your account gets transferred into the vendor’s account. This way, you get no further access to those funds and can’t use them a second time to make payments. However, things aren’t that simple on the blockchain. A cryptocurrency is a digital file, which is pretty easy to copy. Since there’s no centralised authority to control transactions, users can replicate digital files more easily and use them to make purchases. The holder makes a copy of the digital coin and uses it to make another transaction while keeping the original in a wallet. How Bitcoin prevents double-spending The Bitcoin blockchain has implemented a protocol to counter double-spend attacks inspired by the traditional cash system. It’s a confirmation mechanism that maintains a “chronologically-ordered” blockchain starting with the first registered operation back in 2009. Let’s say a holder plans to use one Bitcoin to make multiple purchases to other merchants. All transactions go into a pool where they have to wait for confirmation. The first transaction is validated and published on the blockchain. With every new block added to the ledger, the operation gets more confirmations. Story continues The second transaction using the same input won’t be validated because miners can identify the double-spend attack based on the previous records. So what happens if two of these transactions are pulled from the pool simultaneously? Miners will only validate the one with the higher number of confirmations, and this one will be the only transaction recorded on the blockchain. Merchants accepting payment in Bitcoin should wait for the confirmation before releasing the goods or services to avoid scams. This way, sellers have the guarantee that the transaction is irreversible. If you made a digital copy of your Bitcoin and tried to use it, you wouldn’t be able to spend the funds saved in your wallet in the future. Miners use complex mathematics and huge amounts of power to analyse previous records and avoid double-spending. With the copy already registered as spent on the blockchain, it’s impossible to use the digital coin a second time. The downside? It slows down the buying process since merchants have to wait (sometimes for almost an hour) to get the confirmation they need. Types of double-spend attacks While not all cryptocurrencies use the confirmation mechanism and the Proof-of-Work consensus, most of them can counter double-spending. However, it is still theoretically possible for a double-spend attack to occur. Race attack A race attack becomes possible when merchants accept payments before receiving block confirmations on the transaction. An end user sends two transactions almost simultaneously, one to the merchant and another one back to another wallet. In this case, miners could validate the operation toward the wallet, which would mean that the merchant wouldn’t receive the funds. Finney attack A Finney attack also occurs when the merchant doesn’t wait for confirmation of the transaction. In this case, a miner transfers funds from one wallet to another but doesn’t validate the block immediately. Then, he or she uses the source wallet to make a purchase. Once the second transaction is set, the miner broadcasts the previously mined block, which also includes the first transaction. 51% attack A 51% attack in this situation is called a majority attack because it requires the attacker to control more than half of a network’s hash rate. This could be possible if one miner or a group of miners managed to generate blocks faster than the rest of the other users on a network. All consensus algorithms are built to eliminate the risks of a 51% attack . The takeaway A double-spend attack is dangerous for cryptocurrency users. Merchants and other users get scammed and left out of pocket, and the network’s reputation gets damaged. A cryptocurrency that can’t counter double-spending will have to deal first with inflation and then with a lack of trust. This inevitably leads to a worthless network. The post What is a double-spend attack? appeared first on Coin Rivet .
Here's What You Should Know About Delarka Holding AB (publ)'s (STO:DELARK) 7.0% Dividend Yield Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll take a closer look at Delarka Holding AB (publ) (STO:DELARK) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter. With a five-year payment history and a 7.0% yield, many investors probably find Delarka Holding intriguing. We'd agree the yield does look enticing. There are a few simple ways to reduce the risks of buying Delarka Holding for its dividend, and we'll go through these below. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Delarka Holding! Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Looking at the data, we can see that 32% of Delarka Holding's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. This is a middling range that strikes a nice balance between paying dividends to shareholders, and retaining enough earnings to invest in future growth. Besides, if reinvestment opportunities dry up, the company has room to increase the dividend. Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. Delarka Holding paid out 67% of its cash flow as dividends last year, which is within a reasonable range for the average corporation. It's positive to see that Delarka Holding's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Delarka Holding's latest financial position,by checking our visualisation of its financial health. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the data, we can see that Delarka Holding has been paying a dividend for the past five years. Its most recent annual dividend was kr8.00 per share, effectively flat on its first payment five years ago. We like that the dividend hasn't been shrinking. However we're conscious that the company hasn't got an overly long track record of dividend payments yet, which makes us wary of relying on its dividend income. The other half of the dividend investing equation is evaluating whether earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Over the long term, dividends need to grow at or above the rate of inflation, in order to maintain the recipient's purchasing power. Delarka Holding has grown its earnings per share at 4.4% per annum over the past five years. A payout ratio below 50% leaves ample room to reinvest in the business, and provides finanical flexibility. Earnings per share growth have grown slowly, which is not great, but if the retained earnings can be reinvested effectively, future growth may be stronger. Dividend investors should always want to know if a) a company's dividends are affordable, b) if there is a track record of consistent payments, and c) if the dividend is capable of growing. Firstly, we like that Delarka Holding pays out a low fraction of earnings. It pays out a higher percentage of its cashflow, although this is within acceptable bounds. Second, earnings growth has been ordinary, and its history of dividend payments is shorter than we'd like. Ultimately, Delarka Holding comes up short on our dividend analysis. It's not that we think it is a bad company - just that there are likely more appealing dividend prospects out there on this analysis. You can also discover whether shareholders are aligned with insider interests bychecking our visualisation of insider shareholdings and trades in Delarka Holding stock. If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at ourcurated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Border Patrol agents 'shared sexually explicit posts about AOC in secret Facebook group' US Border Patrol agents who were part of a secret Facebook group allegedly posted sexually explicit memes and comments about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ahead of her visit to a migrant detention centre . The group reportedly had around 9,500 members and also contained posts mocking migrant deaths. Posts in the group included one that encouraged officers to throw a burrito at these b***s, while others said fk the hoes and There should be no photo ops for these scum buckets, ProPublica reported. Another included a doctored image that showed Ms Ocasio-Cortez performing a sex act on Donald Trump . A caption accompanying the image read: Thats right b****s. The masses have spoken and today democracy won." There was also a post suggesting an image of a migrant father and his toddler drowned on the banks of the Rio Grande was fake and referred to them as floaters. Carla Provost, the Border Patrol chief, called the posts on the Facebook group "completely inappropriate". "Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable," he said. Ms Ocasio-Cortez condemned the group, tweeting: 9,500 CBP officers sharing memes about dead migrants and discussing violence and sexual misconduct towards members of Congress. How on earth can CBPs culture be trusted to care for refugees humanely? PS I have no plans to change my itinerary & will visit the CBP station today. On Monday, the Democratic congresswoman visited a migrant centre in Texas alongside members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Ms Ocasio-Cortez described conditions inside the facility as horrifying and said the migrants were treated like animals. She claimed that Border Patrol officers had told women in cells to drink out of the toilets and used psychological warfare to intimidate and torture detainees. Earlier this month, Mexico reached a deal with the Trump administration to try to stem the flow of undocumented migrants travelling to the US. Since then, deportations and detentions of undocumented migrants have reportedly increased. Story continues Last week, the US senate approved a $4.5bn (£3.5bn) humanitarian aid package for the US-Mexico border. It comes after a photo of a drowned man and his daughter in the Rio Grande last week brought the migration crisis into sharp focus. The Border Patrol agency also came under after hundreds of migrant children were transferred out of a filthy border station in Texas where they had been detained for weeks without access to soap, clean clothes or adequate food. Ms Ocasio Cortez is due to visit the facility in Clint on Tuesday. This has been horrifying so far. It is hard to understate the enormity of the problem, she tweeted ahead of the visit. Were talking systemic cruelty w/ a dehumanizing culture that treats them like animals. Additional reporting by AP
Binance Breaks Ground to Announce 20x Leverage Bitcoin Futures Trading Binance will add leveraged futures trading to its cryptocurrency exchange platform within weeks. That’s according to a keynote speech delivered by CEO Changpeng Zhao at the Asia Blockchain Summit on Tuesday. The new feature will allow users to open long and short positions on bitcoin’s price movements with up to 20x leverage. The market for bitcoin derivatives and leveraged trading is clearly exploding. AsCCN reportedyesterday, crypto derivates platform BitMEX recorded $1 trillion trading volume in the last 365 days. Binance is hoping to muscle in on this demand for high-leverage trading. In two short years, Binance has established itself as the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. By adding futures trading, Binance expands its dominance over rival exchanges. Users can not only get exposure to bitcoin, but also bet against its price movements, known as shorting. By addingleveraged tradingat 20x, users can also amplify their gains. It comes after the exchange recently revealed plans toenable margin trading. The new features will add significant liquidity to the bitcoin trading ecosystem and draw yet more sophisticated traders. Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, said the futures trading platform will start testing in the coming weeks, initially on BTC. Read the full story on CCN.com.
Should You Buy DATAGROUP SE (FRA:D6H) For Its Dividend? Want to participate in a short research study ? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Is DATAGROUP SE ( FRA:D6H ) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. With a 1.4% yield and a seven-year payment history, investors probably think DATAGROUP looks like a reliable dividend stock. While the yield may not look too great, the relatively long payment history is interesting. Some simple research can reduce the risk of buying DATAGROUP for its dividend - read on to learn more. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on DATAGROUP! DB:D6H Historical Dividend Yield, July 2nd 2019 Payout ratios Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Looking at the data, we can see that 36% of DATAGROUP's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. This is a middling range that strikes a nice balance between paying dividends to shareholders, and retaining enough earnings to invest in future growth. Besides, if reinvestment opportunities dry up, the company has room to increase the dividend. We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. Last year, DATAGROUP paid a dividend while reporting negative free cash flow. While there may be an explanation, we think this behaviour is generally not sustainable. Remember, you can always get a snapshot of DATAGROUP's latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health . Story continues Dividend Volatility One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the data, we can see that DATAGROUP has been paying a dividend for the past seven years. During the past seven-year period, the first annual payment was €0.20 in 2012, compared to €0.60 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 17% per year over this time. DATAGROUP has been growing its dividend quite rapidly, which is exciting. However, the short payment history makes us question whether this performance will persist across a full market cycle. Dividend Growth Potential Examining whether the dividend is affordable and stable is important. However, it's also important to assess if earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Growing EPS can help maintain or increase the purchasing power of the dividend over the long run. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see DATAGROUP has grown its earnings per share at 46% per annum over the past five years. With high earnings per share growth in recent times and a modest payout ratio, we think this is an attractive combination if earnings can be reinvested to generate further growth. We'd also point out that DATAGROUP issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Regularly issuing new shares can be detrimental - it's hard to grow dividends per share when new shares are regularly being created. Conclusion When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. Firstly, the company has a conservative payout ratio, although we'd note that its cashflow in the past year was substantially lower than its reported profit. We were also glad to see it growing earnings, although its dividend history is not as long as we'd like. Ultimately, DATAGROUP comes up short on our dividend analysis. It's not that we think it is a bad company - just that there are likely more appealing dividend prospects out there on this analysis. Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 6 DATAGROUP analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with our free report on analyst estimates for the company . We have also put together a list of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com . This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Interested In Delta Corp Limited (NSE:DELTACORP)? Here's What Its Recent Performance Looks Like Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Assessing Delta Corp Limited's (NSE:DELTACORP) performance as a company requires looking at more than just a years' earnings data. Below, I will run you through a simple sense check to build perspective on how Delta is doing by comparing its most recent earnings with its historical trend, in addition to the performance of its hospitality industry peers. View our latest analysis for Delta DELTACORP's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2019) of ₹2.0b has jumped 29% compared to the previous year. However, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 56%, indicating the rate at which DELTACORP is growing has slowed down. What could be happening here? Well, let's examine what's transpiring with margins and whether the entire industry is feeling the heat. In terms of returns from investment, Delta has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 10% instead. However, its return on assets (ROA) of 9.7% exceeds the IN Hospitality industry of 5.9%, indicating Delta has used its assets more efficiently. And finally, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Delta’s debt level, has increased over the past 3 years from 8.3% to 14%. This correlates with a decrease in debt holding, with debt-to-equity ratio declining from 43% to 0.009% over the past 5 years. Though Delta's past data is helpful, it is only one aspect of my investment thesis. While Delta has a good historical track record with positive growth and profitability, there's no certainty that this will extrapolate into the future. I recommend you continue to research Delta to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for DELTACORP’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor DELTACORP’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are DELTACORP’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 March 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Calculating The Fair Value Of Prestige Estates Projects Limited (NSE:PRESTIGE) Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! How far off is Prestige Estates Projects Limited (NSE:PRESTIGE) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take a look at whether the stock is fairly priced by taking the expected future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. This is done using the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. It may sound complicated, but actually it is quite simple! We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. Check out our latest analysis for Prestige Estates Projects We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, and so the sum of these future cash flows is then discounted to today's value: [{"": "Levered FCF (\u20b9, Millions)", "2020": "\u20b9-291.7m", "2021": "\u20b9913.6m", "2022": "\u20b94.2b", "2023": "\u20b97.6b", "2024": "\u20b912.1b", "2025": "\u20b917.4b", "2026": "\u20b923.2b", "2027": "\u20b929.0b", "2028": "\u20b934.8b", "2029": "\u20b940.5b"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x6", "2021": "Analyst x8", "2022": "Analyst x3", "2023": "Est @ 81.6%", "2024": "Est @ 59.39%", "2025": "Est @ 43.84%", "2026": "Est @ 32.95%", "2027": "Est @ 25.33%", "2028": "Est @ 20%", "2029": "Est @ 16.26%"}, {"": "Present Value (\u20b9, Millions) Discounted @ 19.49%", "2020": "\u20b9-244.1", "2021": "\u20b9639.9", "2022": "\u20b92.5k", "2023": "\u20b93.7k", "2024": "\u20b95.0k", "2025": "\u20b96.0k", "2026": "\u20b96.7k", "2027": "\u20b97.0k", "2028": "\u20b97.0k", "2029": "\u20b96.8k"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= ₹45.0b After calculating the present value of future cash flows in the intial 10-year period, we need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all future cash flows beyond the first stage. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 7.6%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 19.5%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = ₹41b × (1 + 7.6%) ÷ (19.5% – 7.6%) = ₹365b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= ₹₹365b ÷ ( 1 + 19.5%)10= ₹61.53b The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is ₹106.56b. To get the intrinsic value per share, we divide this by the total number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of ₹284.7. Relative to the current share price of ₹265.05, the company appears about fair value at a 6.9% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. Part of investing is coming up with your own evaluation of a company's future performance, so try the calculation yourself and check your own assumptions. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Prestige Estates Projects as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 19.5%, which is based on a levered beta of 1.388. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Although the valuation of a company is important, it shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. For Prestige Estates Projects, There are three relevant aspects you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does PRESTIGE have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does PRESTIGE's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of PRESTIGE? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. The Simply Wall St app conducts a discounted cash flow valuation for every stock on the NSE every day. If you want to find the calculation for other stocks justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
‘Not The Smart One’: Twitter Users Mock Eric Trump’s Badly Botched Obama Slam Eric Trump attempted to slam former President Barack Obama with a now-deleted tweet crowing about President Donald Trump ’s weekend visit to the DMZ where he briefly crossed into North Korea and met with dictator Kim Jong Un . Eric Trump compared an image of his father at the border with Kim to one of Obama, supposedly taken in 2008, at a much more heavily fortified location. Just one problem: Obama wasn’t president in 2008. And, for that matter, Kim wasn’t North Korea’s leader at that point, either. The country was still ruled by his father, Kim Jong Il , who died in 2011 . Obama visited the DMZ in 2012 , not 2008. The president’s son deleted his tweet and tweeted again , with 2012 instead of 2008. Twitter users had been quick with a fact-check and a date-check: Barack Obama was not president, and did not visit the DMZ, in 2008 https://t.co/EJoGeRVHMN — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 1, 2019 I finally understand why they say Eric is not the smart one. Apparently he doesn't know that George Bush was still President in 2008. pic.twitter.com/Xa8E20MqzE — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 1, 2019 So did Donald Trump get anything from this? Nuclear disarmament? Inspections? Human rights reforms? You know women in North Korea are forced to have abortions, right? Is that going to change now? Or did he give a dictator more legitimacy for nothing? https://t.co/p1CRQni2Ys — Max Kennerly (@MaxKennerly) July 1, 2019 Obama was not president in 2008. That photo was taken in 2012. — Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) July 1, 2019 President in 2008: pic.twitter.com/EBOWM6N1oh — Tony Stark 2020 💥⎊ (@1IronMan2020) July 1, 2019 You’re actually dumber than they play you on SNL. — Courtney Enlow (@courtenlow) July 1, 2019 DMX 2008 vs. DMX 2019. really makes you think pic.twitter.com/BXyrsO3IDl — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 1, 2019 Calendars are hard — Calvin Graves (@CDG_GTR) July 1, 2019 We have our answer pic.twitter.com/tyyyb7ZkXG — Schooley (@Rschooley) July 1, 2019 'my dad is besties with a murderous dictator" — Dusty Giebel (@DustinGiebel) July 1, 2019 pic.twitter.com/pwn8k01a3m — Lana Lakke (@LanaLakke) July 1, 2019 Fredo: Obama was not president in 2008, Bush was, and he declined to enter NK because, you know, that whole "being against murderous fascist regimes" thing W had. This is why they say you're not the smart one. — Howard (@HowardA_Esq) July 2, 2019 Folks, keep your kids in school. If you have a son, and he thinks Obama was President in 2008, you MIGHT be Eric trump's Mom or Dad. Don't let your kids grow up to be like Eric trump. Sad. 😂😂😂😭😭😭 https://t.co/1dGuWQrUm7 — BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) July 1, 2019 Until this year you thought DMZ was a gossip website. — Crutnacker (@Crutnacker) July 1, 2019 pic.twitter.com/z4mU0K7nl7 — Drewish (@NiceDrewishFela) July 2, 2019 This story has been updated with Eric Trump’s new tweet. Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost .
What to Watch: Trainline sales boost, Funding Circle warning, EU leaders A train in London. Ticketing app Trainline announced a boost in sales. Photo: John Keeble/Getty Images Trainline reports jump in ticket sales growth Trainline ( TRN.L ) UK ticket sales grew 17% to £788m in its most recent quarter, the company said Tuesday in its first trading update since listing on the London Stock Exchange in June. The company’s UK business division grew by 4%, in line with its previously issued guidance, while revenue generated from UK ticket sales climbed by 27%. The positive results follow the introduction of e-tickets by the company, which sells rail and bus tickets. “We are pleased with our first quarter performance, which demonstrates that Trainline continues to consolidate its position as the leading independent rail and coach travel platform,” CEO Clare Gilmartin said in a statement. “The rollout of e-tickets supported by a great app experience is shifting customers online and to mobile, with strong app performance also driving international growth.” Funding Circle cuts revenue growth forecast Shares in FTSE 250 peer-to-peer lending platform Funding Circle ( FCH.L ) fell by as much as 25% on Tuesday before recovering after the company warned that revenue growth in 2019 would come in around 20%, far lower than its previous 40% guidance. In a statement, Funding Circle CEO and co-founder Samir Desai pointed to the “uncertain economic environment,” which he said reduced demand from small businesses and led to the company proactively tightening lending criteria. “As a result, revenue growth will be impacted,” Desai said. In an update on its half-year performance, Funding Circle said revenue had grown by 30%, while the number of loans under management grew by 37% to £3.5bn. Meanwhile, new loan originations were up 14% to £1.2bn. The company first listed on the London Stock Exchange in late 2018, and reported a £50.7m loss in 2018. European leaders meet once again European leaders will meet again on Tuesday morning with the hopes of anointing a new president of the European Commission. A Sunday summit, which dragged into a breakfast meeting on Monday morning, ended without resolution — with leaders reportedly rejecting proposals laid down by German chancellor Angela Merkel. Story continues Under her proposal, Dutch politician Frans Timmermans would have become the next leader of the bloc’s executive arm. But the European People’s Party, which received the most votes in the recent European Parliament elections, apparently rejected the plan, arguing the party should not give up its claim on the presidency so easily. Merkel is the EPP’s most prominent national leader. Timmermans, who currently serves as the first vice-president of the commission, is a member of the competing Party of European Socialists grouping. The delay in appointing a commission president means leaders have not yet begun discussing who will replace European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi when he steps down in October. European stocks climbed European stocks climbed on Tuesday after a mixed trading session in Asia. The Nikkei 225 ( ^N225 ) was up by 0.11%, while the SSE Composite ( 000001.SS ) was down by 0.03%. The Hang Seng ( ^HSI ), however, was up by 1.14%. The FTSE 100 ( ^FTSE ) jumped by 0.2% in early trading. Germany’s DAX ( ^GDAXI ) was up by 0.05%, while France’s CAC 40 ( ^FCHI ) was up by 0.04%. Sterling was down 0.13% against the dollar ( GBPUSD=X ) on Tuesday, to around $1.262, and down 0.19% against the euro ( GBPEUR=X ), to around €1.118. What to expect in the US Stock futures are pointing to a lower open for the US market. S&P 500 futures ( ES=F ) are down by 0.08%, as are Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ( YM=F ). Nasdaq futures ( NQ=F ) are down by 0.14%.
Should You Be Tempted To Sell Precia SA (EPA:PREC) Because Of Its P/E Ratio? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is written for those who want to get better at using price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Precia SA's (EPA:PREC), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research.What is Precia's P/E ratio?Well, based on the last twelve months it is 15.48. That means that at current prices, buyers pay €15.48 for every €1 in trailing yearly profits. See our latest analysis for Precia Theformula for price to earningsis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Precia: P/E of 15.48 = €172 ÷ €11.11 (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. All else being equal, it's better to pay a low price -- but as Warren Buffett said, 'It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.' Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. That's because companies that grow earnings per share quickly will rapidly increase the 'E' in the equation. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings. Precia shrunk earnings per share by 1.3% last year. But over the longer term (5 years) earnings per share have increased by 6.7%. The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. The image below shows that Precia has a higher P/E than the average (12.4) P/E for companies in the machinery industry. That means that the market expects Precia will outperform other companies in its industry. Shareholders are clearly optimistic, but the future is always uncertain. So investors should delve deeper. I like to checkif company insiders have been buying or selling. It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. Precia has net cash of €11m. This is fairly high at 11% of its market capitalization. That might mean balance sheet strength is important to the business, but should also help push the P/E a bit higher than it would otherwise be. Precia trades on a P/E ratio of 15.5, which is below the FR market average of 18. The recent drop in earnings per share would almost certainly temper expectations, the relatively strong balance sheet will allow the company time to invest in growth. If it achieves that, then there's real potential that the low P/E could eventually indicate undervaluation. Investors have an opportunity when market expectations about a stock are wrong. If the reality for a company is not as bad as the P/E ratio indicates, then the share price should increase as the market realizes this. Although we don't have analyst forecasts, shareholders might want to examinethis detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. You might be able to find a better buy than Precia. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out thisfreelist of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings). We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
You Might Like CareTech Holdings PLC (LON:CTH) But Do You Like Its Debt? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Investors are always looking for growth in small-cap stocks like CareTech Holdings PLC (LON:CTH), with a market cap of UK£407m. However, an important fact which most ignore is: how financially healthy is the business? Assessing first and foremost the financial health is essential, as mismanagement of capital can lead to bankruptcies, which occur at a higher rate for small-caps. The following basic checks can help you get a picture of the company's balance sheet strength. Nevertheless, these checks don't give you a full picture, so I’d encourage you todig deeper yourself into CTH here. Over the past year, CTH has ramped up its debt from UK£157m to UK£320m , which includes long-term debt. With this rise in debt, CTH's cash and short-term investments stands at UK£27m , ready to be used for running the business. On top of this, CTH has generated cash from operations of UK£38m over the same time period, leading to an operating cash to total debt ratio of 12%, signalling that CTH’s operating cash is less than its debt. Looking at CTH’s UK£107m in current liabilities, it appears that the company may not be able to easily meet these obligations given the level of current assets of UK£83m, with a current ratio of 0.78x. The current ratio is the number you get when you divide current assets by current liabilities. With a debt-to-equity ratio of 97%, CTH can be considered as an above-average leveraged company. This is somewhat unusual for small-caps companies, since lenders are often hesitant to provide attractive interest rates to less-established businesses. We can test if CTH’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. Ideally, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) should cover net interest by at least three times. For CTH, the ratio of 4.97x suggests that interest is appropriately covered, which means that lenders may be inclined to lend more money to the company, as it is seen as safe in terms of payback. CTH’s high cash coverage means that, although its debt levels are high, the company is able to utilise its borrowings efficiently in order to generate cash flow. But, its lack of liquidity raises questions over current asset management practices for the small-cap. This is only a rough assessment of financial health, and I'm sure CTH has company-specific issues impacting its capital structure decisions. I suggest you continue to research CareTech Holdings to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for CTH’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor CTH’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is CTH worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether CTH is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Can You Imagine How Praj Industries's (NSE:PRAJIND) Shareholders Feel About The 91% Share Price Increase? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! When we invest, we're generally looking for stocks that outperform the market average. Buying under-rated businesses is one path to excess returns. For example, long termPraj Industries Limited(NSE:PRAJIND) shareholders have enjoyed a 91% share price rise over the last half decade, well in excess of the market return of around 35% (not including dividends). See our latest analysis for Praj Industries While the efficient markets hypothesis continues to be taught by some, it has been proven that markets are over-reactive dynamic systems, and investors are not always rational. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time. During five years of share price growth, Praj Industries achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 4.0% per year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 14% per year, over the same period. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth. The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail). We know that Praj Industries has improved its bottom line lately, but is it going to grow revenue? If you're interested, you could check thisfreereport showing consensus revenue forecasts. It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. As it happens, Praj Industries's TSR for the last 5 years was 112%, which exceeds the share price return mentioned earlier. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted thetotalshareholder return. We're pleased to report that Praj Industries shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 82% over one year. That's including the dividend. That's better than the annualised return of 16% over half a decade, implying that the company is doing better recently. Given the share price momentum remains strong, it might be worth taking a closer look at the stock, lest you miss an opportunity. Before spending more time on Praj Industriesit might be wise to click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling shares. For those who like to findwinning investmentsthisfreelist of growing companies with recent insider purchasing, could be just the ticket. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on IN exchanges. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
A Note On Xpediator Plc's (LON:XPD) ROE and Debt To Equity Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! One of the best investments we can make is in our own knowledge and skill set. With that in mind, this article will work through how we can use Return On Equity (ROE) to better understand a business. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Xpediator Plc (LON:XPD). Our data showsXpediator has a return on equity of 16%for the last year. One way to conceptualize this, is that for each £1 of shareholders' equity it has, the company made £0.16 in profit. Check out our latest analysis for Xpediator Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Xpediator: 16% = UK£4.4m ÷ UK£29m (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) It's easy to understand the 'net profit' part of that equation, but 'shareholders' equity' requires further explanation. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. The easiest way to calculate shareholders' equity is to subtract the company's total liabilities from the total assets. ROE looks at the amount a company earns relative to the money it has kept within the business. The 'return' is the amount earned after tax over the last twelve months. The higher the ROE, the more profit the company is making. So, all else being equal,a high ROE is better than a low one. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. If you look at the image below, you can see Xpediator has a similar ROE to the average in the Logistics industry classification (14%). That's not overly surprising. ROE can give us a view about company quality, but many investors also look to other factors, such as whether there are insiders buying shares. If you like to buy stocks alongside management, then you might just love thisfreelist of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them). Companies usually need to invest money to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the first and second cases, the ROE will reflect this use of cash for investment in the business. In the latter case, the use of debt will improve the returns, but will not change the equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Xpediator has a debt to equity ratio of 0.22, which is far from excessive. The combination of modest debt and a very respectable ROE suggests this is a business worth watching. Conservative use of debt to boost returns is usually a good move for shareholders, though it does leave the company more exposed to interest rate rises. Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. A company that can achieve a high return on equity without debt could be considered a high quality business. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. But when a business is high quality, the market often bids it up to a price that reflects this. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So you might want to check this FREEvisualization of analyst forecasts for the company. Of courseXpediator may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see thisfreecollection of other companies that have high ROE and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Portland mayor faces impeachment calls after antifa assault and milkshaking of right-wing blogger Andy Ngo It was by now a familiar scene of summer street warfare in the US city of Portland : conservative marchers, this time pushing a #HimToo message in one of the nation’s most progressive cities, faced down a rowdy group of anti-fascist protesters. Soon the tensions escalated, with a black-clad activist striking conservative journalist Andy Ngo in the face while others slimed him with what protesters said were vegan coconut milkshakes. Mr Ngo was left bloodied and obviously shaken, reporting the attack in a video livestreamed to his more than 140,000 Twitter followers when a city medic arrived to check on him. “Where the hell were all of you?” Mr Ngo demanded. By Monday morning, the case was reverberating around the country through conservative circles, where prominent leaders were asking the same questiofn. Senator Ted Cruz called for a federal investigation, declaring without evidence that officials in Oregon ’s largest city were allowing the violence as a result of their own liberal sympathies. A Portland State University professor, Peter Boghossian, called for impeaching the city’s Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler. Fuelling the conservative alarm was the Portland Police Bureau’s own suggestion on Twitter during the height of the protests — later walked back slightly — that anti-fascist protesters had laced their milkshakes with quick-drying cement before lobbing them at the marchers. With political polarisation on the rise , the nation’s fraught conversations over immigration, race and policing are increasingly being held in tense street showdowns punctuated with eggs, bricks and, lately, milkshakes. Portland’s long history of street activism has made the city a central stage for many of those conflicts; this weekend’s protests left the Police Department facing unusual criticism that it had not only been slow to halt the violence, but with its questionable claim about cement milkshakes, had dramatically fuelled the furore. Mr Ngo is an independent journalist in the Portland area who works with the online magazine Quillette, a publication which prides itself on taking on “dangerous” ideas — in some cases, writing about genetic notions of race, in others, about the shortfalls of feminism. Story continues Mr Ngo has also written for The Wall Street Journal , including an opinion piece in 2018 highlighting the prominent display of Muslim identity as an example of “failed multiculturalism” in London. He has a history of battling with anti-fascist groups, with the two sides sharing a mutual antipathy that dates back many months. The conservative journalist has built a prominent presence in part by going into situations where there may be conflict and then publicising the results. Before Saturday’s event, anti-fascist organisers had mentioned him by name. Mr Ngo had written on social media that he was worried about the event. “He’s a political pundit who certainly makes the most out of his conflicts, which sometimes turn violent on him,” said Brian Levin, director of the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University in San Bernardino. “But to his credit, I’ve never seen him be the physical aggressor in the posts that he’s made generally.” Mr Ngo also fundraises on his social media platforms . A GoFundMe campaign created by Michelle Malkin, a conservative commentator, had raised about $150,000 (£119,000) to cover Mr Ngo’s medical expenses as of Monday evening. A lawyer for Mr Ngo, Harmeet Dhillon, did not respond to messages seeking comment but called out on Twitter to “ Antifa criminals” whom she said “I plan to sue into oblivion and then sow salt into their yoga studios and avocado toast stands until nothing grows there, not even the glimmer of a violent criminal conspiracy aided by the effete impotence of a cowed city government”. In Portland, demonstrations in recent years have led to clashes and violence. During one event last summer, skirmishes broke out that left a few people needing medical attention and the police with a collection of apparent weapons they had confiscated throughout the day. The city also saw other violent confrontations in 2017, with the police seizing bricks, knives and brass knuckles. The department has in the past faced equally strong protests from left-wing groups over aggressive policing. This year, officials disclosed messages between a police bureau lieutenant and leaders of the far-right group Patriot Prayer, showing friendly exchanges and discussions about protests — messages which prompted many critics to accuse the department of having a built-in bias towards conservatives. “This story, like many that have come before it, simply confirms what many in the community have already known — there are members of the Portland police force who work in collusion with right-wing extremists,” a city commissioner, Jo Ann Hardesty, said at the time. Still unclear on Monday, though, was the Police Department’s tweet during the demonstrations about milkshakes. “Police have received information that some of the milkshakes thrown today during the demonstration contained quick-drying cement,” the department wrote in a message that has now been shared more than 13,000 times and talked about by prominent conservative voices such as Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham. Effie Baum, an activist with a Portland group called PopMob, said police officials were wrong — they were vegan milkshakes made not of cement, but of coconut ice cream, cashew milk and some sprinkles. She said the group had come up with the idea of having an entertaining counter-protest building off Pride month. The group spent $700 (£550) on the ice cream that went into the milkshakes, Baum said, mixing them up in a nearby commercial kitchen using the larger blenders available there. They were then brought over to the scene in a cart. Ms Baum said there was never any sort of concrete introduced into the blends and shared images that appeared to show people drinking the concoction. Ms Baum said she herself drank a few of them. “Why would we put concrete into $700 worth of ice cream? It would be a huge waste,” she said. Other images, of course, showed what looked like milkshakes being lobbed as missiles, but those, in Ms Baum’s view, were aberrations. “We served over 750 of those milkshakes,” she said. “The vast majority of them were consumed.” Robert King, a senior adviser on public safety to Mayor Wheeler said a lieutenant had raised the question about quick-drying cement after observing what looked to him like a powdery substance being poured into the milkshake mixture, and also noting the unusual consistency of the product. The police bureau was not backing down on Monday, issuing a statement affirming that “officers learned from some participants that a substance similar to quick drying concrete was being added to some of the ‘milkshakes’”. The police did not elaborate on that information. Mr King said it had been appropriate to share the report about possible concrete, even if it was unconfirmed, to alert the public to a possible hazard. “We’re going to share the information with officers if there’s a risk of injury,” Mr King said. “We’re committed to sharing as much information that is available to us.” New York Times
Is PSP Swiss Property AG's (VTX:PSPN) Balance Sheet A Threat To Its Future? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Stocks with market capitalization between $2B and $10B, such as PSP Swiss Property AG (VTX:PSPN) with a size of CHF5.2b, do not attract as much attention from the investing community as do the small-caps and large-caps. Despite this, the two other categories have lagged behind the risk-adjusted returns of commonly ignored mid-cap stocks. PSPN’s financial liquidity and debt position will be analysed in this article, to get an idea of whether the company can fund opportunities for strategic growth and maintain strength through economic downturns. Note that this commentary is very high-level and solely focused on financial health, so I suggest you dig deeper yourselfinto PSPN here. View our latest analysis for PSP Swiss Property PSPN's debt levels surged from CHF2.6b to CHF2.7b over the last 12 months – this includes long-term debt. With this growth in debt, PSPN currently has CHF17m remaining in cash and short-term investments , ready to be used for running the business. Additionally, PSPN has generated CHF203m in operating cash flow in the last twelve months, leading to an operating cash to total debt ratio of 7.5%, meaning that PSPN’s current level of operating cash is not high enough to cover debt. Looking at PSPN’s CHF752m in current liabilities, the company may not be able to easily meet these obligations given the level of current assets of CHF222m, with a current ratio of 0.3x. The current ratio is the number you get when you divide current assets by current liabilities. PSPN is a relatively highly levered company with a debt-to-equity of 63%. This is not unusual for mid-caps as debt tends to be a cheaper and faster source of funding for some businesses. We can test if PSPN’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. Ideally, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) should cover net interest by at least three times. For PSPN, the ratio of 11.54x suggests that interest is comfortably covered, which means that debtors may be willing to loan the company more money, giving PSPN ample headroom to grow its debt facilities. Although PSPN’s debt level is towards the higher end of the spectrum, its cash flow coverage seems adequate to meet debt obligations which means its debt is being efficiently utilised. Though its lack of liquidity raises questions over current asset management practices for the mid-cap. Keep in mind I haven't considered other factors such as how PSPN has been performing in the past. I recommend you continue to research PSP Swiss Property to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for PSPN’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor PSPN’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is PSPN worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether PSPN is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
France warns Iran against further breaches of nuclear deal PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) - France warned Iran on Tuesday against carrying out any further measures that would put into question the 2015 nuclear deal, after Iran exceeded the limits of low enriched uranium under the terms of the agreement. French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on Tuesday that he recalled "his attachment to the full respect of the 2015 nuclear accord and asks Iran to reverse without delay this excess, as well as to avoid all extra measures that would put into question its nuclear commitments." The statement added that Macron would take steps in coming days to ensure Iran met its obligations and continued to benefit from the economic advantages of the deal. (Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
India's June gold imports rise 12.6% year-on-year amid global price rally - government source NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's gold imports rose 12.6% in June from a year earlier to $2.69 billion amid a jump in global prices to six-year highs, a government source said on Tuesday. However, imports were 44% lower in June from May's $4.78 billion, the source said, who was not allowed to speak to the media. In India, local prices jumped to a record high in June, moderating demand from retail consumers. The drop in gold imports by India, the world's second-biggest consumer of the precious metal, could weigh on global prices that are struggling to hold recent gains. (Reporting by Aftab Ahmed and Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Is Coor Service Management Holding AB (STO:COOR) Trading At A 49% Discount? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Does the July share price for Coor Service Management Holding AB (STO:COOR) reflect what it's really worth? Today, we will estimate the stock's intrinsic value by estimating the company's future cash flows and discounting them to their present value. I will use the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Don't get put off by the jargon, the math behind it is actually quite straightforward. We generally believe that a company's value is the present value of all of the cash it will generate in the future. However, a DCF is just one valuation metric among many, and it is not without flaws. If you want to learn more about discounted cash flow, the rationale behind this calculation can be read in detail in theSimply Wall St analysis model. View our latest analysis for Coor Service Management Holding We are going to use a two-stage DCF model, which, as the name states, takes into account two stages of growth. The first stage is generally a higher growth period which levels off heading towards the terminal value, captured in the second 'steady growth' period. In the first stage we need to estimate the cash flows to the business over the next ten years. Where possible we use analyst estimates, but when these aren't available we extrapolate the previous free cash flow (FCF) from the last estimate or reported value. We assume companies with shrinking free cash flow will slow their rate of shrinkage, and that companies with growing free cash flow will see their growth rate slow, over this period. We do this to reflect that growth tends to slow more in the early years than it does in later years. A DCF is all about the idea that a dollar in the future is less valuable than a dollar today, so we discount the value of these future cash flows to their estimated value in today's dollars: [{"": "Levered FCF (SEK, Millions)", "2020": "SEK524.0m", "2021": "SEK571.0m", "2022": "SEK675.0m", "2023": "SEK750.0m", "2024": "SEK806.3m", "2025": "SEK849.7m", "2026": "SEK882.8m", "2027": "SEK908.0m", "2028": "SEK927.4m", "2029": "SEK942.4m"}, {"": "Growth Rate Estimate Source", "2020": "Analyst x4", "2021": "Analyst x4", "2022": "Analyst x1", "2023": "Analyst x1", "2024": "Est @ 7.5%", "2025": "Est @ 5.38%", "2026": "Est @ 3.9%", "2027": "Est @ 2.86%", "2028": "Est @ 2.13%", "2029": "Est @ 1.62%"}, {"": "Present Value (SEK, Millions) Discounted @ 5.62%", "2020": "SEK496.1", "2021": "SEK511.8", "2022": "SEK572.8", "2023": "SEK602.6", "2024": "SEK613.3", "2025": "SEK611.9", "2026": "SEK601.9", "2027": "SEK586.2", "2028": "SEK566.8", "2029": "SEK545.3"}] ("Est" = FCF growth rate estimated by Simply Wall St)Present Value of 10-year Cash Flow (PVCF)= SEK5.7b We now need to calculate the Terminal Value, which accounts for all the future cash flows after this ten year period. The Gordon Growth formula is used to calculate Terminal Value at a future annual growth rate equal to the 10-year government bond rate of 0.4%. We discount the terminal cash flows to today's value at a cost of equity of 5.6%. Terminal Value (TV)= FCF2029× (1 + g) ÷ (r – g) = kr942m × (1 + 0.4%) ÷ (5.6% – 0.4%) = kr18b Present Value of Terminal Value (PVTV)= TV / (1 + r)10= SEKkr18b ÷ ( 1 + 5.6%)10= SEK10.55b The total value is the sum of cash flows for the next ten years plus the discounted terminal value, which results in the Total Equity Value, which in this case is SEK16.26b. The last step is to then divide the equity value by the number of shares outstanding.This results in an intrinsic value estimate of SEK169.73. Relative to the current share price of SEK85.9, the company appears quite good value at a 49% discount to where the stock price trades currently. Valuations are imprecise instruments though, rather like a telescope - move a few degrees and end up in a different galaxy. Do keep this in mind. The calculation above is very dependent on two assumptions. The first is the discount rate and the other is the cash flows. You don't have to agree with these inputs, I recommend redoing the calculations yourself and playing with them. The DCF also does not consider the possible cyclicality of an industry, or a company's future capital requirements, so it does not give a full picture of a company's potential performance. Given that we are looking at Coor Service Management Holding as potential shareholders, the cost of equity is used as the discount rate, rather than the cost of capital (or weighted average cost of capital, WACC) which accounts for debt. In this calculation we've used 5.6%, which is based on a levered beta of 0.871. Beta is a measure of a stock's volatility, compared to the market as a whole. We get our beta from the industry average beta of globally comparable companies, with an imposed limit between 0.8 and 2.0, which is a reasonable range for a stable business. Whilst important, DCF calculation shouldn’t be the only metric you look at when researching a company. The DCF model is not a perfect stock valuation tool. Rather it should be seen as a guide to "what assumptions need to be true for this stock to be under/overvalued?" If a company grows at a different rate, or if its cost of equity or risk free rate changes sharply, the output can look very different. What is the reason for the share price to differ from the intrinsic value? For Coor Service Management Holding, There are three further factors you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does COOR have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Future Earnings: How does COOR's growth rate compare to its peers and the wider market? Dig deeper into the analyst consensus number for the upcoming years by interacting with ourfree analyst growth expectation chart. 3. Other High Quality Alternatives: Are there other high quality stocks you could be holding instead of COOR? Exploreour interactive list of high quality stocksto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! PS. Simply Wall St updates its DCF calculation for every SE stock every day, so if you want to find the intrinsic value of any other stock justsearch here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Binance announces futures trading platform with up to 20x leverage Binance, the largest crypto-to-crypto exchange, announced that it will launch a futures trading platform, dubbed Binance Futures, in the coming months. Speaking at Asia Blockchain Summit in Taipei, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that Binance Futures will initially support BTC/USDT futures with up to 20x leverage but that the platform is eventually expected to support more pairs as well as higher leverage. Bitfinex also recently announced that it is ready to ship a derivatives product with up to 100x leverage. BitMEX also offers a similar product with up to 100x leverage on its Bitcoin perpetual swap contract. Binance is currently in the process of rolling out its margin trading offering, joining several other crypto exchanges (Bitfinex, Poloniex, Huobi, Kraken) that support margin already.
What Should Investors Know About PPHE Hotel Group Limited's (LON:PPH) Future? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! In December 2018, PPHE Hotel Group Limited (LON:PPH) released its earnings update. Generally, analyst forecasts appear to be pessimistic, as a 12% fall in profits is expected in the upcoming year against the past 5-year average growth rate of 4.9%. Presently, with latest-twelve-month earnings at UK£38m, we should see this fall to UK£33m by 2020. I will provide a brief commentary around the figures and analyst expectations in the near term. Readers that are interested in understanding the company beyond these figures shouldresearch its fundamentals here. See our latest analysis for PPHE Hotel Group Longer term expectations from the 3 analysts covering PPH’s stock is one of positive sentiment. Broker analysts tend to forecast up to three years ahead due to a lack of clarity around the business trajectory beyond this. To reduce the year-on-year volatility of analyst earnings forecast, I've inserted a line of best fit through the expected earnings figures to determine the annual growth rate from the slope of the line. From the current net income level of UK£38m and the final forecast of UK£38m by 2022, the annual rate of growth for PPH’s earnings is 2.0%. However, if we exclude extraordinary items from net income, we see that earnings is projected to fall over time, resulting in an EPS of £0.87 in the final year of forecast compared to the current £0.90 EPS today. As revenues is expected to outpace earnings, analysts expect margins to contract from the current 11% to 10% by the end of 2022. Future outlook is only one aspect when you're building an investment case for a stock. For PPHE Hotel Group, I've put together three important aspects you should further research: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is PPHE Hotel Group worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether PPHE Hotel Group is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of PPHE Hotel Group? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Samsung confirms Galaxy Note 10 unveiling date Samsung will unveil the Galaxy Note 10 at an event in New York next month. The electronics giant sent an invite to media on Tuesday for its next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, which will take place on 7 August. "Samsung Electronics will unveil new devices designed to take the Galaxy ecosystem's connectivity to the next level," the firm said. The announcement did not mention the Galaxy Note 10 by name, however Samsung appeared to accidentally confirm the device at a media event in Seoul last week . The New York event also comes almost exactly one year after the unveiling of the Galaxy Note 9. Samsung's invite features a black stylus hovering over a camera lens, hinting that the Note 10 may feature an additional camera on the front or rear of the device. It may also confirm a rumour that the stylus itself will feature a camera. Recent iterations of the S Pen stylus have become more advanced, with the Note 9 attachment capable of controlling the main camera through an infinitely customisable Bluetooth button. Earlier this year, Samsung patented technology to place a camera inside the S Pen , featuring an optical zoom and something called a "control key". Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy Note 10 at its next Unpacked event (Samsung) Other rumours surrounding the Galaxy Note 10 suggest it will come in two different sizes, with at least one supporting 5G connectivity. Images displayed at the recent Seoul media event also revealed a centrally-located front camera, bucking the trend of placing its front-facing camera in the top-right corner of the Note device.
5G in the UK: Everything you need to know from phone internet speeds to availability 5G , after years of promise and discussion, has finally come to the UK. The new technology promises network speeds many times faster than those with existing 4G connections. And that ability could transform the way people use their phones, according to its evangelists, who argue that it will make it possible to download content in an instant and facilitate whole new ways of using networks. But all of that promise has been mere speculation before EE switched on the super-fast network from today. Now it has become the first to offer it, though other networks are expected to do so soon. Still, there are a whole host of limitations on whether you'll actually be able to use it. You'll have to buy a new phone, pay up for a new contract – and it still might not actually be available where you are. (Some carriers in the US have got around this by claiming they are offering 4.5G and showing 5G network indicators in the corner of phones' screens, despite the fact it is not really 5G. This isn't happening in the UK, at least yet, so if it is showing then it should also be working.) Will my phone be able to use it? In short, if it's not a brand new phone that had 5G in the name when you bought it, then probably not. A variety of companies are offering 5G-enabled phones already, including those from Samsung, OnePlus, LG, HTC and Oppo. All of them – apart from the LG V50 Thinq – include "5G" in their model name, so it will probably be obvious if you've already got one. Only the OnePlus 7 Pro actually came out at the same time as the 5G network was switched on. The rest can be pre-ordered now. Huawei also make a phone ready for 5G, but EE has decided that it won't be selling them because of the ongoing dispute between the company and US authorities . And Apple hasn't yet commented on its plans for 5G, though rumours suggest that an iPhone ready for it should be coming in the next couple of years. But there is a way around all this, if you don't have a brand new and 5G-capable device. EE is offering two devices that sit separate from your phone, and generate a WiFi connection so you can attach the two together. Story continues There is a home router version, and one that works more like a hot spot for using on the go. Neither of them are available yet, but you can register your interest on the website. For all of these, you will need to pay the extra cost for one of EE's 5G plans. Will it work where I am? EE has switched on the 5G network in six cities initially: London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester. That doesn't mean it will be available everywhere in those places, but it should be available in some. 5G travels less easily than slower networks, so it might sometimes be difficult to connect even if you feel like you are somewhere that should have it. The company has committed to offering the network in 1,500 sites by the end of the year. That will include the "busiest parts" of Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, the network said.
Three Things You Should Check Before Buying Progress-Werk Oberkirch AG (FRA:PWO) For Its Dividend Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Could Progress-Werk Oberkirch AG (FRA:PWO) be an attractive dividend share to own for the long haul? Investors are often drawn to strong companies with the idea of reinvesting the dividends. On the other hand, investors have been known to buy a stock because of its yield, and then lose money if the company's dividend doesn't live up to expectations. In this case, Progress-Werk Oberkirch likely looks attractive to investors, given its 3.8% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. Before you buy any stock for its dividend however, you should always remember Warren Buffett's two rules: 1) Don't lose money, and 2) Remember rule #1. We'll run through some checks below to help with this. Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Progress-Werk Oberkirch! Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Looking at the data, we can see that 59% of Progress-Werk Oberkirch's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. A payout ratio above 50% generally implies a business is reaching maturity, although it is still possible to reinvest in the business or increase the dividend over time. In addition to comparing dividends against profits, we should inspect whether the company generated enough cash to pay its dividend. Progress-Werk Oberkirch paid out a conservative 27% of its free cash flow as dividends last year. It's positive to see that Progress-Werk Oberkirch's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut. As Progress-Werk Oberkirch has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A quick check of its financial situation can be done with two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments. Essentially we check that a) the company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. Progress-Werk Oberkirch is carrying net debt of 3.26 times its EBITDA, which is getting towards the upper limit of our comfort range on a dividend stock that the investor hopes will endure a wide range of economic circumstances. We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. Interest cover of 2.84 times its interest expense is starting to become a concern for Progress-Werk Oberkirch, and be aware that lenders may place additional restrictions on the company as well. Consider gettingour latest analysis on Progress-Werk Oberkirch's financial position here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of Progress-Werk Oberkirch's dividend payments. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was €0.55 in 2009, compared to €1.10 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 7.2% per year over this time. It's good to see the dividend growing at a decent rate, but the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. Progress-Werk Oberkirch might have put its house in order since then, but we remain cautious. The other half of the dividend investing equation is evaluating whether earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Over the long term, dividends need to grow at or above the rate of inflation, in order to maintain the recipient's purchasing power. It's not great to see that Progress-Werk Oberkirch's have fallen at approximately 15% over the past five years. Declining earnings per share over a number of years is not a great sign for the dividend investor. Without some improvement, this does not bode well for the long term value of a company's dividend. To summarise, shareholders should always check that Progress-Werk Oberkirch's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. First, we think Progress-Werk Oberkirch has an acceptable payout ratio and its dividend is well covered by cashflow. Second, earnings per share have been in decline, and its dividend has been cut at least once in the past. Ultimately, Progress-Werk Oberkirch comes up short on our dividend analysis. It's not that we think it is a bad company - just that there are likely more appealing dividend prospects out there on this analysis. Now, if you want to look closer, it would be worth checking out ourfreeresearch on Progress-Werk Oberkirchmanagement tenure, salary, and performance. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try ourcurated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Proud Boys and Allies to Rally in D.C. to Capitalize on ‘Trumpstravaganza’ John Rudoff/AP Washington, D.C.’s Fourth of July week will go from a sweaty fete of fireworks, security checkpoints, tanks, and sunscreen to what is shaping up to be a protest-fest, featuring some of the pro-Trump right’s most extreme groups two days after the Donald Trump-centric festivities. Members of the far-right Proud Boys men’s group and their allies will rally in D.C. on July 6, just a week after violence at rival Portland rallies ratcheted up tensions between groups on both the right and left. The Proud Boys event and a rival counterprotest threaten to add even more tension for what’s already shaping up to be a hot, strange week in Washington . The Proud Boys—self-described “Western chauvinists” who adhere to a dizzying array of rules, including restrictions on how much they can masturbate —will be joined by a number of right-wing internet personalities at the “Rally for Free Speech” at D.C.’s Freedom Plaza. The event’s website lists a number of right-wing internet provocateurs, including conservative smear-pusher Jacob Wohl, anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer, British far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos, and former Pizzagate promoter Jack Posobiec. The bill also names a host of lesser-known social-media figures, including YouTube prankster-turned-congressional candidate Joey Salads and “Copper Cab,” the YouTuber who became famous in 2010 for the viral “gingers have souls” video . The rally, which will be held just blocks from the White House, is ostensibly about social-media companies banning right-wing figures like Loomer and Wohl. According to Proud Boy leader and event organizer Luke Rohfling, though, the event is also aimed at left-wing antifascist activists after Quillette writer Andy Ngo was attacked last weekend in Portland. An earlier free-speech protest from the same group in San Francisco drew only a modest crowd in May, but the crowd numbers in D.C. could be swelled by Trump supporters traveling to Washington for Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebrations. Story continues “A lot of people will be in town for the Trumpstravaganza,” Rohfling said, referencing Trump’s “Salute to America” event on July 4th that will feature a speech from the president at the Lincoln Memorial, military plane flyovers, and tanks. While the Proud Boy event’s organizer says the event isn’t officially a Proud Boys rally, Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio is listed on the event’s permit as a supervisor. Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is on the speakers’ list, as is Proud Boy and former Trump adviser Roger Stone. The rally organizers’ application for the Freedom Plaza space has been approved, according to a Park Police spokesperson. Just across the street from Freedom Plaza, antifascists and other counterprotesters organized in a coalition calling itself “All Out D.C.” plan to rally against the Proud Boys. “We are expecting a lot of Trump supporters, and especially battle-ready Trump supporters,” All Out D.C. organizer Jesse Sparks said. After the main rally, Sparks says some counterprotesters will head to disrupt the “Demand Free Speech” event, the location of which hasn’t been made public. “Folks might want to do some resistance,” Sparks said. Rohfling insists the Proud Boys don’t intend to be violent, quipping that the only risk from having them in Washington is the local bars run out of beer. But Proud Boys have repeatedly been arrested for alleged aggressive behavior, including a brawl outside a McInnes speech in New York City last year. On his website, Tarrio sells shirts promoting “free helicopter rides”—a celebration of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime executing leftists by throwing them out of helicopters. Ahead of the rally, Rohfling, other organizers, and right-wing websites have promoted the claim that antifascists are planning to attack the rally with acid. This claim is based on anonymous messages on the encrypted messaging app Telegram posted by an account called “Pound on Your Boy,” but there’s no evidence that anyone involved in the Washington counterdemonstration was behind those messages. Commenters on right-wing Facebook pages have responded to the thinly sourced threats by urging attendees at the “Demand Free Speech” event to carry guns. So far, the Proud Boys and the other event organizers have faced more mundane challenges. Organizers had initially tried to sell tickets to a private after-rally pool party for $200. But the pool club that organizers claimed would serve as their venue backed out in May, claiming they had never agreed to host the rally-goers. Event organizing website Eventbrite later deleted the rally’s page and refunded tickets for the VIP event, saying the organizers had failed to prove they had “an authorized location” for the party. On Monday, some announced speakers started to pull out, with Posobiec tweeting that the anonymous acid threat had made his own participation “TBD.” Meanwhile, Rohfling insisted that there wouldn’t be any threat coming from the Proud Boys. “We’re going to go there and have a fun time,” he said. Read more at The Daily Beast. Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Should You Buy QinetiQ Group plc (LON:QQ.) For Its Dividend? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll take a closer look at QinetiQ Group plc (LON:QQ.) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. If you are hoping to live on your dividends, it's important to be more stringent with your investments than the average punter. Regular readers know we like to apply the same approach to each dividend stock, and we hope you'll find our analysis useful. A slim 2.4% yield is hard to get excited about, but the long payment history is respectable. At the right price, or with strong growth opportunities, QinetiQ Group could have potential. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding QinetiQ Group for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below. Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. So we need to form a view on if a company's dividend is sustainable, relative to its net profit after tax. Looking at the data, we can see that 33% of QinetiQ Group's profits were paid out as dividends in the last 12 months. A medium payout ratio strikes a good balance between paying dividends, and keeping enough back to invest in the business. Plus, there is room to increase the payout ratio over time. We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. QinetiQ Group paid out 128% of its free cash flow last year, suggesting the dividend is poorly covered by cash flow. QinetiQ Group paid out less in dividends than it reported in profits, but unfortunately it didn't generate enough free cash flow to cover the dividend. Cash is king, as they say, and were QinetiQ Group to repeatedly pay dividends that aren't well covered by cashflow, we would consider this a warning sign. Consider gettingour latest analysis on QinetiQ Group's financial position here. One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. For the purpose of this article, we only scrutinise the last decade of QinetiQ Group's dividend payments. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was UK£0.044 in 2009, compared to UK£0.066 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 4.1% a year over that time. It's good to see some dividend growth, but the dividend has been cut at least once, and the size of the cut would eliminate most of the growth, anyway. We're not that enthused by this. The other half of the dividend investing equation is evaluating whether earnings per share (EPS) are growing. Over the long term, dividends need to grow at or above the rate of inflation, in order to maintain the recipient's purchasing power. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see QinetiQ Group has grown its earnings per share at 14% per annum over the past five years. A company paying out less than a quarter of its earnings as dividends, and growing earnings at more than 10% per annum, looks to be right in the cusp of its growth phase. At the right price, we might be interested. To summarise, shareholders should always check that QinetiQ Group's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. First, we like QinetiQ Group's low dividend payout ratio, although we're a bit concerned that it paid out a substantially higher percentage of its free cash flow. We were also glad to see it growing earnings, but it was concerning to see the dividend has been cut at least once in the past. While we're not hugely bearish on it, overall we think there are potentially better dividend stocks than QinetiQ Group out there. Earnings growth generally bodes well for the future value of company dividend payments. See if the 7 QinetiQ Group analysts we track are forecasting continued growth with ourfreereport on analyst estimates for the company. We have also put together alist of global stocks with a market capitalisation above $1bn and yielding more 3%. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Democrats, Beware of Andrew Yang’s Insane Vision for America Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty After a surprising surge to make his way to the debate stage, Andrew Yang didn’t make much of an impression there in just three minutes of speaking time as leading Democrats with a lot in common tried to make the most of their distinctions. But Yang was only there at all because he raised money and registered in the polls by packing the policies of elite technocrats in a coating of Clintonesque pain-feeling paternalism. He’s already made the list for the next Democratic debate, and his rise is an early warning about how, no matter how bad our politics may see right now, they could be far worse if parties and voters don’t police themselves and defend their values. Andrew Yang, Upstart Democratic Presidential Candidate, Comes Out Against Circumcision Yang cut his teeth in test prep, an industry that sorts students based on abilities for a nifty profit. That sorting, of course, privileges the wealthy who have more access to the resources the prep industry offers. He became a millionaire when he sold his company, Manhattan Prep, to Kaplan, the test prep industry leader, and founded Venture for America, "to create economic opportunity in American cities by mobilizing the next generation of entrepreneurs and equipping them with the skills and resources they need to create jobs"—that is, to hack the rust belt with venture funding. Now, Yang is running for president to fulfill the tech oligarchs' dream of a universal basic income intended to pacify the poor as a substitute for actually dealing with income inequality. It is politics as philanthropy, that smacks of a 19th-century noblesse oblige. This is a brand of politics intended to neuter a muscular liberalism based on moral guidelines and defined as an attempt to civilize the economy and empower people. It is an approach not only opposed to the democratic socialism of Bernie Sanders, but to the core philosophies of the Democratic Party. Yang’s prescription stands against the notion that the state, through policies and legislation, needs to play a more muscular role in social and economic life. Instead, he is providing a Silicon Valley venture capitalist’s vision, one that acknowledges inequality and injustice, but then seeks to treat only its symptoms rather than its cause: Just give money to the poor, and let them figure it out. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his approach—shorn of emotion, passion or sensitivity—has drawn never Trumpers, libertarians and members of the alt-right to his “Yang Gang.” His campaign picked up momentum from appearances with Tucker Carlson on Fox and Joe Rogan on his podcast, as he’s called for—along with a $12,000 a year “Freedom Dividend” for every adult American—a massive reduction of the federal workforce, a 10-percent slice of the military budget for a “Legion of Builders and Destroyers” that would be able to overrule state and local governments to get new stuff built, and, of course an outside consultant who’d supposedly make all of this work. Story continues If this sounds crazy that’s because it is crazy. It’s the “disruption” tech companies keep peddling and that consumers keep ending up with buyer’s remorse about, but for our entire nation. Yang’s politics masquerades as a new form of liberalism but they are something entirely different, as he aims to gut the federal government while handing unfettered power to tech executives and real estate developers, with a measly $1,000 a month for the rest of us as this happens. Democrats, and the Democratic Party, need to make themselves clear: This is not the future that liberals want. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. View comments
When Should You Buy Poolia AB (publ) (STO:POOL B)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Poolia AB (publ) (STO:POOL B), which is in the professional services business, and is based in Sweden, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the OM, rising to highs of SEK7.58 and falling to the lows of SEK6.28. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Poolia's current trading price of SEK6.5 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at Poolia’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. See our latest analysis for Poolia Poolia is currently overpriced based on my relative valuation model. I’ve used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because there’s not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stock’s ratio of 23.04x is currently well-above the industry average of 15.76x, meaning that it is trading at a more expensive price relative to its peers. But, is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Given that Poolia’s share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us another chance to buy in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility. Future outlook is an important aspect when you’re looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so let’s also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to more than double over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Poolia. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation. Are you a shareholder?POOL B’s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading above its fair value. However, this brings up another question – is now the right time to sell? If you believe POOL B should trade below its current price, selling high and buying it back up again when its price falls towards its real value can be profitable. But before you make this decision, take a look at whether its fundamentals have changed. Are you a potential investor?If you’ve been keeping an eye on POOL B for a while, now may not be the best time to enter into the stock. The price has surpassed its industry peers, which means it is likely that there is no more upside from mispricing. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for POOL B, which means it’s worth diving deeper into other factors in order to take advantage of the next price drop. Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on Poolia. You can find everything you need to know about Poolia inthe latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Poolia, you can use our free platform to see my list of over50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Washington Post Issues Warning About Trump's Fourth Of July Bash The Washington Post editorial board has issued a warning to Americans, urging them not to be taken in by the pomp and ceremony that will be on display at President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July celebration in Washington. Trump has hijacked this year’s party in the capital and plans to station tanks on the streets and a flyover of warplanes overhead. “The order of the day as ordained by Mr. Trump will not be patriotism but instead personality and politics,” wrote the newspaper’s editorial board Monday in an opinion titled “Trump’s Fourth of July plans just keep getting worse.” The board also questioned the cost of such festivities and the message sent by “a gaudy display of military hardware that is more in keeping with a banana republic than the world’s oldest democracy.” Americans “shouldn’t be lured by the trappings or the spectacle or the rhetoric of Mr. Trump,” the board said, instead suggesting they should “claim the day for values embraced by the founders: freedom, tolerance and respect for all.” Read the full opinion piece here. Related... Chris Christie Inadvertently Gives Democrats The Key To Beating Donald Trump In A Debate Ozzy Osbourne Bans Donald Trump From Using His Music With The Snarkiest Song Suggestion Megan Rapinoe's World Cup Goal Celebration Is Now A Donald Trump-Trolling Meme Also on HuffPost Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today. This article originally appeared on HuffPost .
What Should We Expect From Quess Corp Limited's (NSE:QUESS) Earnings In The Next 12 Months? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! In March 2019, Quess Corp Limited (NSE:QUESS) announced its earnings update. Overall, the consensus outlook from analysts appear fairly confident, as a 46% increase in profits is expected in the upcoming year, compared with the past 5-year average growth rate of 38%. By 2020, we can expect Quess’s bottom line to reach ₹3.8b, a jump from the current trailing-twelve-month of ₹2.6b. I will provide a brief commentary around the figures and analyst expectations in the near term. For those interested in more of an analysis of the company, you canresearch its fundamentals here. Check out our latest analysis for Quess The longer term view from the 11 analysts covering QUESS is one of positive sentiment. Broker analysts tend to forecast up to three years ahead due to a lack of clarity around the business trajectory beyond this. To reduce the year-on-year volatility of analyst earnings forecast, I've inserted a line of best fit through the expected earnings figures to determine the annual growth rate from the slope of the line. This results in an annual growth rate of 26% based on the most recent earnings level of ₹2.6b to the final forecast of ₹5.6b by 2022. EPS reaches ₹37.4 in the final year of forecast compared to the current ₹17.61 EPS today. With a current profit margin of 3.0%, this movement will result in a margin of 4.0% by 2022. Future outlook is only one aspect when you're building an investment case for a stock. For Quess, I've put together three important factors you should look at: 1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at ourfree balance sheet analysis with six simple checkson key factors like leverage and risk. 2. Valuation: What is Quess worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether Quess is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of Quess? Exploreour interactive list of stocks with large growth potentialto get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing! We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Bear Moves: RBC Capital Just Downgraded These 3 Key Tech Stocks The tech-heavy Nasdaq has enjoyed a terrific 22% rally so far in 2019, with some high-growth tech stocks far exceeding the index. But such growth has left several key names looking dangerously overvalued. Now RBC Capital has made the rare move of issuing a triple downgrade on three tech stocks. The firm’sMark Mahaneyexplains that shares in these stocks have now achieved RBC Capital’s price target- and therefore can no longer retain their bullish ‘buy’ rating. That’s even though the positive long-term thesis remains firmly intact. Bear in mind that TipRanks ranks Mahaney #32 out of over 5,200 analysts for his strong stock picking skills- so it’s worth taking note of his latest downgrades. With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at what Mahaney has to say- and whether the Street also sees these stocks as primed for a pullback: The first stock for the cut is online ad marketplace Trade Desk. The company's disruptive technology allows ad buyers to quickly and easily purchase digital ads from a wide spectrum of providers. Shares have dramatically outperformed the market; year-to-date TTD is up over 100% vs. the S&P 500 which is up 18%. That’s largely due to consistently strong customer retention (95%+ for 22 straight quarters), strong adoption of its Next Wave platform (now at 80%+ adoption), and exposure to hyper-growth segments like Mobile Video, Audio and Connected TV. “Given ongoing robust fundamentals that consistently top our “Crucial Combo” (revenue growth + profitability) spectrum, we believe this outperformance has been justified” writes Mahaney. However as a result the stock has now achieved RBC Capital’s $220 price target. “Downgrading TTD to Sector Perform; Price Target Remains $220” Mahaney states. From current levels that suggests the stock can fall 6%. With the stock now trading at premium Saa Secular multiples, he sees risk-reward as less compelling right now but does add: “we would be constructive again on a material stock pullback.” Indeed, the Street’s best-performing analysts have an even more pessimistic outlook for TTD stock with an average price target of just $202- indicating 13% downside potential lies ahead. Year-to-date Roku shares have made a whopping 200% gain- which sees the stock now trading at $91. Roku is one of the most popular TV streamer brands in the US, accounting for more than 30% of U.S. sales of connected-TV devices in the first quarter. According to Strategy Analytics, its lead over the No. 2 provider, Sony PlayStation, will reach 70% by the end of 2019. “Per our recent Q1 EPS report, a key driver of this outperformance has been the acceleration of its high-quality and profitable Platform Revenue segment (with the 41% FY18 share price correction also creating an attractive valuation level)” writes Mahaney. However, with the stock now trading at an intrinsically robust multiple, it’s time for a rating downgrade for RBC Capital. Indeed, Mahaney’s price target of $90 falls marginally below the current share price, suggesting 1.5% downside potential. Nonetheless he continues to view ROKU as one of the best plays on ad-supported OTT, with the company being one of the best-positioned to take share of the very large, underpenetrated $70B TV Ad spend opportunity. “ROKU has generated a very consistent financial track record thus far, and as the video ad spend migrates to over-the-top, we believe ROKU can sustain robust growth” concludes the analyst. Overall, it appears the Street echoes this approach- with an average top analyst price target of $91: LendingTree is America’s largest online lending marketplace. It connects borrowers with multiple lenders so they can find the best deals on everything from loans and credit cards to deposit accounts and insurance. Shares of TREE are now up almost 90% to trade at just over $415. According to Mahaney, the rally can be ascribed to better than expected performance in the Insurance and Credit Cards segments (with the 36% FY18 share price correction also creating an attractive valuation level). Like with the previous two stocks, the analyst sees this outperformance as ‘fully justified’ but believes at these levels, risk is mounting. His $425 price target indicates only 2$ upside potential from current levels. More worryingly, the top analyst average price target suggests 4% downside for the coming months. Yet ultimately the long-term bullish outlook remains- which is why the RBC Capital analyst recommends snapping up TREE if prices significantly fall. “TREE is a leading Online Consumer Finance Marketplace with a large/underpenetrated TAM, very strong secular tailwinds & a very consistent financial track record” cheers Mahaney. Even in a challenging mortgage environment, TREE still generated leads for its mortgage loan partners. Plus he expects continued premium growth for the company’s Non-Mortgage sector. “We estimate Non-Mortgage to be 80%+ of total revenue in 2019 – this diversification has been and should continue to be a clear positive for TREE” he tells investors. Discover the latest daily ratings from top analysts here
UPDATE 1-Leonardo, Thales consider joint bid for Maxar's MDA space division - Leonardo CEO (Adds picture tag) By Jamie Freed SINGAPORE, July 2 (Reuters) - Italian aerospace and defence firm Leonardo SpA and France's Thales SA are considering the joint acquisition of a space business from U.S. firm Maxar Technologies Inc, Leonardo's CEO said on Tuesday. The sale of the business - dubbed MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) - could fetch more than $1 billion and help address concerns about Maxar's $3.2 billion debt pile, people familiar with the matter told Reuters last month. "We are considering that with our partner Thales," Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo said in a phone interview from Jakarta, where he is looking to boost sales of maritime patrol equipment and helicopters in Asia to help diversify revenue. "For us, they have a very good technology in the antennas for satellites, so it is an option we are considering," he said of MDA. Canada-based MDA is already a supplier to Thales Alenia Space, owned 67% by Thales and 33% by Leonardo, Profumo said, but he cautioned a deal was not guaranteed. "We do have the capability of being a customer of Maxar and MDA also without this acquisition," he said. "It is not something that is necessary to complete for our business. There is industrial sense in terms of integration but we are already a customer of them," Profumo added. Thales did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Italian newspaper La Repubblica last month reported that Leonardo and Thales were interested in MDA, without citing sources. Thales Alenia Space on Monday was awarded a contract by Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to design and manufacture a telecommunications satellite to be launched in late 2022. Leonardo was talking to the Indonesian government about several other products, Profumo said, including manned and unmanned maritime surveillance options, as it looked to step up its presence in the Asian market. Leonardo last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Kangde Investment Group of China to develop, produce and assemble composite materials for the Chinese and Russian CR929 widebody commercial jet project. Profumo said the pair was interested in the work but a contract had not yet been awarded, noting rivals such as Spirit AeroSystems Holding Inc were also competing. "We are bidding. We are not yet involved," he said. U.S.-based Spirit did not respond to a request for comment outside usual business hours. (Reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore; additional reporting by Francesca Landini in Milan; editing by Darren Schuettler)
Read This Before You Buy Polyplex Corporation Limited (NSE:POLYPLEX) Because Of Its P/E Ratio Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Polyplex Corporation Limited's (NSE:POLYPLEX), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research.Polyplex has a P/E ratio of 5.04, based on the last twelve months. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 20%. See our latest analysis for Polyplex Theformula for price to earningsis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Polyplex: P/E of 5.04 = ₹519.75 ÷ ₹103.19 (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to paya higher pricefor each ₹1 the company has earned over the last year. That isn't necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future. Probably the most important factor in determining what P/E a company trades on is the earnings growth. When earnings grow, the 'E' increases, over time. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. So while a stock may look expensive based on past earnings, it could be cheap based on future earnings. In the last year, Polyplex grew EPS like Taylor Swift grew her fan base back in 2010; the 107% gain was both fast and well deserved. And earnings per share have improved by 125% annually, over the last three years. So we'd absolutely expect it to have a relatively high P/E ratio. One good way to get a quick read on what market participants expect of a company is to look at its P/E ratio. The image below shows that Polyplex has a lower P/E than the average (13.6) P/E for companies in the chemicals industry. This suggests that market participants think Polyplex will underperform other companies in its industry. While current expectations are low, the stock could be undervalued if the situation is better than the market assumes. If you consider the stock interesting, further research is recommended. For example, I often monitordirector buying and selling. Don't forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. So it won't reflect the advantage of cash, or disadvantage of debt. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. Such spending might be good or bad, overall, but the key point here is that you need to look at debt to understand the P/E ratio in context. Polyplex has net cash of ₹1.7b. This is fairly high at 10% of its market capitalization. That might mean balance sheet strength is important to the business, but should also help push the P/E a bit higher than it would otherwise be. Polyplex trades on a P/E ratio of 5, which is below the IN market average of 15.3. The net cash position gives plenty of options to the business, and the recent improvement in EPS is good to see. The relatively low P/E ratio implies the market is pessimistic. Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. As value investor Benjamin Graham famously said, 'In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.' So thisfreevisual report on analyst forecastscould hold the key to an excellent investment decision. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Luxembourg's Bettel sees breakthrough at EU top jobs summit BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg's liberal Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said he was convinced that there would be a breakthrough in talks among EU leaders on the bloc's top jobs on Tuesday, saying he hoped for the largest consensus possible. Bettel said he hoped that the European Union largest political family, the Euorpean People Party (EPP), had had time to adjust their position in talks. "I hope that during the night they (the EPP) had a reboot and they are able to work together this morning," Bettel said, arriving for a third day of meetings with EU counterparts. "We have to show that we able to decide what is going to happen in the next five years," he added. "I'm sure we will have a breakthrough now. ... We need the biggest consensus upstairs, with geographical and gender balance." (Reporting by Alexandra Regida and Foo Yun Chee; Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel)
What Kind Of Investor Owns Most Of Polygiene AB (publ.) (STO:POLYG)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! If you want to know who really controls Polygiene AB (publ.) (STO:POLYG), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. Institutions often own shares in more established companies, while it's not unusual to see insiders own a fair bit of smaller companies. I generally like to see some degree of insider ownership, even if only a little. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb said, 'Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.' With a market capitalization of kr115m, Polygiene AB (publ.) is a small cap stock, so it might not be well known by many institutional investors. Taking a look at our data on the ownership groups (below), it's seems that institutional investors have bought into the company. Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholder can tell us about POLYG. View our latest analysis for Polygiene AB (publ.) Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices. We can see that Polygiene AB (publ.) does have institutional investors; and they hold 26% of the stock. This suggests some credibility amongst professional investors. But we can't rely on that fact alone, since institutions make bad investments sometimes, just like everyone does. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Polygiene AB (publ.)'s earnings history, below. Of course, the future is what really matters. Polygiene AB (publ.) is not owned by hedge funds. There is some analyst coverage of the stock, but it could still become more well known, with time. While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it. Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances. It seems insiders own a significant proportion of Polygiene AB (publ.). Insiders have a kr42m stake in this kr115m business. I would say this shows alignment with shareholders, but it is worth noting that the company is still quite small; some insiders may have founded the business. You canclick here to see if those insiders have been buying or selling. With a 30% ownership, the general public have some degree of sway over POLYG. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders. We can see that Private Companies own 6.6%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research. I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. I like to dive deeperinto how a company has performed in the past. You can accessthisinteractive graphof past earnings, revenue and cash flow, for free. If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss thisfreereport on analyst forecasts. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
German fintech startups quietly dying off Germany's N26 online bank is one of the biggest fintech successes. Photo: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Investments in Germany’s booming fintech sector may have doubled in the first quarter of 2019 from the same period a year before, but a new PwC Germany study reveals a flip side to the story, as hundreds of companies have quietly died off unnoticed. Since 2011, 233 German fintechs have shut down, three quarters of them since the beginning of 2017, according to PwC’s Cooperation Radar. The average age of the fintechs that failed was four years old and the majority of them were based in Berlin. The closed companies were almost equally split between those making products for consumers versus B2B services. Sascha Demgensky, head of FinTech at PwC in Germany, said it is "a completely normal process, when young companies fail, even in booming industries," adding that the survey provides quantitative evidence on the causes behind the sector’s failures. Demgensky said that while it’s hard to make general predictions on which fintechs will make it and which ones will not, the spike in closures in 2017 indicated that many of them were “me-too” startups, who “boarded the train in 2013 and 2014” and realised that other competitors had got there before them. READ MORE: Germany's newest unicorn is now Europe’s most valuable fintech company Only 11% of the fintechs that died had solid venture capital backing. If a startup has existed for more than five years and proven its sustainability, it can be a promising sign, Demgensky said. Investment in Germany’s fintechs more than doubled in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same quarter in 2018, according to an April report from Barkow Consulting. That amounted to just over €600m (£536m, $677m). “The sector is growing up and we have more and more fintech startups,” Peter Barkow, founder of Barkow Consulting, told Yahoo Finance UK in April. He said some of these German fintechs are reaching critical size and attracting the attention of international investors. “The global appetite for fintech from the US and China is tremendous — and these German companies are on their screens,” Barkow said.
What Investors Should Know About Pandox AB (publ)'s (STO:PNDX B) Financial Strength Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Mid-caps stocks, like Pandox AB (publ) (STO:PNDX B) with a market capitalization of kr29b, aren’t the focus of most investors who prefer to direct their investments towards either large-cap or small-cap stocks. Despite this, commonly overlooked mid-caps have historically produced better risk-adjusted returns than their small and large-cap counterparts. PNDX B’s financial liquidity and debt position will be analysed in this article, to get an idea of whether the company can fund opportunities for strategic growth and maintain strength through economic downturns. Remember this is a very top-level look that focuses exclusively on financial health, so I recommend a deeper analysisinto PNDX B here. Check out our latest analysis for Pandox PNDX B's debt levels surged from kr27b to kr32b over the last 12 months , which accounts for long term debt. With this growth in debt, PNDX B currently has kr923m remaining in cash and short-term investments , ready to be used for running the business. Moreover, PNDX B has generated kr2.1b in operating cash flow over the same time period, resulting in an operating cash to total debt ratio of 6.5%, signalling that PNDX B’s debt is not covered by operating cash. Looking at PNDX B’s kr10b in current liabilities, it seems that the business may not have an easy time meeting these commitments with a current assets level of kr1.6b, leading to a current ratio of 0.15x. The current ratio is the number you get when you divide current assets by current liabilities. Since total debt growth have outpaced equity growth, PNDX B is a highly leveraged company. This is not uncommon for a mid-cap company given that debt tends to be lower-cost and at times, more accessible. We can test if PNDX B’s debt levels are sustainable by measuring interest payments against earnings of a company. Ideally, earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) should cover net interest by at least three times. For PNDX B, the ratio of 2.87x suggests that interest is not strongly covered, which means that debtors may be less inclined to loan the company more money, reducing its headroom for growth through debt. Although PNDX B’s debt level is towards the higher end of the spectrum, its cash flow coverage seems adequate to meet debt obligations which means its debt is being efficiently utilised. However, its lack of liquidity raises questions over current asset management practices for the mid-cap. I admit this is a fairly basic analysis for PNDX B's financial health. Other important fundamentals need to be considered alongside. I suggest you continue to research Pandox to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for PNDX B’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor PNDX B’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is PNDX B worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether PNDX B is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Our Take On Ramco Industries Limited's (NSE:RAMCOIND) CEO Salary Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Prem Shanker is the CEO of Ramco Industries Limited (NSE:RAMCOIND). This analysis aims first to contrast CEO compensation with other companies that have similar market capitalization. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. Third, we'll reflect on the total return to shareholders over three years, as a second measure of business performance. The aim of all this is to consider the appropriateness of CEO pay levels. View our latest analysis for Ramco Industries Our data indicates that Ramco Industries Limited is worth ₹17b, and total annual CEO compensation is ₹17m. (This is based on the year to March 2018). Notably, the salary of ₹17m is the vast majority of the CEO compensation. We looked at a group of companies with market capitalizations from ₹6.9b to ₹28b, and the median CEO total compensation was ₹17m. That means Prem Shanker receives fairly typical remuneration for the CEO of a company that size. While this data point isn't particularly informative alone, it gains more meaning when considered with business performance. You can see, below, how CEO compensation at Ramco Industries has changed over time. On average over the last three years, Ramco Industries Limited has shrunk earnings per share by 12% each year (measured with a line of best fit). It achieved revenue growth of 11% over the last year. Few shareholders would be pleased to read that earnings per share are lower over three years. And while it's good to see some good revenue growth recently, the growth isn't really fast enough for me to put aside my concerns around earnings. These factors suggest that the business performance wouldn't really justify a high pay packet for the CEO. You might want to checkthis free visual report onanalyst forecastsfor future earnings. Boasting a total shareholder return of 54% over three years, Ramco Industries Limited has done well by shareholders. So they may not be at all concerned if the CEO were to be paid more than is normal for companies around the same size. Prem Shanker is paid around the same as most CEOs of similar size companies. We feel that earnings per share have been a bit disappointing, but it's nice to see positive shareholder returns over the last three years. So we think most shareholders wouldn't be too worried about CEO compensation, which is close to the median for similar sized companies. Whatever your view on compensation, you might want tocheck if insiders are buying or selling Ramco Industries shares (free trial). Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Bitcoin falls below $10,000 as Facebook rally fades Bitcoin is displayed in front of the Bitcoin course's graph on 25 June, 2019 in Paris, France. Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images Bitcoin has fallen back below $10,000 after a brief rally over the last two weeks. Bitcoin dropped below the psychologically significant level early on Tuesday morning and was down by 6.8% against the dollar to $9,862.91 ( BTC-USD ) at 9.15am UK time. It was down 6.8% against the pound to £7,800.19 ( BTC-GBP ). The slump means bitcoin has lost almost all of the recent gains it made in June. Bitcoin rallied almost 80% in June, reaching its highest level against the dollar since March 2018. Bitcoin's recent price bump and slump. Photo: Yahoo Finance UK Analysts said the rally was largely fuelled by the launch of Libra, a new cryptocurrency project conceived by Facebook ( FB ) and backed by a consortium of top companies including Visa ( V ), PayPal ( PYPL ), MasterCard ( MA ), Spotify ( SPOT ), and Uber ( UBER ). Libra was publicly announced on 18 June and bitcoin rallied almost 50% in the following eight days. READ MORE: Facebook's Libra could spark 'mass adoption' of crypto Bitcoins post-Libra re-emergence appears to already be over, Connor Campbell, a financial analyst at SpreadEx, said. Having hit $13,856 at one point last Wednesday, the cryptocurrency continued to unwind its end of June gains. Simon Peters, an analyst at trading platform eToro, warned that bitcoin could fall as low as $7,200 now that it has broken through the technical support level of $10,600. Separately on Tuesday, new figures showed continued momentum in the blockchain space. Blockchain is the technology that underpins the bitcoin network and offers the promise of decentralised services and products. Figures from investment firm Outlier Ventures showed that $822 million was invested into blockchain projects so far in 2019 across 279 deals. Oscar Williams-Grut covers banking, fintech, and finance for Yahoo Finance UK. Follow him on Twitter at @OscarWGrut . Read more: Investors still stranded as Woodford's £3.7bn fund stays frozen LGBT+ pay gap revealed despite corporate embrace of Pride UK government tells banks to go green in anti-carbon push Shake-up at money manager Neil Woodford's business after fund freeze Build more nuclear plants to reach green goals, government told
Singapores Tony Stark: Someone took inspiration from Iron Man to transport a huge cabinet in a convertible Weve got our very own Tony Stark on our shores, yall. But not in the snarky, tech whiz, billionaire way. This persons got more of a DIY vibe, if you get our drift. Recall a scene from Iron Man 2 , which showed the slick-talking superhero cruising along the road with his extremely large scale model sticking out of his extremely sleek Audi R8 Spyder. Photo: Syafiq Aziz/FB So this Marvel fan mustve watched the scene and thought, superheroes, theyre just like us. Spotted on the roads of Singapore at the traffic junction of Eu Tong Sen St, to be exact the Mercedes-Benz also had a humongous item jutting out of its convertible top. Because who needs a delivery van when youve got a car with a retractable roof? But it was nowhere near the polished way Robert Downey Jr. did it, him being an actor in a massive movie franchise and all. This driver had what looked like a tall (or long) cabinet haphazardly placed in the vehicle, in a gravity-defying position. Photo: Singapore Private Hire Car Driver & Riders Community/FB The photo surfaced on social media earlier today (July 2) and almost immediately attracted attention from netizens for all the wrong reasons, namely because its not the smartest move to transport a huge piece of furniture so carelessly in a convertible. Many worried for the safety of the driver and other vehicles around the car. Some mocked the driver for being a cheapskate and thought he should fork out the money to get his furniture delivered. Yknow, by actual professionals with a van. Rich enough to drive an open topbut no money to pay for delivery, one said. Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/FB Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/FB Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/FB Meanwhile, others felt the driver should be allowed to do whatever they wanted with their own vehicle. Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/FB And then there were the trolls, who were just there for the jokes. Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/FB Screengrab: All Singapore Stuff/FB This article, Singapores Tony Stark: Someone took inspiration from Iron Man to transport a huge cabinet in a convertible , originally appeared on Coconuts , Asia's leading alternative media company. Want more Coconuts? Sign up for our newsletters!
Galapagos NV (AMS:GLPG): Financial Strength Analysis Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Small and large cap stocks are widely popular for a variety of reasons, however, mid-cap companies such as Galapagos NV (AMS:GLPG), with a market cap of €6.3b, often get neglected by retail investors. However, generally ignored mid-caps have historically delivered better risk-adjusted returns than the two other categories of stocks. GLPG’s financial liquidity and debt position will be analysed in this article, to get an idea of whether the company can fund opportunities for strategic growth and maintain strength through economic downturns. Note that this commentary is very high-level and solely focused on financial health, so I suggest you dig deeper yourselfinto GLPG here. See our latest analysis for Galapagos A debt-to-equity ratio threshold varies depending on what industry the company operates, since some requires more debt financing than others. Generally, mid-cap stocks are considered financially healthy if its ratio is below 40%. The good news for investors is that Galapagos has no debt. This means it has been running its business utilising funding from only its equity capital, which is rather impressive. Investors' risk associated with debt is virtually non-existent with GLPG, and the company has plenty of headroom and ability to raise debt should it need to in the future. Since Galapagos doesn’t have any debt on its balance sheet, it doesn’t have any solvency issues, which is a term used to describe the company’s ability to meet its long-term obligations. But another important aspect of financial health is liquidity: the company’s ability to meet short-term obligations, including payments to suppliers and employees. At the current liabilities level of €199m, it seems that the business has maintained a safe level of current assets to meet its obligations, with the current ratio last standing at 6.31x. The current ratio is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities. However, many consider a ratio above 3x to be high. GLPG has no debt in addition to ample cash to cover its short-term liabilities. Its safe operations reduces risk for the company and its investors, but some degree of debt could also boost earnings growth and operational efficiency. This is only a rough assessment of financial health, and I'm sure GLPG has company-specific issues impacting its capital structure decisions. You should continue to research Galapagos to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for GLPG’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor GLPG’s outlook. 2. Valuation: What is GLPG worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? Theintrinsic value infographic in our free research reporthelps visualize whether GLPG is currently mispriced by the market. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Europeans urge Iran to abide by nuclear pact; Israel says preparing military By John Irish and Parisa Hafezi PARIS/DUBAI (Reuters) - European signatories to a nuclear pact with Iran said on Tuesday they were "extremely concerned" by Tehran's apparent breach of the 2015 deal, as Israel said it was preparing for possible involvement in any confrontation between Iran and the United States. Iran announced this week it has amassed more low-enriched uranium than is permitted under the nuclear pact, a move that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to say Iran was "playing with fire". "We regret this decision by Iran, which calls into question an essential instrument of nuclear non-proliferation," the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain said in a joint statement with the EU's High Representative on Iran. "We urge Iran to reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal," they said. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased since Trump pulled Washington out of the pact last year and moved to bar all international sales of Iranian oil. Washington also blames Iran for attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf, something Tehran denies. The European signatories to the accord have sought to pull back the two longstanding foes from direct confrontation, fearing a mistake could lead to war accidentally. Israel has encouraged the Trump administration to press ahead with sanctions against its arch-foe Iran, predicting that Tehran will eventually renegotiate a more limiting nuclear deal. But Foreign Minister Israel Katz told an international security forum that Iran might accidentally stumble out of what he termed the "gray zone" of contained confrontation. "It should be taken into account that mistaken calculations by the (Iranian) regime ... are liable to bring about a shift from the 'gray zone' to the 'red zone' - that is, a military conflagration," he said in a speech to the Herzliya Conference. Story continues "We must be prepared for this, and thus the State of Israel continues to devote itself to building up its military might for the event that it will have to respond to escalation scenarios." Israel has long threatened to take preemptive military action to deny Iran the means of making nuclear weapons. Tehran says it has no such designs. One of its senior lawmakers warned on Monday that Israel would be destroyed within "only half an hour" should the United States attack Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denies that Iran is in violation of the nuclear accord by amassing more low-enriched uranium, saying Iran is exercising its right to respond following the U.S. pullout. By exceeding the limit, Tehran could prompt the return of all international sanctions on Iran but one European diplomat, asked if Europe would trigger a dispute resolution mechanism that is part of the accord, said: "Not for now. We want to defuse the crisis." A second diplomat said Britain, France and Germany would focus on bringing Iran back into compliance and that they wanted to gain more time for dialogue. "In the immediate term, Iran must return to its obligations. There is room for dialogue," a French diplomatic source added. China, like France a signatory to the deal, said it regretted Iran's move but urged all parties to exercise restraint and said the U.S. policy of increasing pressure on Iran was the "root cause of the current tensions". IRANIAN DEMANDS The nuclear deal lifted most international sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear work. It aimed to extend the time Tehran would need to produce a nuclear bomb, if it chose to, from roughly 2-3 months to a year. Iran's main demand - in talks with the European parties to the deal and as a precondition to any talks with the United States - is to be allowed to sell its oil at the levels before Washington pulled out of the deal and restored sanctions. Iranian crude exports were around 300,000 barrels per day or less in late June, industry sources said, a fraction of the more than 2.5 million bpd Iran shipped in April 2018, the month before Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal. Iran says it will breach the deal's nuclear curbs one by one until it is able to sell that amount of oil, saying this is the least it should be able to expect from an accord that offered economic gains in exchange for nuclear restrictions. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday that the Islamic Republic's enriched uranium stockpile had passed the 300kg (661 lb) limit allowed under the deal. "We have NOT violated the #JCPOA," Zarif wrote on Twitter, referring to the deal by the abbreviation of its formal title, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani accused Trump of trying to bully Tehran with his remark about playing with fire, and said such language would only made Iran stronger. Zarif reacted with exasperation to a White House accusation that Tehran had long violated the terms of the deal. "Seriously?" he said in a one-word message on Twitter, after White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement that "there is little doubt that even before the deal’s existence, Iran was violating its terms." Her comment contrasted with CIA Director Gina Haspel’s testimony in January to the Senate Intelligence Committee that "at the moment, technically, they are in compliance." (Additional reporting by Francois Murphy in Vienna, Writing by William Maclean and Alistair Bell; Editing by Jon Boyle and Grant McCool)
Pound at two-week low in UK construction's worst month since 2009 Construction is at a 10-year low. Photo: Matt Crossick/EMPICS Entertainment The pound dropped to a two-week low after figures revealed the UK’s construction industry suffered its worst month since the financial crisis, with a sharp decline well below most forecasts. One analyst said the construction sector’s June decline was “less of a slide than a sledgehammer,” while another said the latest bleak figures on the UK economy “scream rate cut.” Markets also appeared to be nervous after preparations for a potentially catastrophic no-deal Brexit by Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson, the two candidates for UK prime minister, dominated the headlines on Monday. The latest numbers are one of several warning signs for the UK economy in recent days, with new data also showing growth spluttering in the housing market and small firms holding back on investment. The pound was down more than 0.3% versus the euro on 2 July 2019. Photo: Yahoo Finance UK READ MORE: Property prices in Britain are almost flat The monthly IHS Markit/CIPS index released on Tuesday showed a reading of 43.1 for June, down from 48.6 in May. Figures below 50 represent contraction and above 50 indicate growth. Construction work dried up in housebuilding for the first time in 17 months, as well as declining commercial and civil engineering projects. One analyst said stalling property prices are now dragging down residential building work. The worst dip in more than a decade saw sterling fall almost 0.2% against the dollar and more tha 0.3% against the euro, as economists had expected contraction to ease to 49.2. The pound was trading at just over $1.26 at 10am local time. ‘Less of a slide than a sledgehammer’ The UK property market is stalling. Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters “The latest survey reveals weakness across the board for the UK construction sector, with house building, commercial work, and civil engineering activity all falling sharply in June,” Tim Moore, associate director at IHS Markit, said. “Delays to new projects in response to deepening political and economic uncertainty were the main reasons cited by construction companies for the fastest drop in total construction output since April 2009.” Story continues Blane Perrotton, managing director of property consultancy Naismiths, said the news would send a “chill down many builder’s spines” after a grim start to 2019, despite the brief Brexit stockpiling boom. “This is less of a slide than a sledgehammer. After licking its wounds from a lean May, the construction industry has once again been ambushed by plummeting investor demand,” Perrotton said. “What work there is, is dominated by the completion of existing projects rather than new ones, and barring some Brexit miracle, only the pathologically optimistic will expect a turnaround any time soon.” READ MORE: Funding Circle shares crash as small UK firms stop investing The slump in Markit's construction PMI in June points to a worrying step change in the impact of Brexit uncertainty on the economy. Builders unambiguous that Brexit/political risks are to blame for caution among clients. But don't panic, I'm sure Boris & co have a plan... pic.twitter.com/QKn9miX2RG — Samuel Tombs (@samueltombs) July 2, 2019 Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics tweeted that building firms were “unambiguous” that Brexit was to blame for the industry’s troubles. “There is no sugar-coating these numbers, they are awful,” Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said. Hewson said the numbers “scream rate cut,” calling into question the Bank of England’s apparent view that a rate rise is more likely than a cut. Alarm bells for the UK economy READ MORE: Jeremy Hunt plans £6bn war chest for no-deal Brexit Other widely used indicators on the health of the UK economy make for equally bleak reading. On Tuesday, the Nationwide house price index showed national property prices inched up just 0.1% between May and June, with London suffering losses for another month. The data left investors disappointed, if not would-be homeowners looking to get on the ladder. Separate data from the Federation of Small Business (FSB) also released on Tuesday showed small firms struggling to invest, hire, and increase productivity while the future of Brexit remains in limbo. More than seven in 10 small firms surveyed said they did not expect to raise capital spending in the next quarter, the highest figure in two years. Four in 10 companies also said new credit was “unaffordable,” with the FSB suggesting lenders were pushing up premiums amid increased wariness of risks from Brexit and sluggish economic growth. READ MORE: Investors still stranded as Woodford fund remains frozen
Should You Be Concerned With Pandora A/S's (CPH:PNDORA) -16% Earnings Drop? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Understanding Pandora A/S's (CPH:PNDORA) performance as a company requires examining more than earnings from one point in time. Today I will take you through a basic sense check to gain perspective on how Pandora is doing by evaluating its latest earnings with its longer term trend as well as its industry peers' performance over the same period. View our latest analysis for Pandora PNDORA's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2019) of ø4.7b has declined by -16% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has been lower than its average earnings growth rate over the past 5 years of 15%, indicating the rate at which PNDORA is growing has slowed down. Why could this be happening? Well, let’s take a look at what’s occurring with margins and whether the entire industry is facing the same headwind. In terms of returns from investment, Pandora has invested its equity funds well leading to a 86% return on equity (ROE), above the sensible minimum of 20%. Furthermore, its return on assets (ROA) of 21% exceeds the DK Luxury industry of 6.0%, indicating Pandora has used its assets more efficiently. However, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Pandora’s debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 67% to 41%. This correlates with an increase in debt holding, with debt-to-equity ratio rising from 0.4% to 145% over the past 5 years. Though Pandora's past data is helpful, it is only one aspect of my investment thesis. Companies that are profitable, but have unpredictable earnings, can have many factors influencing its business. I suggest you continue to research Pandora to get a better picture of the stock by looking at: 1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for PNDORA’s future growth? Take a look at ourfree research report of analyst consensusfor PNDORA’s outlook. 2. Financial Health: Are PNDORA’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 March 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
'Spider-Man: Far From Home' Shows What's Next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe Photo credit: JoJo Whilden From Esquire Warning: This review contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Far From Home. Tony Stark is dead. Iron Man and the jet-fueled charisma of Robert Downey Jr. are no longer the central propulsive forces of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A lot of characters have died and come back again in the past 11 years of the MCU. But right from the outset of Spider-Man: Far From Home , it’s made abundantly clear that, this time, Iron Man is actually gone. No magic stones. No time portals. No do-overs. He ain’t coming back. But, judging from the delirious joy of Far From Home , it seems the fun of the MCU is by no means gone with him. In fact, the sequel to Spider-Man : Homecoming is so refreshing, the loss of Iron Man may just be the best thing to ever happen to Marvel since Jon Favreau first cast Downey Jr. more than a decade ago. In the final moments of Avengers: Endgame , the heroes gather around Tony Stark's burial grounds. There's a feeling that the MCU had come full circle along with the grief and finality of that movie. But, at the start of Far From Home , that feeling is more like a good riddance . After a quick prologue, Far From Home opens with a Comic Sans title card that says “in memoriam” in chunky stupid letters. The sequence goes on to show shitty powerpoint presentation from the high school morning news of the heroes we’d lost in Endgame, complete with Whitney Houston's “I Will Always Love You.” Right off the bat, this tonal shift from the self-serious desperation of Endgame was so insane that I felt like I was watching some sort of in-joke edit made just for the critics screening I was attending. I wasn’t, though. This was the actual movie. And, sure, after the bottomless profits, nothing Marvel does is really a “risk” anymore. But director Jon Watts’ willingness to forgo the hero worship bullshit and finally acknowledge these films for what they really are–big budget Saturday morning cartoons–felt damn-well uproarious. You can’t call Marvel movies punk rock. But Far From Home feels about as close as we’re ever going to get. Contrary to Endgame ’s thoroughly dour, mature approach to superheroes, Far From Home is centered around a group of lively and idiotic high school students. In a time when every superhero movie is jammed to the fucking brim with strong-jawed megastars, this shift toward a younger, more diverse, less well-known cast feels like a sigh of relief. Since the film is free from the sagging weight of all the endlessly complicated Avengers bullshit, we finally have the first MCU movie since Black Panther and Thor: Ragnarok that feels legitimately singular, and inspired. Story continues Watts’ main area of concern in Far From Home is the oh-so-familiar teen angst of Spider-Man. Parker is every bit as self-sabotaging, selfish, and vulnerable as a high school superhero should be–even going so far as to brush off his superhero duties at the drop of a dime for a potential hookup with his crush. After two Spider-Man franchises full of adult men on the cusp of 30 pretending to be little boys, 23 year-old Tom Holland continues to feel like one of Kevin Feige’s greatest casting choices. Holland and Zendaya, who's playing the MCU's version of Mary Jane (or in this film, simply MJ), make for a natural yet unexpected pairing that will undoubtedly become the backbone of this stellar franchise-within-a-franchise for years to come. In Far From Home , not only do we finally have a Peter Parker / MJ romance that actually feels like a high school relationship, but Zendaya’s take on the iconic comic book character is one of the sadly few fully realized women in the MCU. Zendaya’s MJ is tender-hearted, brooding, soulful, and socially-awkward. Peter Parker chases MJ throughout Far From Home , and just as the moody boy’s advances are always foiled by his own insecurities, MJ is similarly stunted by her pretend ambivalence. The brilliance of this MJ, and what Peter Parker seems enamored by, is her defiantly blunt honesty and deadpan intellect–both characteristics that, like in real life, also come to burden her social connections. She’s an enigma, and in that sense, she feels real. Hopefully the era of awkwardly-written women in the MCU– such as terribly mismanaged Natasha Romanoff –has finally come to an end. Photo credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Though Robert Downey Jr. is gone, his shadow looms large over Far From Home . Parker is tasked by Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury with becoming the “next Tony Stark.” For classic Spider-Man lore, it’s not the question of whether Peter Parker will step up to the challenge, but rather, how Spider-Man will come into his own. Of course Far From Home mourns the loss of Tony Stark, but it also makes the case that the MCU doesn’t need an Iron Man, or one central figure at all, to continue telling compelling stories. But that doesn’t mean Peter Parker isn’t trying to fill that void. Like all good Spider-Man stories, Far From Home is obsessed with the paternal crutch that exists in Peter Parker’s psyche. After the loss of his Uncle Ben, Spider-Man is always looking for a father figure. Whereas Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 had Alfred Molina as the stand-in father for Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man with the brilliant yet maniacal Dr. Octavius character, the MCU’s second Spider-Man film enlists a relatively obscure comics villain for Parker to latch onto: Mysterio. Photo credit: JAY MAIDMENT Jake Gyllenhaal's casting as The Fishbowl-Head gives us one of the actor’s most theatrical and entertaining performances in years. Of course, Mysterio is not who he seems to be, and as Peter Parker comes to terms with yet another flimsy mentor figure, Watts delights in satirizing not only the stupid silver-age Spidey villain, but the MCU itself. Mysterio turns out to be, like most of the superheroes in these Marvel films, just another dude in a motion capture suit, standing in an effects studio. Like the marvelous surprises in Far From Home ’s post credits section, it’s touches like this that set the new Spider-Man film away from the pack. Without the burden of Thanos, Tony Stark, a bunch of big dudes named Chris, and the whole complicated Avengers thing, the MCU feels incredibly light, and fresh, for the first time in nearly a decade. Far From Home is the first clean step forward for the MCU in years. The film is such a joy to watch, it’s not hard to leave the theater wishing for more–not more of the narratively-interlinking, hero-dense MCU films–but for more Spider-Man movies. After all the rubble of Endgame , it would be nice to stay close to the ground. You know, just some friendly, neighborhood stuff for now. Especially since–and I cannot emphasize this enough–JK Simmons has returned as J. Jonah Jameson. Forgetting about Iron Man just got a whole lot easier. ('You Might Also Like',) HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT SUNGLASSES FOR YOUR FACE SHAPE If You Don’t Have a Denim Shirt Yet, What’s Stopping You? Why You'll Never Understand Mezcal Like You Understand Scotch View comments
Bitcoin Price Dips Below $10K With Deeper Losses Likely • Bitcoin has dropped below $10,000 for the first time in 11 days, reinforcing the buyer exhaustionsignaled bythe weekly chart, as discussed yesterday. • The daily chart indicators have turned bearish, while the 4-hour chart is reporting a bearish lower-highs, lower-lows pattern. As a result, the price could slip further toward the former resistance-turned-support of $9,097 (May 30 high) in the next couple of days. • A UTC close below $9,097 would invalidate the bullish setup on the daily chart. • A high-volume break above the falling trendline on the 4-hour chart, currently at $11,100, would shift risk in favor of retest of the recent high of $13,880. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading below $10,000 on exchanges for the first time in 11 days on Tuesday morning (UTC), and may face further losses ahead. The top cryptocurrency by market value hit a low of $9,713 at 06:00 UTC – a level last seen on June 21 – before regaining some ground. At time of writing, one BTC is worth $10,200, down around 7 percent on a 24-hour basis, as per Bitstamp prices. The drop saw BTC retrace more than 30 percent of gains from its 17-month high of $13,880 hit on June 26, and more than 60 percent of the four-week rally from lows near $7,500. Related:Bitcoin’s ‘Kimchi Premium’ Returns With $1K Price Spreads on Crypto Exchanges Bitcoin’s price drop is hurting the broader market as well. Only seven out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are reporting gains at press time, according toCoinMarketCap. That said, most of the losers are outperforming bitcoin, which was the 11th worst performing top-100 cryptocurrency of the last 24 hours, at 09:00 UTC. For instance, EOS and bitcoin cash (BCH) were down 3 percent, while cryptos like ether (ETH) token and XRP reported 6 percent and 4.5 percent drops, respectively. As a result, a majority of alternative cryptocurrencies are reporting gains in BTC terms. The cryptocurrency market performance of the last 24 hours indicates the investors have likely begun rotating money out of bitcoin and into alternative cryptocurrencies. With bitcoin’s technical charts signaling scope for a deeper drop toward key support at $9,097, altcoins may continue to shine bright in BTC terms. Related:Bitcoin Charts Hint At Price Pullback to Below $10K With the 5- and 10-day moving averages reporting a bearish crossover and the 14-day relative strength index reporting bearish conditions with a below-50 reading, bitcoin appears on track to test support at $9,097 (May 30 high). Supporting the bearish case is the recent drop in the Chaikin money flow index from 0.37 to 0.13 – a decline indicating weakening buying pressure. The outlook as per the daily chart would turn bearish if the cryptocurrency prints a UTC close below $9,097, violating the bullish higher-lows and higher-highs pattern. The case for deeper losses would weaken if the price finds acceptance above the June 27 low of $10,300, although as of now that looks unlikely. The previous 4-hour candle closed well below $10,300 (see yellow line), confirming a bearish lower-highs and lower-lows pattern. The breakdown is backed by high sell volume (red bars). In fact, sell volumes have been consistently higher than buy volumes ever since BTC topped out at $13,800. As a result, a drop toward $9,097 looks likely. The Chaikin money flow has turned negative for the first time since June 10 – a sign the cryptocurrency is now facing increasing selling pressure. The outlook would turn bullish if the price clears the descending trendline hurdle at $11,100 on the back of strong buy volumes. That would open the doors to a retest of the recent high of $13,880. After all, the long-term charts are still biased bullish. Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing Bitcoin chartimage via Shutterstock; charts byTradingView • Bitcoin, Facebook and the End of 20th Century Money • Bitcoin Heading for Fifth Month of Gains Despite Price Correction
MP claims Jeremy Kyle should face criminal charges for refusing to provide evidence Jeremy Kyle (Credit: ITV) Tory MP Damian Collins has claimed that Jeremy Kyle should be prosecuted for refusing to provide evidence in the investigation into his cancelled ITV show. Collins, who is the Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said that there needs to be clear, real-world sanctions for those who refuse to comply with a request to provide evidence. The Jeremy Kyle Show was investigated by a committee last week following the suicide of guest Steve Dymond, who died just days after failing a lie detector test that claimed he cheated on his fiancée. Kyle was asked to provide evidence, but he did not attend the committees investigation, prompting Collins for further action to be taken. Kyle was asked to provide evidence for the investigation, but did not attend (Credit: Anthony Harvey/Getty) Read more: Jeremy Kyle plots return to TV with two new shows Speaking to The Guardian, the MP said: "I believe we need to formalise powers and have clear real-world sanctions for those that refuse to comply with a request to provide evidence. Collins then added that refusal to provide evidence carries a possible prison sentence in the US. "In the US, such behaviour is treated as a criminal offence, just as perjury in court would be. "These committees have become a place where parliament can stand up for the interests of the people. "I am strongly in favour of real-world sanctions for those who fail to comply with parliamentary committees." Jeremy Kyle is currently planning his return to television with two new shows (ITV) Read more: Ex-partner of late 'Jeremy Kyle' guest Steve Dymond says she's being made out to be 'a bad person' Before the hearing, Collins said: "We believe that Jeremy Kyle himself should be an important witness to [our inquiry] as the show is based around him as the lead presenter of it. "We have sent an invitation to Mr Kyle through his representatives. And we have received word back from them that he has declined to appear in front of the committee on Tuesday next week." "We will be pursuing this matter with his representatives to fully understand the reasons why he has declined.
Here's What Ratti S.p.A.'s (BIT:RAT) P/E Ratio Is Telling Us Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today, we'll introduce the concept of the P/E ratio for those who are learning about investing. We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to Ratti S.p.A.'s (BIT:RAT), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Looking at earnings over the last twelve months,Ratti has a P/E ratio of 10.98. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 9.1%. Check out our latest analysis for Ratti Theformula for price to earningsis: Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS) Or for Ratti: P/E of 10.98 = €4.15 ÷ €0.38 (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) A higher P/E ratio means that investors are payinga higher pricefor each €1 of company earnings. That isn't necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future. P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. Therefore, even if you pay a high multiple of earnings now, that multiple will become lower in the future. And as that P/E ratio drops, the company will look cheap, unless its share price increases. Ratti's 74% EPS improvement over the last year was like bamboo growth after rain; rapid and impressive. The cherry on top is that the five year growth rate was an impressive 27% per year. So I'd be surprised if the P/E ratio wasnotabove average. The P/E ratio essentially measures market expectations of a company. If you look at the image below, you can see Ratti has a lower P/E than the average (14.4) in the luxury industry classification. This suggests that market participants think Ratti will underperform other companies in its industry. Since the market seems unimpressed with Ratti, it's quite possible it could surprise on the upside. You should delve deeper. I like to checkif company insiders have been buying or selling. It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. Thus, the metric does not reflect cash or debt held by the company. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth. Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof). Since Ratti holds net cash of €2.3m, it can spend on growth, justifying a higher P/E ratio than otherwise. Ratti trades on a P/E ratio of 11, which is below the IT market average of 15.8. Not only should the net cash position reduce risk, but the recent growth has been impressive. The below average P/E ratio suggests that market participants don't believe the strong growth will continue. When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. Although we don't have analyst forecasts, you could get a better understanding of its growth by checking outthis more detailed historical graphof earnings, revenue and cash flow. Of course,you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates.So take a peek at thisfreelist of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Bitcoin rollercoaster continues as price dives below $10,000 Just a week ago, as the price of one bitcoin surpassed$10,000for the first time in more than a year, it appeared that the rise of the most popular cryptocurrency is unstoppable. Each day, Bitcoin hitnew highs, almost touching $14,000 on June 27 — and then the growth abruptly stopped and the price started going the other direction. Five days later, and one bitcoin dropped to $9,835, having fallen more than 10 percent in the last 24 hours according toCoinMarketCap. (During the couple of hours needed to write this text, the price recovered to $10,225.) The prices of other popular cryptocurrencies followed suit. Ethereum is down to $282, a 4.5 percent decline in 24 hours, and XRP is down to $0.395, a 3.4 percent decline in that same period.Read more... More aboutBitcoin,Ethereum,Cryptocurrencies,Tech, andCryptocurrency Blockchain
Should You Be Excited About Redrow plc's (LON:RDW) 20% Return On Equity? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! While some investors are already well versed in financial metrics (hat tip), this article is for those who would like to learn about Return On Equity (ROE) and why it is important. To keep the lesson grounded in practicality, we'll use ROE to better understand Redrow plc (LON:RDW). Over the last twelve monthsRedrow has recorded a ROE of 20%. Another way to think of that is that for every £1 worth of equity in the company, it was able to earn £0.20. See our latest analysis for Redrow Theformula for ROEis: Return on Equity = Net Profit ÷ Shareholders' Equity Or for Redrow: 20% = UK£315m ÷ UK£1.6b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.) Most readers would understand what net profit is, but it’s worth explaining the concept of shareholders’ equity. It is the capital paid in by shareholders, plus any retained earnings. Shareholders' equity can be calculated by subtracting the total liabilities of the company from the total assets of the company. Return on Equity measures a company's profitability against the profit it has kept for the business (plus any capital injections). The 'return' is the profit over the last twelve months. That means that the higher the ROE, the more profitable the company is. So, as a general rule,a high ROE is a good thing. That means it can be interesting to compare the ROE of different companies. Arguably the easiest way to assess company's ROE is to compare it with the average in its industry. Importantly, this is far from a perfect measure, because companies differ significantly within the same industry classification. Pleasingly, Redrow has a superior ROE than the average (16%) company in the Consumer Durables industry. That's what I like to see. In my book, a high ROE almost always warrants a closer look. One data point to check is ifinsiders have bought shares recently. Most companies need money -- from somewhere -- to grow their profits. That cash can come from retained earnings, issuing new shares (equity), or debt. In the case of the first and second options, the ROE will reflect this use of cash, for growth. In the latter case, the debt used for growth will improve returns, but won't affect the total equity. Thus the use of debt can improve ROE, albeit along with extra risk in the case of stormy weather, metaphorically speaking. Redrow has a debt to equity ratio of just 0.00064, which is very low. The fact that it achieved a fairly good ROE with only modest debt suggests the business might be worth putting on your watchlist. Judicious use of debt to improve returns can certainly be a good thing, although it does elevate risk slightly and reduce future optionality. Return on equity is one way we can compare the business quality of different companies. In my book the highest quality companies have high return on equity, despite low debt. If two companies have the same ROE, then I would generally prefer the one with less debt. Having said that, while ROE is a useful indicator of business quality, you'll have to look at a whole range of factors to determine the right price to buy a stock. Profit growth rates, versus the expectations reflected in the price of the stock, are a particularly important to consider. So I think it may be worth checking thisfreereport on analyst forecasts for the company. If you would prefer check out another company -- one with potentially superior financials -- then do not miss thisfreelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
'Tariff-proof': One class of recent IPOs is seen as immune to the trade war Amid the parade of tech IPOs in the first half of 2019, the stocks that have performed the best have not been the consumer-facing household names like Uber (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT). Instead, much of the excitement is around business-to-business SAAS (software as a service) companies like PagerDuty (PD) (debuted on April 11), Zoom (ZM) (April 18), CrowdStrike (CRWD) June 12), and Slack (WORK) (June 20). The average consumer may not know those names, but investors are showing them the love. The success these stocks are seeing should send a sign, says DA Davidson analyst Rishi Jaluria, to similar companies mulling an IPO: Now is the time. “This is kind of the time that a lot of these enterprise software companies should be looking to go public, if they have their financials in order,” Jaluria says. “We talk a lot about this idea of an IPO window, and right now I think the conditions are definitely there: multiples in enterprise software are really rich right now; investor interest is very very high for enterprise software; the fact that all the enterprise software companies this year have done well and continue to do well.” So, why are enterprise software companies doing so well? The most obvious characteristic they all share: recurring subscription revenue, which is music to a shareholder’s ears. “You’re not going to have a surprise a year down the line,” Jaluria says, “where suddenly revenue starts to shrink, like you have with some of these high-profile consumer tech IPOs like we saw with GoPro and FitBit.” But Jaluria cites three other key reasons these stocks are soaring. The first and biggest is about tariffs: “I would argue that most enterprise software companies are tariff-proof,” he says. “They do very little business in China, so any sort of Chinese tariffs won’t impact any of these software companies in a meaningful way, outside of Zoom because they have a decent amount of R&D in China.” Similarly, Jaluria reasons investors see the SAAS stocks as also being recession-proof, if an economic downturn is imminent. DA Davison ran an analysis of stock performance after the 2008 crisis and determined software companies like Salesforce, NetSuite, and Red Hat all weathered the storm much better than other tech stocks. That’s why Danielle Shay of Simpler Tradingcalls them “phoenix stocks”—the first to rise after a market pullback. If investors do indeed see the SAAS companies in that light, it will be a huge boon to their stock performance if the trade war persists. The tariff uncertainty has caused major trouble for big U.S. companies that do a lot of business in China, likeApple, Nike, Starbucks, and InBev-owned Budweiser. Jaluria’s third reason the SAAS stocks are so hot is a reference to venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s famous 2011 Wall Street Journal essay: “Software is eating the world.” Eight years later, Jaluria says, the phenomenon is happening again: “Every single company is going through a digital transformation right now, and becoming a software company, and in my mind that backdrop of a really healthy software spending environment helps all these companies grow.” All of this is why analysts are so bullish on Slack, even though itsdebut in June via direct listingdid not quite have the fanfare of other recent IPOs, and its stock has not popped like the others have. Baird initiated coverage of Slack last week with an Outperform rating, and raved that Slack’s TAM (total addressable market) can be even bigger than Slack’s own projection of $28 billion. “Anyone who uses email and/or other collaboration tools is a potential customer,” Baird wrote. DA Davidson is a bit more muted, initiating its coverage with a ‘neutral’ rating, and saying, “Multiple secular tailwinds should benefit Slack, in our view, including the proliferation of best-of-breed SaaS applications and the increasingly collaborative and unstructured nature of work.” In the second half of 2019, Jaluria expects more IPOs, especially of software names: “I expect the flurry to really start in September.” It’s an easy call to make, when so many have performed so well. — Daniel Roberts is a senior writer and show host at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: SAAS companies like Zoom and PagerDuty are the new ‘phoenix stocks’ Beyond Meat CEO after soaring IPO: 'I'm not going to look every day at the stock price' The ‘smart athletes’ will go vegan, says NBA champion and Beyond Meat investor John Salley Uber has lived through a parade of executive exits leading up to its IPO Kraft Heinz has two glaring issues for investors
Hungary Approves Science Crackdown as Orban Walks EU Tightrope (Bloomberg) -- Hungarian lawmakers rubber-stamped a bill that critics warn will open the door to the political control of scientific research in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s latest move to tighten his grip on power. The law is another step in Orban’s almost decade-long march to take control of all walks of Hungarian life. He has imposed his will on institutions ranging from media and education to the central bank and courts, drawing censure from the European Union for undermining the rule of law. But the premier has also avoided serious punishment by reversing course when he sees he’s pushed the EU’s boundaries too far. Underscoring that approach, another bill was approved on Tuesday to rescind a plan to carve up the supreme court for the second time in a decade. Orban announced the climbdown in May after nationalists who had rallied with him in a call to change the EU’s liberal, multi-cultural values failed to win enough support in European Parliament elections. After his ruling Fidesz party was suspended from Europe’s biggest political group for democratic backsliding, Orban is maneuvering to protect billions of euros at risk of being cut by EU officials as a sanction against countries that flout the bloc’s standards. “It’s Orban’s classic peacock dance,” said Peter Kreko, executive director of the Budapest-based think-tank Political Capital, in reference to the passage of the judicial law. “He wants to sustain his government and make sure that EU funds keep flowing to the country.” Talks over the bloc’s seven-year budget will get underway in earnest later this year after national leaders settle on who will lead the EU’s executive. A special summit to discuss the nomination resumes on Tuesday, with Orban adamantly opposed to the candidacy of Frans Timmermans, the commission’s first vice-president and a vocal Orban critic. A four-term premier, Orban controls not only parliament but most of Hungary’s formerly independent institutions, as well as Europe’s biggest propaganda machine. Hungary is also facing an EU probe for eroding the rule of law, which may ultimately lead to the suspension of its voting rights in the bloc. The science bill strips the autonomous Academy of Sciences of its 15 research centers that fund work on everything from nuclear physics to linguistics. With Orban arguing that research should serve an economic purpose and align with the cabinet’s priorities, the legislation will put the centers’ 3,000 scientists under control of a new entity led by government appointees. Orban has vowed to boost funding if his delegates can influence what can or can’t be researched. Scientists have protested, saying it’s a slippery slope to political control. The Academy has also said it may prompt experts to leave the country to work abroad. Before that vote, lawmakers backed abolishing a law stripping the supreme court of its mandate to judge public administration cases, including ones dealing with elections and corruption. A new top court under the jurisdiction of Orban’s justice minister was going to start issuing rulings from next year, but that plan has been indefinitely suspended. To contact the reporter on this story: Zoltan Simon in Budapest at zsimon@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andras Gergely For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Spider-Man: Far From Home review: Tom Holland fills the Avengers void with a breezy superhero holiday snap Zendaya and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home - Â©2019 CTMG, Inc. All rights reserved. **ALL IMAGES ARE PROPERTY OF SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT IN Dir: Jon Watts; Starring: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L Jackson, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Jacob Batalon. 12A cert, 129 mins Having spent the last decade building up to the second most successful film ever made, it’s only natural that Marvel Studios would want to take a gap year. Spider-Man: Far From Home offers a breezy, Europe-set intermezzo between Avengers: Endgame and whatever is coming next – a kind of sorbet in blockbuster form to punctuate the binge. Thanos has been vanquished and his genocidal finger-snap reversed, an atrocity the general public now casually refer to as “the blip”. They’re considerably more unnerved by the lack of A-list superheroes on the scene now the likes of Iron Man and Captain America have been moved to the folder marked "contracts expired", and the clamour is growing for a survivor to fill the void. Tony Stark’s apprentice, young Peter Parker (Tom Holland), is as good a contender as any – except Peter prefers heroism on the friendly neighbourhood scale, and can’t see himself as an Avengers leading light. He’d rather just enjoy his high school year group’s summer tour of Venice, Prague, Berlin and London, though the untimely arrival of some elemental monsters from another dimension puts paid to that. Like its 2017 predecessor Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home works best when it allows itself to be a teen movie. Holland’s take on the Spider-Man character remains an appealing mix of cocky, earnest and awkward – the early, special-effects free scenes with his classmates, including Zendaya’s winningly sardonic MJ, zip along amusingly, particularly when they offer a more down-to-earth perspective on the franchise’s more recent cosmic events. And when a previously unknown but apparently mature and capable superhuman called Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) elbows his way into the limelight as a giant water demon lays waste to Venice, you can sense the duty-burdened youngster’s relief. Yet that initial action scene confirms that returning director Jon Watts and his visual effects team still haven’t worked out what sets Spider-Man apart visually and kinetically from the rest of the superhero pack. After the relentless dazzle and invention of last year’s animated Oscar-winner Into the Spider-Verse , the spectacle in Far From Home with its CG fug and holiday-snap palette all feels a little bland and rote. It’s telling that the only set-piece capable of drawing a gasp belongs entirely to Mysterio, as this Doctor Strange-like figure unveils the full extent of his Daliesque powers. Story continues Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home No shade intended, but Holland’s version of Spider-Man seems to work best when used sparingly – wisecracking during an ensemble battle or eliciting sobs at the end of Infinity War, rather than carrying an entire adventure single-handed. Even the approach to comedy here is an overstretched version of the small-dose model, with each supporting character given a single joke button to hit repeatedly over the course of two-hours-plus. In a 90 minute film that wouldn’t prove the test of patience it becomes here, but there are no 90-minute superhero films. Perhaps now’s the time to have a look at that. Spider-Man: Far From Home is released on July 2 View comments
$1 billion in crypto will be spent on the dark web this year; but under 1% of all bitcoin transactions – Report Crypto transactions on the dark web are set to hit a record $1 billion by the end of 2019, Bloomberg writes. According to research by Chainalysis, crypto usage on the dark web has amounted to a new high of $515 million since the start of the year. Besides bitcoin, Monero is also widely used on the dark web primarily to purchase drugs, child pornography and stolen credit-card information. Nevertheless, illicit transactions constitute less than 1 per cent of all Bitcoin transactions. This has decreased from the 7 per cent seen in 2012, according to Chainalysis senior product manager of data Hannah Curtis. The Financial Action Task Force recently released new guidelines to help counter the use of cryptocurrencies for money laundering and terrorism.
Does Plastiblends India Limited's (NSE:PLASTIBLEN) Past Performance Indicate A Stronger Future? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! For long term investors, improvement in profitability and outperformance against the industry can be important characteristics in a stock. In this article, I will take a look at Plastiblends India Limited's (NSE:PLASTIBLEN) track record on a high level, to give you some insight into how the company has been performing against its historical trend and its industry peers. Check out our latest analysis for Plastiblends India PLASTIBLEN's trailing twelve-month earnings (from 31 March 2019) of ₹312m has jumped 14% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, this one-year growth rate has exceeded its 5-year annual growth average of 1.0%, indicating the rate at which PLASTIBLEN is growing has accelerated. How has it been able to do this? Let's see whether it is solely attributable to industry tailwinds, or if Plastiblends India has experienced some company-specific growth. In terms of returns from investment, Plastiblends India has fallen short of achieving a 20% return on equity (ROE), recording 12% instead. However, its return on assets (ROA) of 9.5% exceeds the IN Chemicals industry of 9.2%, indicating Plastiblends India has used its assets more efficiently. Though, its return on capital (ROC), which also accounts for Plastiblends India’s debt level, has declined over the past 3 years from 21% to 15%. This correlates with an increase in debt holding, with debt-to-equity ratio rising from 23% to 26% over the past 5 years. Though Plastiblends India's past data is helpful, it is only one aspect of my investment thesis. Companies that have performed well in the past, such as Plastiblends India gives investors conviction. However, the next step would be to assess whether the future looks as optimistic. I suggest you continue to research Plastiblends India to get a more holistic view of the stock by looking at: 1. Financial Health: Are PLASTIBLEN’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out ourfinancial health checks here. 2. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore ourfree list of these great stocks here. NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 March 2019. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Do You Know About Petros Petropoulos AEBE’s (ATH:PETRO) ROCE? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today we'll evaluate Petros Petropoulos AEBE (ATH:PETRO) to determine whether it could have potential as an investment idea. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires. Firstly, we'll go over how we calculate ROCE. Next, we'll compare it to others in its industry. And finally, we'll look at how its current liabilities are impacting its ROCE. ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. All else being equal, a better business will have a higher ROCE. Ultimately, it is a useful but imperfect metric. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussinhas suggestedthat a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'. The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities) Or for Petros Petropoulos AEBE: 0.12 = €5.0m ÷ (€65m - €22m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2019.) Therefore,Petros Petropoulos AEBE has an ROCE of 12%. Check out our latest analysis for Petros Petropoulos AEBE ROCE can be useful when making comparisons, such as between similar companies. It appears that Petros Petropoulos AEBE's ROCE is fairly close to the Machinery industry average of 11%. Separate from how Petros Petropoulos AEBE stacks up against its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms is mediocre; relative to the returns on government bonds. Investors may wish to consider higher-performing investments. Our data shows that Petros Petropoulos AEBE currently has an ROCE of 12%, compared to its ROCE of 3.7% 3 years ago. This makes us think about whether the company has been reinvesting shrewdly. The image below shows how Petros Petropoulos AEBE's ROCE compares to its industry, and you can click it to see more detail on its past growth. It is important to remember that ROCE shows past performance, and is not necessarily predictive. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. This is because ROCE only looks at one year, instead of considering returns across a whole cycle. You can check if Petros Petropoulos AEBE has cyclical profits by looking at thisfreegraph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow. Short term (or current) liabilities, are things like supplier invoices, overdrafts, or tax bills that need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way ROCE is calculated, a high level of current liabilities makes a company look as though it has less capital employed, and thus can (sometimes unfairly) boost the ROCE. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. Petros Petropoulos AEBE has total liabilities of €22m and total assets of €65m. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 34% of its total assets. Petros Petropoulos AEBE's middling level of current liabilities have the effect of boosting its ROCE a bit. Despite this, its ROCE is still mediocre, and you may find more appealing investments elsewhere. But note:make sure you look for a great company, not just the first idea you come across.So take a peek at thisfreelist of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20). I will like Petros Petropoulos AEBE better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out thisfreelist of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.
Is There Now An Opportunity In Cementir Holding S.p.A. (BIT:CEM)? Want to participate in ashort research study? Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Cementir Holding S.p.A. (BIT:CEM), which is in the basic materials business, and is based in Italy, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the BIT over the last few months, increasing to €6.55 at one point, and dropping to the lows of €5.79. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Cementir Holding's current trading price of €6.33 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Let’s take a look at Cementir Holding’s outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change. View our latest analysis for Cementir Holding The stock is currently trading at €6.33 on the share market, which means it is overvalued by 23.62% compared to my intrinsic value of €5.12. This means that the buying opportunity has probably disappeared for now. If you like the stock, you may want to keep an eye out for a potential price decline in the future. Given that Cementir Holding’s share is fairly volatile (i.e. its price movements are magnified relative to the rest of the market) this could mean the price can sink lower, giving us another chance to buy in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for share price volatility. Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Although value investors would argue that it’s the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. However, with a negative profit growth of -18% expected over the next couple of years, near-term growth certainly doesn’t appear to be a driver for a buy decision for Cementir Holding. This certainty tips the risk-return scale towards higher risk. Are you a shareholder?If you believe CEM should trade below its current price, selling high and buying it back up again when its price falls towards its real value can be profitable. Given the uncertainty from negative growth in the future, this could be the right time to reduce your total portfolio risk. But before you make this decision, take a look at whether its fundamentals have changed. Are you a potential investor?If you’ve been keeping tabs on CEM for some time, now may not be the best time to enter into the stock. Its price has risen beyond its true value, on top of a negative future outlook. However, there are also other important factors which we haven’t considered today, such as the track record of its management. Should the price fall in the future, will you be well-informed enough to buy? Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters – the fundamentals – before you make a decision on Cementir Holding. You can find everything you need to know about Cementir Holding inthe latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Cementir Holding, you can use our free platform to see my list of over50 other stocks with a high growth potential. We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor ateditorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.

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