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The Official Stocks and Shares Thread

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Reply 6560
Original post by rza89
ok ladies whats the deal?, its a good time to buy

my tips or the ones i follow religiously is XEL, BLVN, GKP ofc, and ESSR energy

i suspect BLVN is screaming buy at 80pish, could easily be £1+

and Xcite energy, with such good news, in the north sea, but very surpressed prices

DYOR


Ladies? how dare you :tongue:

On a serious note, xel needs to be making upwards movements, cant understand why its undervalued at mo. With no news on the horizon for gkp, it will float around 250p mark.

I would recommend Ophir. I have a small holding in them, via ophir taking over dominion petroleum earlier this year.
Original post by JustAnotherCliche
Anyone holding LOQ? After doing some research and following it for the last couple of weeks I've invested a couple of thousand. It's seems a pretty interesting company, great management, a great product, good growth prospects and no debt! Looking froward to the interim results later this month. Looking to hold it long term. Just wondering if anyone else had them in their portfolio?

If interested in LOQ then DYOR.


Hi there,

It's really refreshing to see someone investing in something other than these speculative drilling companies for once! I've had a quick look at this business and I agree it does have an innovative product and some really promising fundamentals: high return on capital, high margins, strong balance sheet, good cash flow. My conerns would be whether those prospects are already realised in the asking price. I'm a value investor so I'm looking to buy good companies at a discount to their underlying value so we might be viewing this from different angles but with a Price to Earnings ratio of 30 and Price to Book of 5.6 any deviation from very strong growth over the next few years will likely result in severe punishment by the markets. I have absouletly no idea whether that will happen and it may well go on to be even more succesful than it already is but for me it's just too risky to invest at these current levels...
Reply 6562
Original post by Dumpynose
Hi there,

It's really refreshing to see someone investing in something other than these speculative drilling companies for once! I've had a quick look at this business and I agree it does have an innovative product and some really promising fundamentals: high return on capital, high margins, strong balance sheet, good cash flow. My conerns would be whether those prospects are already realised in the asking price. I'm a value investor so I'm looking to buy good companies at a discount to their underlying value so we might be viewing this from different angles but with a Price to Earnings ratio of 30 and Price to Book of 5.6 any deviation from very strong growth over the next few years will likely result in severe punishment by the markets. I have absouletly no idea whether that will happen and it may well go on to be even more succesful than it already is but for me it's just too risky to invest at these current levels...


the point about what is priced in is well made and LOQ is probably one of those companies where you can actually work out growth potential quite easily (although I won't do that here).

Basically, if a company is priced at 30x your getting a earnings yield of 3.33% and profits need to at least double to achieve a market return (as a rough estimation). It also depends on long your willing to wait for the doubling to happen.

Given the product, there is a point at which market penetration is complete and the only sales will be replacing existing customers stock. At this point, the multiple won't be 30x.

So the important question is how big is the market for their product, how far has this been penetrated, and what effect will further penetration have on margins? It seems like the customer gains a low-cost way to improve end-user experience so the economics seem pretty good. However, if I was a customer I wouldn't bother, ultimately end-users are still going to have wait around either way. Also, customers' properties are usually based around having to queue so the cost of implementing this system may involve re-designing the park. What about competition? I can't imagine that the people who make those little beeping boxes used in restaurants will ignore this market.

Other general points that came up when I read financials. One, most companies like LOQ have weak financial positions but the company has a lot of cash. This is a double-edged sword as it has obviously got to the point where it is totally excessive which suggests the company may be looking to buy something. The fact that insider ownership is extremely high is good, suggesting a clear incentive not to do something stupid, but acquisitions are very high risk.

Two, the earnings quality is also quite good, for a company like LOQ, although the persistent investment in intangibles is somewhat suspicious. I can't be sure but it looks like this may be capitalized R&D expense, I prefer to see companies expense in the year incurred and if you include these capitalized expenses then earnings quality isn't as good. It also looks the company only has one product and while it involves technology, it isn't exactly high-tech. There is also some other strange stuff about how depreciates installed systems which I don't quite understand. However, the company is collecting cash which is always comforting as it is very hard to fake.

My personal view is that the company appears to be penetrating a genuinely new, untapped market. There are a few things that are concerning but the biggest is valuation (although earnings quality puts me off as well). Is the market big enough to sustain this P/E? Maybe, maybe not.
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Dumpynose
Hi there,

It's really refreshing to see someone investing in something other than these speculative drilling companies for once! I've had a quick look at this business and I agree it does have an innovative product and some really promising fundamentals: high return on capital, high margins, strong balance sheet, good cash flow. My conerns would be whether those prospects are already realised in the asking price. I'm a value investor so I'm looking to buy good companies at a discount to their underlying value so we might be viewing this from different angles but with a Price to Earnings ratio of 30 and Price to Book of 5.6 any deviation from very strong growth over the next few years will likely result in severe punishment by the markets. I have absouletly no idea whether that will happen and it may well go on to be even more succesful than it already is but for me it's just too risky to invest at these current levels...



Haha yes this thread is very biased towards drilling companies. When I first started following this thread and everyone was shouting about GKP, XEL, RRL etc I was thinking of investing, but I realised I had no idea whatsoever how to value oil companies so I've steered clear. Maybe when I've got some more experience I may dabble :wink:.

Yeah LOQ looks interesting, I wish I could have got in earlier but I guess that's what everyone says. Yeah it is trading at a pretty high P/E but I'm willing to take the risk. I think they've got great growth prospects as there are loads of theme parks they can still get contracts with. Thinking from the theme parks perspective I don't see why they wouldn't want the devices installed after all would they rather have their customers queueing for a ride or in in a restaurant or the gift shop browsing until it's their at the front of the queue for the ride? I know which I'd choose if I were the manager.

Thinking longer term when we're finally out of this recession and people are spending more during their leisure time i.e going to theme parks etc. Once they're in they'll think yeah I'll splash a little more cash and get the Q-bot after all I've already spent 50 quid to get into the park this will make my day less hassle. So yeah I definitely see growth potential not only from getting new contracts but also the revenue from current contracts.
We'll have to see, fingers crossed! :biggrin:
Original post by crcr
the point about what is priced in is well made and LOQ is probably one of those companies where you can actually work out growth potential quite easily (although I won't do that here).

Basically, if a company is priced at 30x your getting a earnings yield of 3.33% and profits need to at least double to achieve a market return (as a rough estimation). It also depends on long your willing to wait for the doubling to happen.

Given the product, there is a point at which market penetration is complete and the only sales will be replacing existing customers stock. At this point, the multiple won't be 30x.

So the important question is how big is the market for their product, how far has this been penetrated, and what effect will further penetration have on margins? It seems like the customer gains a low-cost way to improve end-user experience so the economics seem pretty good. However, if I was a customer I wouldn't bother, ultimately end-users are still going to have wait around either way. Also, customers' properties are usually based around having to queue so the cost of implementing this system may involve re-designing the park. What about competition? I can't imagine that the people who make those little beeping boxes used in restaurants will ignore this market.

Other general points that came up when I read financials. One, most companies like LOQ have weak financial positions but the company has a lot of cash. This is a double-edged sword as it has obviously got to the point where it is totally excessive which suggests the company may be looking to buy something. The fact that insider ownership is extremely high is good, suggesting a clear incentive not to do something stupid, but acquisitions are very high risk.

Two, the earnings quality is also quite good, for a company like LOQ, although the persistent investment in intangibles is somewhat suspicious. I can't be sure but it looks like this may be capitalized R&D expense, I prefer to see companies expense in the year incurred and if you include these capitalized expenses then earnings quality isn't as good. It also looks the company only has one product and while it involves technology, it isn't exactly high-tech. There is also some other strange stuff about how depreciates installed systems which I don't quite understand. However, the company is collecting cash which is always comforting as it is very hard to fake.

My personal view is that the company appears to be penetrating a genuinely new, untapped market. There are a few things that are concerning but the biggest is valuation (although earnings quality puts me off as well). Is the market big enough to sustain this P/E? Maybe, maybe not.


Wow this is great analysis! Your thought about the cash is interesting, the fact they've stockpiled quite a hefty load does mean they may be looking to acquire something, I hadn't thought of that in my own research.
I completely agree there will come a time when LOQ has contracts with all the theme parks or at least the main ones. But I don't see why they can't develop this valuable technology to other "queuing" situations. Supermarkets, bars, etc. Their newest system works on an iphone, so I'm sure they can develop something for any queuing situation in partnership with the other business. That will continue their growth. But hey that's years away, need to concentrate on the theme parks at the moment!

The fact that management has a large holding was also part of my reason for investing. It's annoying it's on aim as it means I couldn't stick it in my ISA, but never mind. It'll be interesting to see how things go, this is only my second stock I've ever bought so it'll probably be a bumpy ride knowing my luck :biggrin:
anybody got any advice for how to get into trading in stocks and shares as an amateur, i know absolutly nothing about this so please use simple talk if you can help:biggrin: thankyou!
Original post by Maccees
Thought of a quick question, where do you look for companies with potential?
All the ones you have chosen so far have been spot on, I mean did you just choose them at random or was there a certain source or...?


Hi Maccees,

I don't use any websites to gauge what stocks to invest in. I only use websites for doing the charting (myself) and gathering info on them such as free float, upcoming news etc

Trader2012
Original post by jefh262
Yesterday bought into an american pennystock HDSI.PK - after it had crashed from 0.14 to 0.008 over two days.

The company released a statement for the unusual trading activity saying that it had no news to explain such a drop, and then it rose to a high yesterday of 0.02. Looking at the pennant chart formation I'm thinking there could be a massive bounce on Monday that's definitely worth a punt of a few hundred quid imo...

But I'll be the first to admit that there are some far more knowledgable and better traders on this forum. I'd be extremely interested to hear other views on this stock? Especially someone like Trader2012 who seems to be very good at technical analysis, I'd be extremely grateful if you could give your opinion on this chart

DYOR


Hi,

I haven't had a lot of time to study the company (i.e the nature of the news etc.)

However, it looks as if it has flatlined and broken out of the 5-day downward wedge which is positive. Its currently pivoting around 0.14 and the next movement will be vital. However, considering the large drop and earlier rise to 0.2 it is certainly possible that another fairly large bounce is imminent assuming that most sellers were shaken out when it hit 0.2.


Trader2012
Also well done to all who got into my medium term pick of AEX.

Last week it had risen at its peak by 50% week on week.


Trader2012
Original post by Trader2012
Hi Maccees,

I don't use any websites to gauge what stocks to invest in. I only use websites for doing the charting (myself) and gathering info on them such as free float, upcoming news etc

Trader2012


Ah right cool.

Good holiday haha?
Original post by calumsteele1
anybody got any advice for how to get into trading in stocks and shares as an amateur, i know absolutly nothing about this so please use simple talk if you can help:biggrin: thankyou!


Hiya,

It's pretty daunting going onto investment forums and not knowing any of the jargon, but don't worry you pick it up pretty quickly. My best advice is to read, read and read some more. There are literally hundreds of books out there which help you understand the stock market. A tiny fraction of them I've read.

I started with this book which gave me a fantastic understanding of not only shares but other forms of investments e.g bonds, options etc. It is a little pricey and pretty hefty but the knowledge is invaluable and you'll have a clear understanding of all the jargon. Plus it has lots of lists of really useful websites to use for research and a glossary at the back which I've found useful when searching investor forums.

Next I read this book which was fantastic. The book is filled with great tips and is very humorous in places. The first book gives you a sound understanding in how stocks and shares work and this book then goes onto give you techniques on how to pick winning stocks (or in some cases losers, which you can make money from, which you will learn later.) So yeah this is a great book for strategies on picking medium to long term stock for your portfolio.

Another book I'd recommend is this one. There's a lot of talk these days about the psychology behind investing and the markets so I thought it would be an idea to get to grips and have a better understanding on it. This book didn't let me down, it's quite heavy on the research that has been carried out, but it has lots of information on how people think and behave when investing. This can be valuable information as if you know how people are likely to behave you can make more educated decisions on where and more importantly when to invest.

Those are a few of the books I've read which have really helped. Although I haven't read it yet, the Intelligent Investor is supposed to be every investors bible so that's on my list to read soon.

Go onto youtube and watch videos on Warren Buffet, take down notes on what he did and any advice which you think you could use. Another great resource which I've used is http://www.khanacademy.org/. This site has loads of videos on finance and investing which I've found really helpful and interesting. Mr. Khan is very good at explaining things clearly and concisely and all the videos are free!

So that would be my advice to start off with. I've learnt a hell of a lot since I started reading in January and now I can go onto any investment forum and understand the jargon so it's very much achievable you just have to want it enough. Best of luck, hope this post helps :smile:
Original post by JustAnotherCliche
Hiya,

It's pretty daunting going onto investment forums and not knowing any of the jargon, but don't worry you pick it up pretty quickly. My best advice is to read, read and read some more. There are literally hundreds of books out there which help you understand the stock market. A tiny fraction of them I've read.

I started with this book which gave me a fantastic understanding of not only shares but other forms of investments e.g bonds, options etc. It is a little pricey and pretty hefty but the knowledge is invaluable and you'll have a clear understanding of all the jargon. Plus it has lots of lists of really useful websites to use for research and a glossary at the back which I've found useful when searching investor forums.

Next I read this book which was fantastic. The book is filled with great tips and is very humorous in places. The first book gives you a sound understanding in how stocks and shares work and this book then goes onto give you techniques on how to pick winning stocks (or in some cases losers, which you can make money from, which you will learn later.) So yeah this is a great book for strategies on picking medium to long term stock for your portfolio.

Another book I'd recommend is this one. There's a lot of talk these days about the psychology behind investing and the markets so I thought it would be an idea to get to grips and have a better understanding on it. This book didn't let me down, it's quite heavy on the research that has been carried out, but it has lots of information on how people think and behave when investing. This can be valuable information as if you know how people are likely to behave you can make more educated decisions on where and more importantly when to invest.

Those are a few of the books I've read which have really helped. Although I haven't read it yet, the Intelligent Investor is supposed to be every investors bible so that's on my list to read soon.

Go onto youtube and watch videos on Warren Buffet, take down notes on what he did and any advice which you think you could use. Another great resource which I've used is http://www.khanacademy.org/. This site has loads of videos on finance and investing which I've found really helpful and interesting. Mr. Khan is very good at explaining things clearly and concisely and all the videos are free!

So that would be my advice to start off with. I've learnt a hell of a lot since I started reading in January and now I can go onto any investment forum and understand the jargon so it's very much achievable you just have to want it enough. Best of luck, hope this post helps :smile:


i must say i wasnt expecting such a thorough reply! but thank you very much grade A answer, i've repped your comment. thank you very much though! :smile:
Original post by JustAnotherCliche
Haha yes this thread is very biased towards drilling companies. When I first started following this thread and everyone was shouting about GKP, XEL, RRL etc I was thinking of investing, but I realised I had no idea whatsoever how to value oil companies so I've steered clear. Maybe when I've got some more experience I may dabble :wink:.

Yeah LOQ looks interesting, I wish I could have got in earlier but I guess that's what everyone says. Yeah it is trading at a pretty high P/E but I'm willing to take the risk. I think they've got great growth prospects as there are loads of theme parks they can still get contracts with. Thinking from the theme parks perspective I don't see why they wouldn't want the devices installed after all would they rather have their customers queueing for a ride or in in a restaurant or the gift shop browsing until it's their at the front of the queue for the ride? I know which I'd choose if I were the manager.

Thinking longer term when we're finally out of this recession and people are spending more during their leisure time i.e going to theme parks etc. Once they're in they'll think yeah I'll splash a little more cash and get the Q-bot after all I've already spent 50 quid to get into the park this will make my day less hassle. So yeah I definitely see growth potential not only from getting new contracts but also the revenue from current contracts.
We'll have to see, fingers crossed! :biggrin:


My personal opinion when it comes to investing in drilling companies is that unless you've got insiders knowledge you'll have probably have more luck down at the bookies! The closet I've come yet to finding a suitable company from the mining industry is Shaft Sinkers (:tongue:) although their business is more akin to selling shovels to the prospectors - which I like the idea of.

I saw in Lo-Q's prospectus that the Q-bot helps increase the time customers stay in the park which is the main performance indicator so I'd imagine it would be very attractive to management if the return makes sense on the lease. They also said they could target shopping malls and airports in the future which could be really handy for when flights/check-ins get delayed and of course this comes with massive growth potential too if they can make it profitable. Hope the interim results continue to impress.
GKP is really starting to bore me.
Reply 6574
Original post by Maccees
GKP is really starting to bore me.


Patience :tongue:
...
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by vn2009
Patience :tongue:


I've ran out, I want to do other things with the money! haha

Original post by Trader2012
...


Change your mind about that lol?
Original post by Maccees
I've ran out, I want to do other things with the money! haha



Change your mind about that lol?


yep!
AEX a VERY strong buy at the moment
anyone eyeing up Aviva? was at 330ish last week...trading v. bullish at around the 313p mark today......perhaps a pullback in store?

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