Research Tree | Equity Research for Investors

03 Aug 21

Somero Enterprises - Fill your concrete boots

he stock has enjoyed a sharp bounce back since the COVID-19 lows in March 2020, reflecting successive upgrades backed up by the strength of its cash generation. Whilst 13x 21E PE remains at the upper end of its recent valuation range, the positive outlook for US non-residential construction, structural growth trends behind new products and the potential for a significant cash return over the next three years (we estimate the group can return c.20% of its market cap) means we remain positive. We

Companies: Somero Enterprises, Inc.

29 Jul 21

Strong trading continues in FY22

Volex has issued a positive AGM trading update highlighting that it expects to deliver underlying operating profits for FY22E slightly ahead of current market expectations. It notes that the levels of customer demand it experienced in H2 FY21 has continued in Q1 FY22E. Cash generation remains robust and management continue to advance acquisition opportunities, which we expect to deliver future accretion. We have upgraded our adjusted operating profit estimates by c.5% and see Volex as well place

Companies: Volex plc

29 Jul 21

Excess capital accumulation

The quarter enjoyed the ongoing recovery in revenue margins and net provision releases further boosted by a portion of the announced tax gains. The question is not at what pace profitability will recover but instead at what pace will it normalise? In the meantime, the group is accumulating excess capital that will be returned to shareholders.

Companies: Lloyds Banking Group plc

27 Jul 21

LIBERUM: Sylvania Platinum* - Hitting guidance, no disruption

Companies: Sylvania Platinum Ltd.

29 Jul 21

LIBERUM: Vertu Motors - Used car momentum continues

Companies: Vertu Motors PLC

30 Jul 21

Powerhouse Energy - AGM Sets Timetable on Protos

Powerhouse’s AGM statement has set revised timing for the completion of its first project at the Protos site with a 2023 completion now expected. With the company adding key resources the new timetable is being de-risked in our view and the loan from the company to the project has already reduced supply chain risk on key equipment lead times. While we will review our forecasts for the new timing, we think the company is making real progress towards establishing its technology and we see the addi

Companies: Powerhouse Energy Group PLC

03 Aug 21

Cenkos: Seeing Machines Ltd -- FY21 finishes ahead of expectations

Seeing Machines, the advanced computer vision technology company that designs AI-powered operator monitoring systems to improve transport safety, has released a trading update for the year ended 30 June 2021 announcing revenues of A$47.3m which is 2% better than our forecast. Over 100,000 new vehicles have hit the roads with Seeing Machines' Driver Monitoring System (DMS) technology embedded which is above the 90,000 assumed in our model. This is just the start of production and these royalty

Companies: Seeing Machines Limited

29 Jul 21

Underlying business recovers, full-year earnings outlook reiterated

In its first Litmus test after an ‘ambitious’ CMD in June 2021, the British giant has put up a decent show. The group witnessed recovery in the base business, particularly in vaccines which benefited from the sales of COVID-19 vaccine adjuvant. While the near term continues be tricky due to resurfacing COVID-19 concerns, encouraging trends on the COVID-19 vaccine / treatment front and growing HIV and oncology prowess should calm the nerves.

Companies: GlaxoSmithKline plc

02 Aug 21

Cenkos: Duke Royalty Ltd -- New royalty partner: Creō-tech

Duke has announced its third new royalty partner since April's placing, with a C$8.3m (£4.8m) agreement with Creō-tech Industrial Group Inc (“Creō-tech”). This scheduled new partner is another buy & build platform, with follow-on deployments expected. It represents Duke's 12th current royalty partner and its first in North America, adding diversity in number and geography. This should further add to the anticipated step-up in quarterly cash revenues from Q2/22, after Q1/22's £2.9m record.

Companies: Duke Royalty Limited

02 Aug 21

Powerhouse Energy - Adjusting for New Timings

Following last week’s AGM comments on project timing we have amended our forecasts, shifting early numbers to the right in the timeline. While this impacts FY 21 and FY 22 forecasts the hit further out is minimal. As a result, the impact on valuation is not onerous with our base case valuation dropping 9% to 4.9p from 5.4p. Factoring in early European opportunities would give us a valuation of 7.0p and adding APAC opportunities and fuller European potential would get us to 11.7p.

Companies: Powerhouse Energy Group PLC

28 Jul 21

A year of material profit growth and cash generation

Hargreaves’ FY21 results confirm a period of material profit growth and cash generation. It has been a transformational period, in which all direct coal related activities ceased, HRMS profits surged and net debt was eliminated. As expected, the first 12p additional dividend has been proposed (total FY21 DPS 19.2p) and we expect this to recur for a further three years, at least. As we wrote in our recent detailed note, Hargreaves has been wholly repositioned and now has genuine momentum. The sha

Companies: Hargreaves Services plc

29 Jul 21

Major contract win and Olympic success

Directa announced a significant contract win yesterday, its second major contract with OMV Petrom for waste treatment services using Grafysorber. The four year contract has a total value of €3.2m (c.€0.8m per annum from August 2021). This provides underpinning for current forecasts and builds on recent contract momentum. Meanwhile, there has been further success at the Olympics for cyclists wearing jerseys printed with Directa’s graphene (the Planar Thermal Circuit). The medal haul so far is fiv

Companies: Directa Plus Plc

02 Aug 21

Escape Hunt (ESC LN) - Rebound in demand

Consumer demand for Escape Hunt’s experiential leisure sites has rebounded strongly since reopening. At the same time, the company continues to gain scale with acquisitions outperforming and site rollouts on track to exceed targets. Such solid trading and operational progress improve the company’s long-term profit outlook.

Companies: Escape Hunt Plc

28 Jul 21

Provision releases and equity adjustments boost

The quarter enjoyed stronger-than-expected provision releases and a partial reversal of the first quarter negative equity adjustments, whereas the DTA remeasurement offset ongoing restructuring charges.

Companies: Barclays PLC

29 Jul 21

Revenues do not stabilise despite a favourable basis of comparison

Disappointing Q1 in terms of revenue, however offset in part by a solid EBITDA. Be cautious however that BT, like Orange, does not despair investors by postponing the stabilization of its revenues quarter after quarter. We maintain our opinion at reduce on the stock, however now with… a slight upside.

Companies: BT Group plc

04 Aug 21

Morning Note – 4 August 2021

Companies: CORA IOG PPC

04 Aug 21

IOG - Emissions commitment, Blythe well spud

Emissions commitment, Blythe well spud

Companies: IOG PLC

04 Aug 21

LSL Property Services PLC (LSL LN) - Recovery with underlying growth

Zeus view: We expect 1H underlying operating profit will be 54% of 2021 underlying operating profit of £50m (note: normal split 1:3). With minor adjustments, we leave our Group revenue and profit forecasts for 2021 and 2022 unchanged.

Companies: LSL Property Services plc

04 Aug 21

Q2 21: robust performance through better margins

NXP published strong results with high demand in all end markets. Both revenues and margins were in the upper range of the guidance, overcoming the supply difficulties in South-East Asia. Guidance has been positively readjusted with a strong Q3 expected and an even better Q4.

Companies: NXP SEMICONDUCTORS (NXPI:NYSE)NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI:NAS)

04 Aug 21

Reassuring Q2; FY21 guidance well on track

H1 21 posted a slight beat on expectations on the back of the strong demand in Energy and Telecom in Q2 driving headcount up by 8.5% yoy and the adjusted EBITDA margin to 7.8%. The FY21 outlook was partly revised upward with a midpoint of the adjusted EBITDA and FCF targets at €950m and €300m, respectively. Capex should accelerate in the years to come to expand production capacities.

Companies: Prysmian (PRY:BIT)Prysmian S.p.A. (PRY:MIL)

04 Aug 21

LIBERUM: Thungela* - Initiation - Pure, undervalued coal exposure

Companies: Thungela Resources Limited

04 Aug 21

NWF Group (NWF) full-year 2021 analyst presentation

04 Aug 21

Samarkand Group (SMK) full-year 2021 analyst presentation

03 Aug 21

FY guidance finetuned, new business plan in November

H1 2021 results were up considerably YoY Iren posted a good increase YoY, bang in line with our expectations: revenues grew by c.10% in H1 2021 YoY, EBITDA 9%, EBIT 8%, net income 46%, and net debt was almost stable vs. the level at end-2020. Net income benefited from one-offs: EUR32m from a fiscal measure (law 104/2020) and EUR13m from the optimisation of Unieco''s debt. The main growth drivers were: higher electricity prices (c+108% YoY) and demand (c+7%), co-generative production (c+11%), RA

Companies: Iren (IRE:BIT)Iren S.p.A. (IRE:MIL)

03 Aug 21

Soft FY 21 guidance following strong H1 showing

Galenica reported estimate-beating H1 21 numbers. Sales were up 9.9%, driven by the strong momentum across Logistics & IT (+7.4%) as well as Products & care (+13.6%). Of note, ‘Pharmacies at home’ revenue was up 30.9%, thanks to the surge in mail-order and online sales. Adjusted EBIT was up 21.3% with the margin at 5.5%. Following the strong H1, Galenica upgraded its FY21 outlook and now expects top-line/EBIT growth of 5-8%/10-14% respectively. We will upgrade our estimates and target price.

Companies: Galenica AG

03 Aug 21

Strong H1 performance, in line with expectations

Travis Perkins reported its H1 FY2021 results which were broadly in line with market expectations. Robust activity levels in RMI markets supported the top-line momentum, with the group also lapping soft comparables in Q2. Revenue recovery and restructuring initiatives aided the profitability improvement. Management has reinstated the interim dividend, while slightly raising the adjusted operating profit guidance for the year. We will adjust our financial estimates but expect to maintain the caut

Companies: Travis Perkins plc

03 Aug 21

Untroubled performance ahead contrasting with governance turmoil?

Generali’s results fall in line with expectations and guidance. At constant environment and as we are approaching the end of the 3-year plan, we believe that all eyes will be on governance changes.

Companies: Assicurazioni Generali (G:BIT)Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. (G:MIL)

03 Aug 21

Proven by enhancing FCF generation

On top of enjoying softening market conditions, Autogrill demonstrated better-than-expected cost efficiency and improving FCF generation in its H1 earnings release. The upgraded FY21 guidance rebuilds the market’s confidence further.

Companies: Autogrill (AGL:BIT)Autogrill S.p.A. (AGL:MIL)

03 Aug 21

Hepion Pharmaceuticals - AMBITION trial shows positive biomarker data

Recently, Hepion released top-line data from its AMBITION Phase IIa trial with CRV431, a cyclophilins inhibitor, in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients. All primary safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics were met and support once-a-day dosing. The company plans to conduct a Phase IIb (ASCEND-NASH) trial this year in NASH patients with fibrosis levels 2 or 3 (F2 or F3). The ASCEND-NASH trial will be significantly larger with 300 patients enrolled. The primary endpoint will be a 1-poi

Companies: Hepion Pharmaceuticals Inc (HEPA:NYSE)Hepion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (HEPA:NAS)