Most popular equity research this week | 1 - 11 Jan

Burford Capital (BUR)

Next $1.6bn of investments to boost returns | Hardman, 3 Jan

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"Burford has announced access to almost $1bn of new capital, which, combined with its balance sheet, gives a new and financially attractive structure for how the next $1.6bn of litigation finance investments will be made. The most significant part of this is a new strategic capital relationship with a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). The SWF and Burford have committed a $1bn pool of capital, with the former supplying $667m. Burford will supply the remaining one-third of the capital, but receive 60% of the investment profits. In addition, 50% of the new investments made will be allocated to the pool over the next four years, or until the pool is invested..."

Sopheon (Sopheon)

Solid finish to 2018 | Progressive Equity, 11 Jan

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"Sopheon has issued a brief trading update which says that revenues for the year ended 31 December 2018 will be ‘comfortably in line’ with market expectations which were upgraded following its Q3 2018 trading update. Early indications are that EBITDA and pre-tax profits will show stronger outperformance. Since its Q3 trading update, Sopheon has highlighted new contract wins with two multinational businesses..."

Sylvania Platinum (SLP)

Share price disconnect to improved profitability | Liberum, 4th Jan

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"Sylvania Platinum's share price has retraced 27% since peaking at the beginning of September at 23.75p. This is despite the platinum group metal (PGM) rand basket price, the key indicator of the company's profitability, continuing on to multi-year highs of R16,271/oz..."

Gfinity | Keywords Studios | Codemasters | Frontier Developments | Game Digital | Microsoft | Activision Blizzard | Electronic Arts | Ubisoft | Take-two Interactive

Growth every Fortnite | Hybridan, 7 Jan

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"With eGaming, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) coming of age, we have examined the gaming industry to see if it can continue its staggering market growth and if these categories are still too early stage?.."

Mpac (MPAC)

Wrapping up 2018 in fine fettle | Equity Development, 7 Jan

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"So after Friday’s storming US jobs report, augmented by dovish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and extra stimulus measures in China – are we out of the woods? Nobody knows for sure. The equity rebound could simply be a ‘dead cat bounce’ or ‘relief rally’. Either way, with the AIM Index in bear market territory, future returns should at least be better than 4 months ago..."

Altitude Group (ALT)

Taking AIM | finnCap, 11 Jan

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"Altitude has initiated an accelerated bookbuild to acquire AI Mastermind (AIM), channel partner for Altitude’s white label ChannlPro solution (AIMPro), and largest promotional product distributor member group in the US. The acquisition is to be funded by a £7.0m fund raising at 68p (assumed), including £3.2m for working capital purposes..."

Alpha Fx Group (AFX)

Strong Q4'18 across corporate and institutional businesses | Liberum, 3 Jan

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"Alpha FX has today announced an update for the year ended 31 December 2018 which shows strong Q4 trading delivering profits for the full-year ahead of current forecasts. We have upgraded our revenue, profit and earnings forecasts for FY18 and FY19..."

Gateley (GTLY)

H1’19 Interim Results | Arden, 8 Jan

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"Gateley’s interims show strong 20% revenue growth to £46.4m, with EBITDA margins stable at 19.2% - as expected following their interim trading update in November - at which point we upgraded our forecast EPS by 9.4% to 12.8p FY19E and 5.6% to 13.3p. Fee growth was split equally between underlying organic growth and M&A, with two acquisitions in the period. Whilst we acknowledge the strong performance of the Group against market headwinds, price weakness across the sector in the last quarter leads us to trim our target price to keep the shares in line with the broader peer group..."

NEXT (NXT)

Christmas Trading | Whitman Howard, 4 Jan

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"Next has reported sales for the first two months of 4Q 2018/19 in line with its own guidance at +1.5% with retail -9.2% and online product +15.2%. The company has very slightly reduced its central PBT guidance for the current year from £727m to £723m. Generally, the online figure will re-assure investors who have been cautious post the December ASOS profit warning. To reinforce this the company’s first guidance on 2019/20 is at broadly the level of existing market expectation at £715m (mkt £725m)..."

MJ Gleeson (GLE)

16% unit growth and no sign of customer caution | Liberum, 7 Jan

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"MJ Gleeson's trading update is positive. Homes completed the sale of 691 units, up 16.5% on last year, driven by continued strong demand..."