Most popular equity research this week | 14 - 25 Jan

Burford Capital (BUR)

Unsurpassable in an industry growing 3x | Liberum, 25 Jan

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"To understand Burford you have first to appreciate the growth of litigation finance, then that Burford is without peer. We estimate the industry is currently managing $15bn in assets and believe this can grow to $50bn..."

Miton Group (MGR)

Record annual netflows, markets in Q4 reduce EPS by 4% | Liberum, 18 Jan

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"The Q4 trading statement confirms a record year for net flows. AUM finished the year at £4,376m vs. £3,823m in 2017..."

AA | Babcock | Balfour Beatty | Capita | Costain | Galliford Try | Homeserve | Interserve | Keller | Kier | Mears | Mitie | Morgan Sindall | Paypoint | RPS | Serco | Staffline

The 4S’s - The negative working capital model in Construction is changing | Liberum, 21 Jan

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"Four measures are being considered to protect the supply chains in the wake of the Carillion collapse, a year or so ago; 1) Project Bank Accounts, 2) The Prompt Payment Code; 3) Retentions Reform; and 4) Assigning non-executives for the supply chain. (Read here). This means that in most cases, Costain is an exception, working capital will become less negative, which has a negative impact on cash flows, while Construction companies grow..."

Cloudcall Group (CALL)

Excellent partner testimonial | Cenkos, 21 Jan

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"The Capital Markets Day highlighted the positive market dynamics and large addressable market CloudCall is successfully selling into. Customer testimonials point to considerable potential upside in both the US and Europe. New products and future CRM partnerships enlarge this still further. We remain Buyers..."

CMD: Capitalising on Momentum | Arden, 18 Jan

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"CloudCall’s Capital Markets Day presentations featured a breakdown of 2019’s growth drivers, Q&A sessions with key channel partners Bullhorn and Microsoft, and a breakdown of the group’s SaaS metrics. Our key takeaways are on strength of the Bullhorn partnership, the scale of the opportunity with Microsoft and upsell potential from messaging features. We reiterate our Buy rating; CloudCall is one of our top picks for ’19..."

FairFX Group (FFX)

Confirmation of a hugely profitable scaling | Cenkos, 25 Jan

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"Today's update shows FairFX has achieved adj EBITDA of c£7.5m, a significant uplift from FY17A's £1.0m, reflecting continued strong organic growth and recent acquisitive activity (CardOne, City Forex). This implies c£4.8m was delivered in H2/18E despite a series of temporary headwinds and a worsening macro-economic backdrop (which has continued to date)..."

Simplybiz (SBIZ)

Higher margins & net cash than forecast | Zeus, 24 jan

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"Good revenue growth has delivered strong adjusted EBITDA growth, which was above management expectations with 2018 EBITDA margins expanding; Strong balance sheet, with net cash of £6.4m (30 June 2018: net cash of £1.2m reflects strong operating performance); Zeus forecast £3.6m net cash. Group membership numbers rose 8.5% to 3,726 (31 December 2017: 3,433); The acquisition of Landmark Surveyors is now complete: it is fully integrated. The Directors are confident in the Group’s overall performance and intend to propose to shareholders a final dividend in line with the policy of paying one third of adjusted profit after tax as a dividend, as set out in the Company’s Admission Document..."

Zoo Digital Group (ZOO)

Hit to FY19E revenue but outlook solid | Progressive Equity, 22 Jan

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"ZOO Digital (“ZOO”) has announced a likely shortfall in revenues for the year to March 2019. The group has seen a double whammy – a steep decline in legacy (but high margin) “packaging” work on DVD/Blu-ray, and the cancellation of one unusually large order from one of its major customers. We make material reductions to 2019E EBITDA, but leave 2020E unchanged as the medium-term outlook remains bright..."

Asiamet Resources | Central Asia Metals | MOD Resources | SolGold | Aurubis | Boliden | Umicore | 5N Plus

China stimulus boosting demand | Arden, 17 Jan

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"China has received a large amount of pessimistic sentiment due to the perceived weakness in the economy from a slowdown in Industrial Production and slowing GDP growth. We believe that China has gone through a planned and necessary set of reforms in 2017 and 2018 and will emerge out of this self-imposed reform chrysalis into a period of infrastructure growth focused on two key dates: 2021 and 2022; the 100th year anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in 2021 and President Xi’s 10th year in office in 2022..."

Strix Group (KETL)

FY18 profitability in line with expectations, net debt ahead | Zeus, 22 Jan

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"Strix has confirmed that it expects to report FY18 results in line with market expectations. ZC forecast constant currency revenue of £96.1m, adj operating profit of £30.8m and PBT of £29.1m, in line with consensus expectations. The global kettle market continued to grow strongly at an estimated 7%. Strix states it has maintained its market share by volume at c.38%, indicating that it has also seen good underlying growth..."

IG Design Group (IGR)

Christmas Cracker! | Progressive Equity, 22 Jan

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"With a geographically well diversified portfolio, strong customer relationships, manufacturing and sourcing expertise and successful integration of acquisitions, Design Group has delivered 9% like-forlike sales growth for the nine months to 31st December 2018. It is on track to meet current market expectations and deliver greater than 20% fully diluted EPS growth for the full year..."

Cloudcall | Vianet

Technology Year Ahead 2019 | Arden, 22 Jan

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"With Technology having outperformed broader equity indices – on both sides of the Atlantic - for close to a decade, a perfect storm of US-China/Brexit trade frictions, cautious consumer behaviour and semiconductor earnings peak in the context of weakening macro indicators in the UK and Europe, have brought on a robust correction. We see many of these factors as likely to overspill into 2019, establishing a cautious mood into H1..."