Daily Mail share tips: SThree & Nighthawk Energy
Company: SThree
Event: Pretax profit: £11.2m (-53%):
One-year share price performance: +24%
Tips: The latest share price analysis from the Daily Mail
First-half figures from the staffing firm SThree were never going to be pretty.
The world is in the grip of recession, businesses are shedding staff and unemployment is heading for highs not seen since the mid-1990s.
Profits are down by over half, but analysts reckon the interims represent a resilient performance. Revenues fell just 5% and the net fee income is down by 9%.
This compares favourably with rival recruiters such as Hays and Michael Page and vindicates SThree's bias towards the technology sector.
The group has a tight control on costs, but is still prepared to open new offices abroad where it sees opportunities. In the last six months it has set up shop in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Singapore.
This is a well-financed company, with almost £44m on the balance sheet and a dividend yield of around 6%. A price-to-earnings ratio of 16 times net profits means, however, the stock is very much up with events.
Verdict: Fairly valued
Company: Nighthawk Energy
Event: production update:
One-year share price performance: +24%
The good news just continues to gush from the junior oil explorer, Nighthawk Energy, where its oil fields in Lincoln County, Colorado, have yielded some encouraging data.
An independent valuation of its Jolly and Craig Ranch fields, which make up the majority of the larger Jolly Ranch project, show there could be as much as 1.46bn barrels of crude under the surface - more than had been anticipated.
Moreover, the oil may be found elsewhere on the project which it owns jointly with Running Foxes Petroleum. Yesterday's update follows an equally bullish assessment of the firm's Buchanan project in Missouri and Kansas, where it is merging the Devon and Xenia oilfields into one.
All of this has sent the share price ballistic. It is up almost 70% since hitting a low of 28p little over a month ago.
But the analysts remain bullish. None more than the oil experts at Hanson Westhouse, who reckon the company's net assets are worth 268p a share (current price 47p). Ambrian Research has a 62p a share price target.
Verdict: Speculative buy, set tight stop-loss
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