Newspaper and magazine share tips

By This Is Money
Updated: 08:00 EDT, 3 September 2010

Each day we round up share tips from national newspapers and investment magazines. For the Mail on Sunday's stock picks, read the Midas column.

Round-up: Latest share tips from the national newspapers and investment magazines

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FRIDAY

Investors Chronicle

Carillon is making impressive progress. In the first half of 2010, pre-tax profits increased by 17% to £58.8m. At the operating level, the cash flow held up at a decent £66m (£53m). Turnover at the half-year was down 13% at £1.12bn, but underlying profits rose to £43.2m. Middle East constructions had underlying profits fall 38% to £15.4m and construction outside Middle East have seen underlying profits rise by 11% to £12.1m. The shares propose a dividend yield of approaching 5% and trade on a multiple of 8 times. Buy.

Dignity hasn't had a racy growth but its turnover edged up by 5.5%, generating a 6.6% increase in pre-tax profits. This urged management to increase dividend by 10%. The group performed 33,600 funerals, or 11.7% of the national total, and 23,000 cremations. It spent £3.8m on four funeral locations in the first half and also constructing three crematoria which should get going by the middle of next year. Analysts have predicted that Dignity can come back to £80m or 125p a share to investors. Buy.

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Daily Telegraph

Go-Ahead seems to be on the right track. Their full-year results, released yesterday, have established that things weren't as bad as we thought they were. Shares went charging but are, however, still 4% below the recommended price. During the 12 months till July 3, revenues rose slightly to £2.2bn from £2.19bn while pre-tax profits fell down from £90.9m to £50.4m. The net debt was cut by 3% to £88.3m and still managed to make five purchases of bus operations. The shares seem a safe move with trades on a June 2011 multiple of 9.6 times. Buy.

It's looking all pleasing for specialist pump engineer Weir Group. Yesterday, the group said it had purchased BDK Engineering Industries, in Karnataka. It is small but, nevertheless, produced sales of £20.9m in the year to March 31, manufacturing valves for oil and gas markets. It spent $172.5m (£112m) buying Malaysian-based Linatex, making hard-wearing rubber seals. The shares trade on a December 2010 earnings on a multiple of 13.6 times, dropping down to 12.6 next year. They rose by 16%, since recommendation, compared with a market up 2%. Buy.

The Times

Britain's biggest water meter supplier, Spice, has been struggling rather lately. By May, shares were still under 40p when they were three times higher back in 2007. The group has sold off a telecoms business for £33m. Immediate pressure has been taken away there but the market was still lamenting upon the losses of a gas venture. Cinven, the private equity firm, put in a bid of 56p a share. Yesterday, after it was revealed that another private equity firm is interested, Cinven increased their offer to 70p a share. Hold.

Europe's leading Private Label Company, McBride, have had profits down after a 36% bounce at the pre-tax level to £48m in the year to end-June. One broker expects the higher costs for materials to cut off £10m of this year's profits, even though £4m ought to be clipped off from other cost-cutting. Shares trade on 10 times this year's earnings but it's probably best to be safe rather than sorry. Hold.

The Independent

Insurance-selling company Abbey Protection, yesterday, reported interim pre-tax profits rose by 11% to£4.7m. The results have established that more businesses are signing up for its services and may seem to continue to do. Even though there's consolidation in the legal and professional services industry, the fees remain much too high for small business who are struck in real troubling situations. HM Revenue and Customs, the Office of Fair Trading and the Health and Safety Executive are only three of many yet regulators. Many of their investigations crumble away but, putting up a basic defence, can wipe away small firms with tight cashflows. It's best for businesses to take a hit then to buy insurance that will lead to a nightmare in the future. Buy.

McBride, Europe's biggest retailer company, has been hit with struggle after struggle. Shares edged up by 36% to a year low of 114p from a peak of 246p just months before. The company released their full-year results which showed they were in line with expectations. Revenues increased by 2% to £812.2m and operating profit shot up by 38% at £50m. The net debt was reduced from £82.4m to £22.4 last year and had taken 70% of a Czech-based skincare business. Caution is the best advice to the investors out there. Hold.

THURSDAY

Shares Magazine

BP has been struggling lately. The group have recovered from a low of 302.9p to trade at 432.8p. Due to the uncertainty clouding around the final cost of the spill, the £71.5bn market cap's shares have slipped back. A weaker oil price has proved to be dangerous as it has fallen from just over $80 per barrel to around $72 per barrel. Based on a number of scenarios, the group has signalled that it has enough working capital to meet predictable requirements. Buy.

Pawnbroker H & T is steaming far ahead than the others. Rising gold prices are evident in the £104m cap. New stores usually bring trading profits in the third year and the estate is immature, but should grow over the forthcoming three or four years. The falling gold profits should be replaced by higher contributions from the newly-opened stores. The group has opened six sites in the first half, which has increased to 128. It plans to start another 10 to 15 in the other half with a target of 200. Buy.

Daily Telegraph

Afren has had booming success and soaring profits which could possibly increase next year. In the first six months up to June 30, the turnover rose 38% to $214.8m (£140m) compared with last year's $155.2m. Pre-tax profits reached at $75.4m, compared to losses of $37.4m. The shares have increased by 79% since last July at 58.5p compared to a market up by 25%. It's a risk which is inevitable with all companies and the shares established a 'credible performance' increasing by 27% at the beginning of last year. Buy.

Thomas Cook hasn't performed strongly with the FTSE 100 this year when 20% was lowered at last month's beginning. The recent confusion of travel companies going out of business sparked off headlines and hasn't helped much either. Still, the shares seem to be doing pretty well, as they are currently paying out 5.7% which is expected to rise to 6.2%. The current-year earnings multiple is 7.3 times, falling to 6.8 next year. It looks undervalued, but if you've got a long-term view, it's a good time right now. Buy.

The Times

UBM is going to buy virtual fairs Milicruit, putting former military members and potential employers in a 3-D setting, and Unicruit, which does the same for university students. The company hopes to have 100 fairs by the end of the year and agreed to pay $3.1m (£2m) to Astound, the firm that operates the above-mentioned fairs. Bookings at its 20 biggest events boasted the market's confidence. Nine of these are happening in China, which total to round about two thirds of that side's earnings. Buy.

Vietnamese company Soco International has recently finished drilling near by and have reported the presence of hydrocarbons. According to what's already there, JP Morgan Cazenove assigned a net asset value of 352p a share even though the 100m barrels of oil could be worth another 77p per share. The Soco shares edged almost 3% to 484.5p yesterday, establishing a case of wait and see. Hold.

The Independent

Engineering consulting and services group Mouchel seems to have been blessed with an opportunity than a curse. The shares rocketed up by more than 6% in early trading before closing up 7.3%. Also, it is cutting £25m of costs out of its UK business which means office closures and headcount reductions. Nevertheless, it is still looking positive. The Australian market is looking promising and it has an order book and pipeline of about £2bn. Buy.

Hargreaves Lansdown revealed record pre-tax profits, fund inflows that money managers would die for and a 'special' dividend. Investors can be comforted by the fact that founders – Ian Gorman and Grant Thornton – are a safe pair of hands and will remain close to the business from which they have a 50% stake. It might seem like a confident move for the investors with Mr Hargreaves stepping down from management to marketing and communications. Buy.

WEDNESDAY

Daily Telegraph

Distributor Bunzl impressed, as their growth strategy continues to reap dividends. It increased by 8% to 7.15p which was more than what anyone expected and will be paid on January 4. During this year's first six months, pre-tax profits increased by 6% to £100m on revenues 2% higher at £2.35bn. The profit was £125m, compared to an agreement of nearly £120m. The company plans to buy more companies and at this time runs in 24 countries with its markets doubling since 2003. Buy.

JP Morgan Indian Investment Trust shows real progress is being made, but there are fears amidst the success about interest rates rising. The Indian economy grew for three years at the quickest rate during the three months up to June 30. The annual growth rate went up from 8.6% to 8.8% in the first quarter of the year. For instance, Indian car sales in July hit an all-time record, whereas China car sales increased at a slow pace in more than a year. Shares are doing really well and are up from 86%, compared to the FTSE 100's increase of 23%. Buy.

The Independent

Self storage company Safestore Holdings' share price has gone down a fifth during the last six months. Nevertheless, the company hopes that yesterday's third-quarter information will pull in more investors. The revenues increased by 9 % and there are expectations that it will hit full-year targets, increasing the share prices by 11.7%. There's risky business with warnings that the fourth quarter is usually weak for occupancy growth as students go back to university. The dividend is 4.3% and the returns are two times covered. The company increased its customer number by 10%, compared to last year's figures. Buy.

Guernsey-based group Raven Russia has made 'excellent' progress, but the stock is not without risk, considering the state of the Russian economy. Yesterday's half-year results noted an additional 145,000 square metres of space let in the last six months, which gave Raven Russia an annual net operating income of $82m (£52m), compared to last year's $70m. The company are trying to get a $10m-worth of agreements so it can get over the $90m threshold in order to concentrate on improving shareholder dividends and become cash positive. Still, Russian economy can provide investors with some interesting diversity so it's worth it. Buy.

The Times

The world's largest mobile company Vodafone, recently published first-quarter figures that showed a disappointing 1.7% drop in Europe but a roaring increase of 14% in India. However, the UK Company only holds 3.2%, which goes just a little over £4bn. In the US, the group has 45% of Verizon Wireless which looks 'improbable' and is set to resume dividend payments in 2012, which would make billions in free cashflow. The company also has 44% of French mobile company SFR. Currently, Vodafone has vowed to increase its dividend by 7% at least. The shares are buttressed by a 6% yield. Hold.

British Polythene Industries has had an increase in raw material costs in this year's first six months. It happened after prices fell in North America and Far East. Supplies could be sourced from there, but when it comes to transport costs, there's a 6.9% EU duty. The first-half operating profits were off by 10% at £12.2m, quite ahead from a property sales £2.8m net gain. It's been really tough for silage with cold weather and then hot climates and farmers are continuing to restock it. Despite depending on prices for the outcome of the rest of the year, there is enough belief for the interim dividend to be increased from 3.5p to 3.65p. Hold.