LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Finsbury Food shares should be sold, according to Danny Fortson in the Sunday Times' Inside the City column. Although the baker's share have rebounded from 2008's depths of 11p tenfold to more than 110p recently, the bonus payments made to chief executive John Duffy and finance director Stephen Boyd were questioned. Duffy and Boy, who were appointed in 2009 and 2010 respectively, were each awarded £240,000 cash bonuses related to two key deals they tied up, plus their salaries were effectively doubled through bonuses to reward hitting targets for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
The deal were chiefly the £56m acquisition of bread specialist Fletchers, funded by a £35m placing, which doubled group revenues and helped transform prospects for the baker. The other deal was sale of its 'free-from' gluten-free bakery division to Genius Foods for £21m. Inside the City felt a more cynical view of the pair's remuneration would be that they "got paid extra for simply doing their job". Although Finsbury grew pre-tax profits by more than a quarter last year despite the cut-throat grocery market, the generous bonuses has left a bad taste.



Shares in Fevertree Drinks are worth holding, said Questor in the Sunday Telegraph. The maker of premium tonic waters and other high-end mixers, which floated on AIM in November 2014, is due to publish final results this week that analysts estimate will show profit before tax bubbling up sixfold. Investors should not break open the champagne yet, as adjustments for previous loans and other one-off items means profits will merely double, or near enough, to £17m from £9.2m a year ago plus a dividend policy that aims to pay out a quarter of profits.

However, the shares have fizzed from below 200p to almost 700p last month, making them seem rather costly at 40 times forward earnings per share. Fevertree's medium-term future looks bright, with sales forecast to rise 30% and PBT to grow in the high teens for 2016. The company has enjoyed a great first full year on the market and with its shares losing some of their vim investors might look for the price to come down by a third or so first.



4imprint shares are also worth holding or taking part profits, advised Midas in the Mail on Sunday. The promotional products maker, which specialises in bespoke designs for mugs, t-shirts and bags, posted annual results last week that showed 20% growth in turnover and profits, with the large part coming from the UK and especially the US. The Wisconsin-based company, which reports in dollars, proposed a 30% increase in the dividend in sterling terms.

A $9m investment in its headquarters was announced to expand the facilities sufficiently to accommodate the group's growth over the next five years. It also agreed a £10m pension buy-out contribution in 2016 with the pension deficit expected to reduce by half. The cash generative company has produced impressive returns and so existing investors could bank some profits but should hold on as profits are still on the way up.

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