Morson Share Discussion Threads

[crossley] 23/11/2001 16:29

Was that a 500,000 sell?

[fozzie] 23/11/2001 14:32

Who tipped this on Bloomberg? Regards, Foz.

[cockneyrebel] 23/11/2001 14:19

Just tipped on Bloomberg to go to £1.80p short term by equityinvestigator.com

[cockneyrebel] 22/11/2001 21:30

I can't believe this one isn't drawing more attention.

The company has a market cap of £120m and nearly £100m in cash. They have sold off a few bits of the company and hence all that dosh in the bank.

It seems tho that many investors were gazing at the planes hitting the WTC on September 11 and paid little attention to Merant's news. MRN are going to return "at least £56m" to investors. I guess this will be in the way of a share buyback or special divi and will happen by April I believe.

The interesting thing is that this company with £100m currently in the bank still has various bits and pieces that make up the company that are therefore valued at around £20m, yet these remaining parts turnover over £100m I believe. The value of this part of the business must be worth more than £20m, a lot more. It could probably be sold for far in excess of that.

So all in all an undervalued company - Say £100m cash, remaining business valued @ £60m+ so total £160m ish being valued @ £120. Merant have kept the high growth parts of their business too - a £20m value on a business with £100m sales and growing fast should look cheap.

Probably undervalued by about 30% - should wake some investors up come the results next week (27th Nov).

[johnv] 17/11/2001 14:12

If anyones interested Merant(MRNT), in the US yesterday went up 9.5%. The chart looks very good, breaking away from the 200ma and through 85ma (my own personal choice of ma)

[mac] 17/11/2001 00:32

Fidelity buying up to 4.2% now.

Edit

In fact it would appear that stock overhangs have gone. cf below sorry its a bit messy. As it inc's my notes.

( 1 May 01) 134.95m 2p Ords - Schroder Inv Mgmt Ltd 14.73%,25.6.01 14.68% UBS Asset Management Ltd 10.60%25.7.01 10.4% , Merrill Lynch & Co 9.43%, Merant Trustees Ltd 5.38%, Legal & General Inv Mgmt 3.71% 26.6.01 3.08%, FMR CORP and Fidelity Int Ltd 3.39% / 11.01 4.22%, BGI 3.05%, Other Dirs 0.16%. Jupiter 16.7.01 2.14%

Major Shareholders:
(15 Nov 01) 134.98m 2p Ords - Schroder Inv Mgmt Ltd 14.67%, Merant Trustees Ltd 4.52%,
Other Dirs 0.14%.
16.11.01 Fidelity Int Ltd new? / 16.11.01 4.22%

[fse] 15/11/2001 00:52

I hold Merant and am truly mystified by the fact they are trading under the value of the cash in the company !
Its not as if their business is a complete dawg either... OK they are not the most exciting but their e solutions business has been making headway and surely thats worth more than nothing ?

[welshanalyst] 12/11/2001 20:37

This months figures from 'Essential Refs' :-

a/ Prospective PE ratio of 12.6.
b/ Forecast eps growth of 62.2%.
c/ Net asset value of 133p per share.
d/ Price to sales ratio of 0.53.
e/ Price to research expenditure of 3.28.
f/ Cash flow of 23.3p per share.
g/ Turnover up from £73.1m to £215m in five years.
h/ Equityinvestigator tipping as a buy.

[kaffee] 04/11/2001 07:43

Techinvest would...they've got 16% of their starting capital invested in it !!!

[kaffee] 04/11/2001 07:43

Techinvest would...they've got 16% of their starting capital invested in it !!!

[welshanalyst] 03/11/2001 20:07

Last month's Techinvest says Merant has 91p per share, and is profitable.
'The remaining business (excluding cash) is worth 80p per share, assuming it is valued on a very conservative price sales ratio of 1, using this years revenue forecast. Most software product companies sell on PSR's far above 1'.

[welshanalyst] 03/11/2001 20:07

Techinvest also said Merant was a 'very strong buy'.

[dan_bach] 30/10/2001 19:03

30 October 2001

MERANT plc

EGM Statement

MERANT plc is pleased to announce that the shareholders have approved the
resolution proposed at the Extraordinary General Meeting held today in
relation to the Disposal of the EDC Division. The Disposal is expected to
complete on or after 31 October 2001.

[dan_bach] 25/10/2001 19:35

Good write up on :

[welshanalyst] 30/9/2001 00:39

Shares magazine is saying that Merant is trading at a 30% discount to cash per share.

[fse] 29/9/2001 13:36

I notice TechInvest are still positive on Merant and for good reason...
As the dependence on Cobol revenue was replaced by more lucrative business the company has been gradually recovering. They have tons of cash and a huge staff bank and a list of clients that would impress anyone.
It will take a while to get to the bottom of all of this but I figure the case for buying them is extremely valid.....
DYOR etc....

[weidnerworld] 25/9/2001 00:33

I am a long time holder of these shares, is there a cut-off point to buy more shares and still qualify for the 'cash back'?
Thanks

[cb7] 24/9/2001 14:20

nothing concrete has yet been announced

[gordgeko] 14/9/2001 19:19

backhander?

gg

[cb7] 13/9/2001 09:49

welsha, surely those eps figures would have included Datadirect(in fact possibly 85% of profits probably attributable to them, as they made 2m in Q1)....still cannot believe they sold it for only 20m, unfortunately management seem preoccupied with growth and cash, rather than profits.....the mkts dont want jam tomorrow, would have been better to retain Datadirect as the core business or demerge it, but not give it away. As the co already has plenty of cash, why get rid so cheaply?

[welshanalyst] 12/9/2001 21:19

Cannot find the last article.
Can you post the jist of the comments.

[rogerthat] 11/9/2001 23:35

Good article on Datadirect sale here

[welshanalyst] 11/9/2001 21:12

The cash return to shareholders will be at least £56m / 135m shares in circulation = 42p per share.
The remaining cash is worth £45m / 135m = 33p per share.
So the rest of the business (expected to have earnings per share of 6p next year and 11p next year) is valued at 82p - (42p + 33p) = 7P per share?.