Norman Hay Share Discussion Threads

[stan] 04/4/2005 17:40

omg not good news! the results posted late in the day and not time for a real reaction by the market to the slowdown in trade...i fear a big drop tomorrow and continuing falls thereafter. This plus a few disasters i've had recently make me feel pretty despondent as I had been hoping for a big appreciation in hay's share price and fortunes to offset my losses elsewhere.

[business link] 10/3/2005 15:37

Thoughts anyone?

[heidigynne] 25/9/2004 16:45

Should anyone drop in, this review from ArmShare, AIM Company Details.



copyright acknowleged.

Hay (Norman) PLC
Report updated: 17th September 2004
Whilst moaning and groaning about the unfairness of life is generally a pointless exercise, it is surely difficult for even the most progressive economic liberal to explain away the market's function in respect of the allocation of capital, when the hardworking management of a stable company like Norman Hay found itself rewarded with a share price that put the company on a 10% yield; whilst parvenus, many of which will never make a profit commanded market support with seemingly effortless ease.

Norman Hay's activities embrace the processing, coating and finishing of metals. The company is also involved in pollution control as well as specialist fabrication and machining. Perhaps its best known brand is "Ultraseal". The strength of sterling should be pinning its UK operations to the ground and is reportedly doing its bit; but that has not prevented the company from achieving growing sales, nor from taking vigorous action to sell its products in the United States or the Far East.

Results to December 1999 however saw the £5 million increase in turnover produce a bit less than the previous year by way of earnings per share, 6.5p against 7.7p. It was almost certainly the international sales effort which led to the sharp rise in distribution and administrative expenses which were the cause of this, although a £40,000 bad debt did not help things either.

Interim earnings for the period to June 2000 were much of a muchness with those of the comparable 1999 period, 3.3p as opposed to 3.4p. The Chairman was mildly optimistic about a better second-half trend, main prospects then attributed to levels of activity in the North Sea. The move to AIM was treated in a very low-key fashion. The December-2000 figures, whilst disappointing, had to bear £250,000 of exceptional costs. However cash-flow remained positive, and the dividend was held.

The turnover for the six-months figures to June 2001 showed an £800,000 advance to £7.8 million, but the tightening recessionary grip squeezing the operating profits down from £530,000 to £420,000, and earnings from 3.3p to 2.1p. More sombre still was the statement telling of all operations being effected by the manufacturing slowdown, and the consequential difficulty of forecasting the outcome for the year. This was followed by news of three complementary businesses having been acquired from AEA Technology for an undisclosed price; and this followed a month later by a similarly close-mouth deal with PMD Group for the latter's engineering interests.

Nevertheless turnover to December 2001 was £16 million, £2 million up on the comparable period, and even if the company had to fight hard to maintain the gross margin, good housekeeping enabled earnings per share to creep up from 2.6p to 4.1p. So the gloomy musings about prospects given the nature of the company's trade and the uncertain prospects may have been over-conservative, which is more than you can say about the staunchly-held dividend.

What for many companies would have been a stout performance for the June 2002 half-year - maintained profits (2.2p per share) - had to bear not only market indifference but a gloomy statement in respect of forthcoming and unavoidable cost increases, increases which would not only impair performance in 2002 but 2003. The market's indifference was only feigned however, for it woke up long enough to mark the shares down by one third on the day.

Maybe it should have slumbered on, for, if you ignore a goodwill write-off, the December 2002 full-year earnings were higher than those of 2001; the dividend has been maintained; and there was £800,000 of cash generated in the period, driving the gearing ratio to 30%. The share price recovered, but the yield was still a stout 8%.

Lower sales for the first half of 2003, £8.4 against £9.8 million still produced a similar contribution to that of 2002 and identical interim earnings per share - 2.2p. A maintained interim dividend and a quietly second-half outlook underpinned the share price.

This lower turnover persisted throughout the year, but that did not prevent the company registering a 10% increase in earnings per share in the full year to December 2003 - nor maintaining the dividend. A Chairman who does not prattle readily merely said that trading in 2004 was satisfactory to date. And indeed the customary, virtually unchanged, earnings (2.3p) were delivered in respect of the June interim period, along with an increased six-month dividend, 1.1p.
Research Standing
Copyright © ArmShare Limited.

[gladysfriday] 27/8/2004 16:32

hmmm, a few tickles up, and at the years high.

online limts, sell 44.2p to 50k size, buy 46.5p to 5.625k size.

Interims Sept.?

Nothing fresh on the website.

G.

[business link] 27/7/2004 16:21

Possibly it falls into the lap of the same lady....... Unless all those meeting were with land valuers?

[hugepants] 27/7/2004 16:17

Why dont they just get a new valuation for the land? It may be worth 6M now.
Its similarly undervalued to ESR which is on a PE of 8, has lots of property and grew earnings 40% last year.

[business link] 27/7/2004 16:11

Held this forever - Its solid and probably undervalued, trouble is it is rather unloved and the lazy c0w that ought to be forcing ahead the PR of the company appears to work about 4 hours a day of which at least 3.5 of those are spent in uninteruptable meetings with the remainder being a brief lunchbreak......

Apologies for the rant, but I feel sold short here.
regards
Pat

[hugepants] 27/7/2004 15:48

Market cap is 6.12M based on share price of 42.5p and 14.42M shares in issue

Operating profit of 939 + 59 (for goodwill write-orf) = 998 (974) on revenues of 16.3M (18.7M).

PE of 7.3 flattered by lower than normal tax charge.

NTAV = 6.15M
Net current assets = 1.57M

Freehold property valued at 3.15M. However this likely to be understated since 2.8M of freeholds were last valued in 1992.

Long leasehold land and buildings worth 0.48M

Defined contribution scheme, therefore no pension deficit.

[westcountryboy] 27/7/2004 09:06

I find it quite reassuringly sedate actually... None of that worry about whether to take a quick profit:-)

[business link] 27/7/2004 08:32

Possibly the world...

[hugepants] 27/7/2004 01:04

Interesting trades. 30K sold at 40.5p, 30K bought at 42p.

Im using the word 'interesting' in a relative sense of course. There is no more uninteresting share than this one anywhere in europe.

[hugepants] 26/7/2004 14:38

9 shares bought at 44.75p. Has this cleared out the MMs?

[hugepants] 29/6/2004 14:14

No idea why this has risen this morning but maybe it was mentioned in the press or on a tipsheet. Anyway here are few short notes I made from the AR I received recently. Overall I think the company is undervalued.

-----------------------------

The company has a defined contribution pension scheme therefore there is no pension deficit.

Of the 5.295M of tangible assets, 3.155M comprise freehold land and buildings. The majority was last valued in 1992.

Operating profit of 866K includes goodwill write-off of 59K.

[magistr8] 02/4/2004 08:33

Hope so MrP,

I clicked on your name and saw you started a thread on IDN at .80p, its about 2.8p now. Are you still in that one?

[business link] 02/4/2004 00:01

Agree with each of you, it's not difficult to see what it takes to move the stock. Up 5% in the last 2 trading days based on mediocre buying. If Hay does get the PR sorted then fireworks could be ahead.



Regards
Pat

[foster8] 01/4/2004 21:17

You could be right MrP. This looks a safe bet, with plenty of potential

[mrjasonp] 01/4/2004 16:47

Nice to see some more blue!

I think this is going to be one of my Stars for 2004!

MrP

[foster8] 01/4/2004 16:38

No April fools on this thread,

Another small tick up near to the close today.
Much tighter spread now.


That chart is starting to get a nice shape to it Business Link.

[magistr8] 01/4/2004 15:23

Thats good news I think B-L that they are gonna pull there fingers out and push the company into the public gaze.

Hay is a top company and offers a decent yield too, Im happy to be in.

[mrjasonp] 01/4/2004 12:34

Get that PR lady on the bloomin' case (on, second thoughts, she's probably finished for the day! ;o)

I think that if & when these reach a wider audience, we will see some significant advancement.

MrP

[magistr8] 01/4/2004 08:41

Nice buy there to start the day.

[mrjasonp] 31/3/2004 16:35

Ah - now I know where I went wrong!

I need a job in PR!

[business link] 31/3/2004 14:26

That is one of the things that ha held this company back imho, Shareholder releations have never been Hay's strongest suit. I would expect that to alter somewhat over the coming months.

I understand that the Co now has a designated PR 'Spokeswoman' although when I called at 9.30 a couple of weeks ago she hadnt arrived yet and my second call at 4.00 was unfortunately too late to catch her...?!

Regards
Pat

[magistr8] 31/3/2004 11:38

I bought the 1400 odd this a.m

Results surprised me, I rang the company a while back and they were very reluctant to give anything away. I took it that things werent going so well by this, how wrong can you be.

[business link] 31/3/2004 11:13

Thanks fella's

I wasnt sure about starting a thread on this one, I was worried I might have been left talking to myself as no-one had posted for some months.

I dont think it will remained overlooked for much longer. With a p/e of under 7 and decent PEG all the clues are there!

Regards
Pat