Psource Share Discussion Threads

[bruski] 06/12/2002 23:51

Nice one. Pink for a pound, can be found in Whitechapel - my desperate friend.

[bruski] 06/12/2002 23:51

WRAAGGGHHHHH

[bruski] 06/12/2002 23:49

I'm only scared of Manc women Mad4IT having done a years stint there....

[bruski] 06/12/2002 23:48

TPP say's
"So there you go....don't judge me, love me........if you don't love me, just click that little button above.....you know the filter button. I won't mind."


We all will, don't you worry.

[mad4it] 06/12/2002 23:48

With a name like pusski

....best not be messking with me then! ;)

[the pink pound] 06/12/2002 23:43

You are a cad.

Chortle guffaw chortle

[nlm1] 30/10/2002 12:30

Does anyone else share my view that this share is cheap.

using cash flow per share (I'm sure we'd all agree that this is more reliable than a traditional p/e ratio) they have a very nice 16p. giving a price to cash flow per share of 10. Now take out the net cash per share of 70p and the price/cash flow per share falls to just over 6.

With £25million in the bank and £8 mill. in debt they are not going out of business in a hurry. So they can ride out this bad time and wait for the growth to come. Given that the economy is not far off full employment the potential upside for a generalist recruitment company is not going to be amazing but all they have to
make a modest profit and surely the shares must respond.

Am I missing something or is this an absolute steal?

Someone out there who knows about company accounts please tell me. All data used was from 2002 interims, unlike the 'Fundamental' section up top on this web site.

[sreed] 29/10/2002 06:54

pawing the ground, ready to run, up 10p at close yesterday

[drbeat] 28/10/2002 09:48

after a quiet patch moving today for the first time, back towards 400p i reckon and fast

[cat] 02/10/2002 17:43

AND:

The rest of what seemed to be a mistaken entry on the PSD order book has just been published, totalling 35,000 sold at 100p. That's 50p below the bid.
Should be interesting in the morning.

[cat] 02/10/2002 17:42

From todays' Holway Hot news:

Barometers
Long term readers of SYSTEMHOUSE and Hotnews will be well aware of our views that the IT Staff Agency sector is a barometer of the whole ITS marketplace. We have a full file of correspondence on this issue - most from Rupert Bayfield who founded Computer People. This largely dated from 1998 when ITSA's first started to feel the pinch. We pointed out that this had last happened in 1989/90 and had foretold the last major slowdown.

The ITSA tealeaves proved remarkably accurate.

The model is simple and works thus.

1) Confidence ebbs - IT contractors laid off ahead of permanent staff

2) Downturn bites - permanent staff laid off too. Contractors have an even more torrid time.

3) Market bottoms out - Permanent staff initially take up slack. Mass layoffs cease.

4) First green shoots of recovery - Last thing companies want to do is to start recruiting permanent staff again. Recovery may be just a Dead Cat Bounce! So contractors rehired. Do not believe you are in Stage 4) until a couple of quarters are passed and the cat is pronounced alive.

5) Recovery takes hold - Contractors do very well ahead of permanent recruitment

The cycle starts all over again.

So where are we now?

You only have to look at MSB's results below to realise that we are still firmly in stage 2) of the cycle. There are absolutely no signs of Stage 3) and certainly none of Stage 4).

Watch the ITSA sector very closely (we will do this for you, of course) and do not believe in any recovery until the ITSA market picks itself off the floor.

[cat] 12/9/2002 00:19

FROM Ricahrd Holway's System House update:

PSD's interims for the six months to 30th Jun. 02 revealed gross fee income down c46% to £22.8m compared to H1 01, PBT has fallen from £5.5m to just £135K, and an EPS of 13.9p is now loss per share of 0.4p (tax on profit and dividends taking their toll). Commenting on the results, Francesca Robinson, Chief Exec, said: "The technology markets which have traditionally generated a large proportion of our income have remained very challenging, especially the telecommunications industry where the downturn has been particularly severe. However, our strategy to diversify into other sectors is progressing well, creating a broader spread and, therefore, more robust business as well as building a solid framework for organic growth in the future".

Comment: PSD has been hit particularly hard as it traditionally generates more than half of its net fee income (NFI) in the technology sector, and it mainly undertakes permanent recruitment, rather than supplying contractors. Perm recruitment, understandably, is faring much worse than contracts right now. Quite rightly, PSD is not assuming that conditions will improve for at least the remainder of 2002, and is looking to ride out the tough times, helped by its c£25m cash pile.

[fastbuck] 10/9/2002 08:45

Wow ... 0.4p loss per share compared to 14.1p last year ... turnover down 54% ... doesn't deserve to be valued at anymore than their net asset value of 129p ...

Also RWA had bery poor results 0.9p compared to 5.1p. Again no recovery seen.

[quickflutter] 10/9/2002 08:06

well done boyo

[cat] 10/9/2002 08:01

PSD - should be fun - any selling should smash the stock

Halved dividend and no profits and poor outlook ...

"Market conditions remain uncertain and we would not exppect trading to improve from current levels for at least the remainder of 2002, beyond which it is difficult to forecast when demand for our services will improve."

[dodddy] 04/9/2002 10:55

sell below the bid in size someone wants out. cant say i blame them ;)

[dodddy] 30/8/2002 16:18

>cat this is a no brainer u need to sell and hold this will collapse in a heap

[cat] 30/8/2002 14:07

Holways daily report re. Bond int. adds more wight to the slide of PSD, WHT,RWA, etc,:

10:00
Mirroring the plight of the IT staff agency (ITSA) market, recruitment software firm Bond International Software has truly suffered. Rev. for the six months to 30th Jun. 02 are down 44% to £3.2m which resulted in operating losses of £2m (cf op. profit £463K H1 01) and pre-tax losses of £2.1m (PBT £443K H1 01). Loss per share was 13.8p, compared to an EPS of 2.17p in H1 01. Trading was worst in the US, which has "made it necessary to substantially increase provision against bad debts". There are some signs of improvement in the UK "where we expect to return to profitability". Australia is "performing well". The Milan office was closed. Bond CEO (and majority shareholder) Steve Russell reported that, "prospects in the sort term remain slow but it is notable that the drop in sales has, in the main, been caused by decisions being delayed rather then deals being lost ... we now feel we are well placed to exploit the eventual upturn, brought about but those delayed decisions coming to fruition".

Comment: See our comments on Morse (below) about a reality check on "delayed" decisions! Unfortunately for Bond (and the entire ITSA community) this is how the recruitment market is - and how it is likely to remain for the foreseeable future. So with net current assets down to under £900K (was £2m this time last year), Bond will have to start thinking hard about working capital.

[rdj20] 28/8/2002 19:19

not counting X trades and trades that looked matched ie. rollover etc. I have calculated that MMs have taken roughly 55,000 net of stock in over the last two weeks. This is very rough but gives you an idea of the positions of MMs books in this stock at the moment.

Assuming MMs paid an average price of 250p for the stock (probably higher but can't be bothered to put it in a spreadsheet!) that equates to roughly £140,000 of stock on their books. This of course assumes a flat starting position which is highly unlikely given the sharp markdown and heavy selling in previous weeks.

In short for every 10p the share price falls the market makers are losing £5,500. This sounds like small fry but it really adds up when all you make is the spread! Given that there seem to be no significant buyers at this level and MMs are being forced to take on more and more stock, I think that it is just a matter of time before they 'take the hit' and re-rate these sharply lower.

[dodddy] 23/8/2002 00:18

the news can only get worse for this sector.

[cat] 22/8/2002 11:54

going weaker again today
50p target. = pe 11

[fastbuck] 21/8/2002 20:56

More news : Spring Group (IT recruitment) reports 14% drop in revenue & continuing losses.

Going forward they say "There are no definate signs of an upturn ... in common with the UK IT staffing sector as a whole, revenues in Spring IT
Personnel declined as a result of continued downward pressure on contractor
numbers and billing rates ... Given current market conditions and the overcapacity issues affecting the UK IT staffing sector, we expect consolidation in the sector"

Another reason to revise current & future profitability down.