Sthree Share Discussion Threads

[paleje] 31/1/2012 10:45

The Times's Tempus column weighs up recruitment firm SThree, which has had a pretty rough time as of late, falling 35% in the last 12 months.

The case for a buy is based on geographic spread, with nearly 80% of profits generated outside of the traditional British IT market. The Middle East, India and Brazil are much happier hunting grounds now.

While banking recruitment is obviously not going well, oil and gas is booming and SThree often returns cash to shareholders with a special dividend of 11p per share announced in December, but at 17 times earnings, Tempus thinks now is not the time to wade into the stock. Hold.

[gswredland] 30/1/2012 20:50

lol...just wild guesses!

[cambium] 30/1/2012 15:52

Panmure?....

[paleje] 30/1/2012 15:34

Some more brokers reco's out, but what do they know -

HOLD - Seymour Pierce 255, Oriel 250
SELL - Panmure 158
BUY - Collins Stewart 300, Investec 285, Peel Hunt 265

[paleje] 30/1/2012 10:09

Gorse, you're right, I meant unchanged from the 9.3p we expected from the Dec update. Couple of brokers issued 'hold' notes this morning, all a bit neutral really, till the eurozone situation becomes clearer.

[gorse] 30/1/2012 09:05

Surely the dividend has risen - final is 9.3p compared to 8p last year.

Balance sheet is strong.

[paleje] 30/1/2012 07:43

Good results, still bags of cash, increasing non UK activity, divi unchanged although a hint at more specials divis..

"The Board believes that the circumstances which allowed for the payment of the special dividend are not a one-off and hence will periodically review the capital structure of the Group with a view to, where prudent, returning surplus cash to shareholders."

Overall wording was cautious for the short term with sentiment damping the sector, positive for the medium term, I noted they specifically used medium term not long term, suggesting it might not be long to wait. As CEO said, things do not look like 2008/9 and whilst things can dip suddenly, they can also rise sharply and the group's in good shape to take advantage when it happens.

[cockneyrebel] 25/1/2012 10:43

Breaking out ahead of the results - were out on Jan 31 last year.

Cr

[chrisb1103] 19/1/2012 23:00

Yeah i think I'll wait and see. Funny old day here today, sharp rise and i thought hmm maybe i should have added and then a steep fall. I guess if the wider market rally has more legs from here this could have some catching up to do though but maybe only if other turn positive on the sector.

[paleje] 19/1/2012 07:30

I think pondering's not a bad place to be, chris, EMR reported this morning and said last quarter of the year was more challenging in Europe, there was a piece in the Times a few days ago in which a Panmure analyst chose HVN, STHR and RWA as his best picks in the sector, good long term but also said he thought there was a storm coming.

[chrisb1103] 18/1/2012 22:03

Well i've been quiet a while here pondering... just can't decide whether to add any in advance of those finals paleje. The performance after we went XD and the reaction to the december update wasn't good and despite the great yield, all their cash and the quality STHR clearly are so many are bearish on the sector generally and reckon we've not seen the bottom. As you said too there are a few big q marks. Hmmm. But yet today as we hear UK employment goes up again, so does STHR! We're a small cap now too of course but maybe that's no bad thing? Tricky one, guess i'll just ponder some more :)

[paleje] 16/1/2012 10:19

Finals on 30th but I doubt if they'll give us much forward sight. Although other recruiters have reported continuing resilience from Germany up to end of year I suspect there must be signs of things tailing off a bit and UK financials are clearly weak. No one knows how badly the Eurozone crisis when it finally finally comes to a head will affect us, I'm hoping the stronger EU countries will recover quickly and growth in Asia, South America, US and Oz all remaining on track. The board's recommendation on divi will probably be the best indicator:)

[texas tea] 14/1/2012 13:00

Upgrade
13/01/12 (14:00)
Hays Outperform 80 23.7% Credit Suisse
Sthree Outperform 270 21.1% Credit Suisse
Halfords Group Overweight 365 21.1% HSBC

[paleje] 04/1/2012 09:17

Berenberg (new to me) German bank issued some notes on recruiters today:-

STHR - Buy 230/300
PAG - Buy 181/230
HAS - Hold 66/70
RWA - Sell 163
MPI - Sell 357/360

[paleje] 13/12/2011 16:28

I'm no chartists but I guess if (when?) we breach 200 it could be a tipping point and take us to 150 ish which we hit but not for long in 2009.

I think we're already oversold and the Manpower report issued last week suggests that countries where we do non-UK business (mostly Germany but also US, Brazil, Asia, Australia) are still planning on hiring next year. We've also reduced exposure to investment banking and we're making headway in new areas like energy and mining.

One thing that confuses me - stopped buying own shares yet they're cheaper now than all the other buys over the last couple of months.

Part of the Manpower report:-

[contrarian2investor] 08/12/2011 22:29

Greetings Royfox,

I am doing okay thanks, business is keeping me busy.
You have got some cracking winners. You should be giving me tips.

I ran a huge successful short on OCDO although looking back now I did exit the trade slightly early.

I have been out of the market mostly due to business demands.

Dipping in and out of stocks, including HVN, GBP, PAF. More recently I have dipped my toes back into the market. I bought back into several stocks (CHG, BVIC, ICAP, BBYB, YULC, RNO, PAF, GDP) including two US oil/gas royalty companies, on the expectation of the bazooka. But after tonight's revelations I think my stop-loss triggers are at risk of coming into play.
My tips for 2012 are GDP, GBP and PAF. Thanks for the heads up on GWG I will add them to my watchlist.

[royfox] 06/12/2011 18:30

Greetings C2I,

I'm going "steady" at the moment, trying to wizzle away the mortgage hence not much activity.

Doing well on TEP, DIA, BKG.
Poor on SRT - quite a loss, but I'm in for the long term - they do need to get some mandates turned into reality at the moment, a bit too much "noise" and not enough real sales is a slight concern.
GWG - poor again, however I'm convinced that they are one of the best companies to capitalise on Rare Earth Elements outside of China. I'd say they are a long term bargain right now.

I've been guilty of emotional attachment with SRT and GWG, my rule of 15% stop on ANY share has been broken and I've paid for it!

Any tips C2I, how are things running for you?

[paleje] 05/12/2011 10:50

3 broker notes this morning - RBC, Numis, UBS - all buys for STHR, target 300-320, better than the squishy hold notes of last week but still too low imo depending how the so called 'Merkozy' plan goes.

[contrarian2investor] 02/12/2011 18:48

O/T wrt PAF

paleje, you will see from my post no 5989 that I initially expected 17p for 2011 but amended my expectation as gold stocks started to get pressured downwards. I then got stopped out see post no 6797. I bought back in post no 6818.
I now have expectations for >23p for 2012. Unless of course we get taken over with a low-ball bid. Just below 23p. GLA.

[paleje] 02/12/2011 17:29

Well c2i, I got my divi today so the wife won't be on house red tonight, but as for the share price ..:(

Buys to sells about 2:1 but still down we went. Couple of mediocre broker notes towards end of week, GS and PMG, wouldn't have helped but other than that it's beyond me. The group can weather the eurozone turbulence imo and the divi should be safe with all that cash. HVN also oversold I agree with you.

OT - PAF have exceeded your end of year 15p target with room to spare, might be news next week, somebody on 3i said they could sell 150k online late afternoon but not buy.

Good weekend to all.

[contrarian2investor] 02/12/2011 16:56

paleje, what is going on here? I thought it was the retailers that were having discount sales. These have halved from their peak in May. They did not even get a boost from the bogus US NFP numbers today. The STHR charts need to find some support asap. I am getting ready to get back into HVN again soon and will also add STHR to my watchlist.

Royfox, hello again. How have the markets been treating you recently?

[gorse] 02/12/2011 12:30

This company seems to have a very strong balance sheet. So, I bought a few.

[royfox] 02/12/2011 09:01

Good update, increase profit across the board - I'd classify the drop in share price as a tree shake, expect this to go back to £2.40 next week.

[paleje] 02/12/2011 07:35

Good update. In line, FY divi +16%, 55m cash even after buybacks and special divi payment, fully aware of possible turbulence and have already re-organised group earlier this year to make more agile, able to respond to local impacts faster when necessary. Eurozone is an ongoing depressant but imo STHR are on top of things, so watch the share price drop:)

[cockneyrebel] 29/11/2011 11:25

firm today ahead of the trading update on Dec 2nd.

CR