Amstrad Share Discussion Threads

[bitterlemontart] 01/3/2006 08:47

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH



Market miscellany

Edited by Edward Simpkins

(Filed: 19/02/2006)



Amstrad

Sir Alan Sugar, the chairman and chief executive of Amstrad, does not like surprises, according to his TV adverts for National Savings. But he must have enjoyed presenting a nice surprise for Amstrad shareholders last month when he said the company would beat analysts' profit forecasts for the year.

The electronic consumer goods group will report full-year results on Wednesday and analysts expect pre-tax profits to top £20m. Amstrad is doing particularly well supplying Sky+ digital video recorders to British Sky Broadcasting. It is also enjoying rapid growth in its business supplying Sky Italia.

Pace Micro, an arch-rival to Amstrad in the set-top box market, is struggling and analysts believe that Amstrad is the main beneficiary.

Sugar's company is trading on a p/e ratio of 11.68, compared with a market average of 14.29. Shares in the company have risen strongly from 150p at the end of December to 203p at close on Friday. But we think they still have some way to go.

Buy.

[darrin1471] 01/3/2006 08:39

skyfella1:
How about a sales update on PIC thread. We miss your imput. Any news on PVR2GO or broadband conections

[netcurtains] 28/2/2006 22:29

it is nice to see it coming back.
Come on son...... Keep it up!

[yotter] 28/2/2006 16:22

BitterLemonTart,

You're very welcome.

[bitterlemontart] 28/2/2006 16:20

Yotter - many thanks !

[yotter] 28/2/2006 16:14

BitterLemonTart,

They're always out of date by about a week. I use them as an indicator.

[bitterlemontart] 28/2/2006 16:09

Yotter - right sorted....just one quick question....how accurate do you think that the ADVFN stats are ?

Not convinced myself !

[yotter] 28/2/2006 16:08

The page before this one (the ADVFN Quote page) has a link to fundamentals. It's at the top rhs of the page.

[bitterlemontart] 28/2/2006 16:07

Amstrad

Amstrad Plc share price | AMT Company Information | AMT Chart | AMT Company News
Company name: Amstrad
EPIC: AMT NMS: 5000
Market Segment: SSC1 ISIN: GB0000953850
Market Symbol: SSMM Share Type: DE
WWW Address: Description: ORD 10P
Industry Sector: LEISURE GOODS - CONSUMER ELECTRONICS [more like this]
Price Price Change [%] Bid Offer Open High Low Volume
199.75 0.75 [0.4] 199.00 200.00 197.50 202.00 196.00 190,984.00
Market Cap. [m] Shares In Issue [m] Beta EPS DPS PE Ratio Yield 52-Wks-Range
164.70 82.45 1.47 16.90 30.00 11.82 3.25 212.25 - 113

[bitterlemontart] 28/2/2006 16:05

Yotter - sorry not with you....

[yotter] 28/2/2006 15:56

BitterLemonTart,

You can do it by clicking fundamentals (on the page before this one) and scrolling down.

[bitterlemontart] 28/2/2006 15:41

Yotter - could you please tell me where you view the CREST loan figures ?

[3gordon] 28/2/2006 15:20

twounits,you say you have a lot of people in the sate llite business in the know,
well how come very soon they themselves will not know the make of the box that they are installing,it will come from any of the three,with no name on the box
the idea is to stop people requesting certain names.
make yourself some money ,get in now,and stop taking notice of ebay.

[yotter] 28/2/2006 15:01

BitterLemonTart,

Looking at the CREST loan figures tells me that short interest in this is next to nothing.

If twounits is short, he/she is brave.

[bitterlemontart] 28/2/2006 14:45

Going....think that you mean already gone !

LOL !

[yotter] 28/2/2006 14:05

twounits,

No doubt you'll be going short AMT then ?

[monty burns] 28/2/2006 13:57

Christ, you're right, how could I be so stupid? Why on earth did I buy these, they're clearly heading for 20p or less.

I mean, they're up today, but that's just a blip, isn't it? Today's rise puts them on an enterprise value:earnings ratio of a ridiculously high 6.8. Barely credible that these should be so high, eh?

Thanks again for posting, good to have input from those with other peoples' interests at heart.

Bye now.

[twounits] 28/2/2006 13:15

With all the email gizmos on the market now, from phones, Blackberries, and cheap PCs how is it people think this is going to take off in a huge way? We ain't the french and even the french have moved on from minitel terminals.

I can see the value of smartphones, but it was Sugar himself in an interview with Piers Morgan for GQ who said he believes people are going to move away from complicated mobile phones with cameras, etc and just go back to a simple phone. The mdoel of Panasonic mobile he uses was discontinued so he asks a mate at Panasonic to source him a few as spares! In a world where the mobile phone is the king of portable information gathering how on earth is he putting his word behind a terminal that has seen dismal sales, was heavily subsidised and not really brought in the punters. The emailer will not last. IP phones and deals where you can buy and IP phone without even needing a PC are now available, people want cheap calls, not WAP on some ghastly ophone that takes up half of the sideboard.

Additionally, I know a lot of people in the Sky business, from independant Sky installers to repairers and there are few people out there who rate the Amstrad STB equipment... worked in that trade for some time. And I myself have been through three different Amstrad made Sky digital receivers. I'm not alone, this is common knowledge in the satellite industry. So, if a significant proportion of STBs are returned (not too sure on exact percentages) how does this affect the profits? Murdoch went to Sugar yonks ago and asked him to make dishes, Sug saw an opportunity to supply more than just dishes and seized on it. However, who in their right mind would ever vouch for an Amstrad box being better or more reliable than a Pace, Panasonic or Sony? ALl that has changed with Sky+ where fewer suppliers exist, however, the SKY+ STBs are no better in terms of reliability.

You only need to go to EBay to see that Amstrad boxes are the least favoured, this is obvious by the lower prices they fetch.

After a while , this will become a problem, more and mroe consumers are aware of the Amstrad STBs having a poor reputation and asking for Pace or other equipment instead... How long before the buddy buddy Sugar Murdoch alliance is affected by the negative connotations associated with the Amstrad kit?

I'm not convinced in the least of £2.50.

[netcurtains] 27/2/2006 16:15

next stop 2.50

[bitterlemontart] 27/2/2006 13:45

Really ?

Looks more like much need consolidation to me....