Andrews Sykes Share Discussion Threads

[keithfox] 05/11/2013 18:13

So why do they bother saying that?

[ignoble] 05/11/2013 17:02

Keith , in this day and age , Friday is really of little interest as electronic settlement has made being "registered" of little concern.
Even if you had bought the stock today, it is highly unlikely you would be "on the register" by Friday ...your broker would have to "claim" the divi from the broker who sold them to you and it would be credited to you a few days after Friday.
The XD is the date that matters most to us ... being "on the register" is more of a back office thing.

[investali] 05/11/2013 16:54

You are part right but this explains much better than I could,

Dividend dates explained

Investors are sometimes puzzled by why high-yielding shares seem sometimes to drop sharply without any apparent reason on a Wednesday. The falls are harmless and the reason is mundane. It is bound up with the way the market takes account of dividend payments.

It's important for investors to have a dividing line that determines precisely when shareholders qualify for a dividend and when they do not, and to know precisely how and when that fact will be taken into account by the market.

All dividend announcements by companies give at least two key dates. These are:

• The 'record' date. This is the date after which new buyers of the shares will not qualify for the pending dividend payments. In other words if you sell a share just before or buy a share just after the record date, you won't be entitled to the dividend. This is not necessarily called the record date in a company announcement. The phrase generally used will be something like "...will be paid on [payment date] to shareholders on the register at [record date]".

• The payment date. This is the date that dividend cheques are posted or dividends paid by bank mandate are credited to shareholders bank accounts. This may be some weeks or even months after the record date, so it is important to be aware precisely when the payment is likely to be made. Company websites generally contain these details, as do printed company announcements mailed to shareholders.

The third key date, and the one that causes most confusion, is:

• The 'ex-dividend' date. This is normally the second business day prior to the record date. Since record dates are generally a Friday, this means that most ex-dividend dates are on a Wednesday.

Ex-dividend dates are fixed this way because of settlement times. On the T+3 system operated in the UK (i.e. a trade settles three days after it is executed), investors need to buy a stock three days prior to the record date (that's to say, the day before the ex-dividend date) to be sure of qualifying for the dividend payment, since three days for settlement is needed before the shareholder's name goes on the register.

What happens on the ex-dividend date?

In order to recognise the fact that buyers of the share on or after that day will not qualify for the imminent dividend, the share price is adjusted downwards by an amount that reflects the size of the pending per share dividend payment. Hence the sometimes puzzling share price falls in dividend-paying shares.

If a share stands at 630p the day prior to 'going ex' a 25p dividend payment, this means that when the shares open the following day, they will have been adjusted downwards to 605p. Any movement from that level, or a higher or lower opening price, simply reflects the underlying tone of the market, or supply and demand for the share itself.

On an ex-dividend date, any underlying change in the price compared to the previous day can be worked out by notionally subtracting the dividend from the previous day's close and then comparing the resulting price with that day's quote.

Shares trading ex-dividend are noted in published price lists and broker contract notes with an 'xd' tag after the price, to emphasise that the shares are being bought without entitlement to the pending dividend payment.

[cockerhoop] 05/11/2013 16:53

Keith,

My understanding is they go effectively go xd overnight tonight and should open 9p lower in the morning. If you sold tomorrow you would receive the dividend.

[keithfox] 05/11/2013 16:47

The shares are xd tomorrow, that's fine, I understand that. The div will be paid to shareholders on the register on Friday. So that means no poiunt in buying them tomorrow to get the div, but you cant sell them tomorrow (not that I want to) and still get the div. I presume that's right and I presume you cant sell them Friday either as there would be 2 shareholders on that date. I presume it would be the person holding the shares at the end of the day, but then that person wouldnt get the div because they would be xd. Bit confusing that...to me anyway.

[ignoble] 05/11/2013 08:32

Tks Horndean ...enjoyed the read

[keithfox] 05/11/2013 08:18

Interesting. I've always thought that the 90% holding of the boss has held them back but he has always looked after the shareholders (and himself, of course!) so its not a problem. Thed company has definitey become more 'professional' these days and the cashflow/net fund position is very good.

[horndean eagle] 05/11/2013 07:58

If anyone was wondering what it was that actually triggered the bizarre price action in ASY of late then I have a suggestion:-

At - we rank every company out of 100 for its Quality, Value and Momentum using a blend of highly predictive quantitative factors. A composite of these three scores produces an overall ranking we call the 'QVM' StockRank which is designed to be predictive of future long term stock market outperformance. In the case of the Value Rank for instance, where Greenblatt looked only at earnings yield, the ValueRank also takes into account several other factors including price-to-book, price-to-earnings, price-to-free cashflow and dividend yield. In other words, it isn't relying on one individual ratio to define a company's likely valuation. Likewise in the case of the Quality Rank, rather than just looking at return on capital, the ranking tool looks at a host of other indicators spanning the quality of franchise, fundamental direction and financial safety.

If you apply the StockRank to those companies currently in the top 15% of the market in terms of their Magic Formula scores, you immediately lose a handful of potentially rogue stocks that crop up near the top of the standard Greenblatt list, among them a couple of small natural resources companies and a Chinese logistics business. Instead, you get a basket of predominantly small to mid-cap shares that are super charged Magic Formula qualifying companies with the added bonus of having positive share price and earnings momentum behind them. The additional momentum filter in the StockRank could act as an aid in further screening out the 'value traps' inherent in a value strategy such as this.

You can see the full list to this screening process here, which is topped by RM (LON:RM.), a company that has previously done extremely well in supplying IT kit as part of the PFI-funded Building Schools for the Future programme. With that programme now winding down, it's looking to improve the performance of its other divisions and the share price has responded with a gain of 50p to 115p since July. You can read Paul Scott's view on RM's balance sheet here.

Elsewhere, bolstering the Magic Formula with this filter makes no difference to companies such as defence contractor Cohort (LON:CHRT), oil and gas group SOCO International (LON:SIA) and equipment hire business Andrews Sykes (LON:ASY), which all rank highly on both sets of measures. Meanwhile, the introduction of high ranking StockRanks companies, sees retailers JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.) and Halfords (LON:HFD) pushed up the list, as are recruitment firms Networkers International (LON:NWKI) and Harvey Nash (LON:HVN).

[ignoble] 04/11/2013 18:31

XD Wednesday the 6th Nov ...

[ignoble] 02/11/2013 14:58

Beats working for a living !

[keithfox] 02/11/2013 13:10

Yes, you did well. You bought in around £2 if I remember rightly so thats over £30k up with divis. Not bad.

[ignoble] 02/11/2013 12:02

Been a great ride for you ....very well done

[investali] 02/11/2013 11:56

Sounds good to me too. If you remember I invested in 25,000 shares this time last year on a nod I received from a friend.

Many thanks to him and all who post here, what a year it's been!

Not for selling any time in 2013.

Ali.

[ignoble] 02/11/2013 11:39

Tks Keith,

Sounds good to me

[keithfox] 02/11/2013 09:40

They are still only on a PE of 12ish and are adding to their cash/asset pile at the rate of £30k a day, which is all money that could easily find its way to shareholders i.e. mostly the guv! The 2 divis they've paid in the last 4 months havn't affected that at all. Business is doing well with the middle east picking up and pumps coming back into it. Also, there are only 4m shares out there as the guv has got 90% of them. I was once told by a stockbroker that if a stock has less than 7m shares on the market, it can really motor. The mm's have to be really careful to prevent their fingers getting burnt and are obviously short of stock. Looking ahead, some cold weather from December onwards would be nice but don't forget that £30k a day!

[pyemckay] 01/11/2013 19:33

im stunned at the performance recently and was going to sell at 308 earlier this week. will hold as momentum is really with this now.

[ignoble] 01/11/2013 17:19

I wouldn't bet against it ...I remember some years ago when London Security were 260p or so in April and they closed the year at 600p.

Ever hopeful ...

[keithfox] 01/11/2013 10:39

We are heading towards your wife's target ignoble!

[ignoble] 01/11/2013 10:04

Most definitely not !

[keithfox] 01/11/2013 09:52

Well I'm quite happy with the way the share price is going and I would imagine that their reserves are helping the share price. Can't have it all ways I suppose, but I for one have no complaints. Anyone else got complaints!?

[horndean eagle] 29/10/2013 18:11

Fully appreciate that but they have 50p or so of cash on the balance sheet earning pretty much zero. At the same time they have an 8m loans on which they are paying circa 400k a year in interest. Would like the cash back sooner rather than later.

[keithfox] 29/10/2013 16:33

18p over 6 months isn't bad and they have shown in the past that they are quite happy sharing out the cash, so unless they have a cunning plan, I'm sure a large part of that cash will find its way to us.

[horndean eagle] 29/10/2013 16:05

Personally quite disappointed with the dividend. The company has too much cash just sat their on the balance sheet earning zilch. Much rather have the option of having that back and putting it to work.

[ignoble] 29/10/2013 09:00

Nice little Christmas Present ...