Arcontech Share Discussion Threads

[cockerhoop] 21/7/2021 13:02

Memory doesn't serve :-)

The last 3 FY TS's have been Tues, Thurs, Weds.

[multibagger] 21/7/2021 07:15

Results tomorrow possibly ?

I seem to recall (if memory serves) that Thu was often a day for news from ARC. Let's see what the brief note will tell us when it does arrive.

Good luck all :)

[trident5] 16/7/2021 09:16

It was out July 15 last year - Good news travels quicker than bad.

[multibagger] 16/7/2021 08:22

Good morning all :)

A Trading Update is due based on previous track record/timing....early next week I guess ?

Hopefully we'll have some news of increased offtake of services or signing up of new clients....as even by ARC standards we have not had any commercial news RNSed since Oct 2020 and shareprice drifting downwards. Appreciate the issues of Covid affecting the nature of our sales contacts.

The cash pile is not being put to work IMHO. Time for some healthy dividends to be paid/cash returned, rather than sitting on £ millions of cash with no clear objective as far as I can establish. We had close to £5m to end Dec 2020. I imagine we would have added another £500k + since then.

How much of a contingency fund does a business with a concentrated customer base need to hold ? I don't park 3 times my annual income for a rainy day - maybe I am not conservative/risk averse enough ?

Good luck all !

[boadicea] 09/6/2021 12:47

It can sometimes be difficult to get an on-line quote but there seem to be some availble this morning.

[boadicea] 07/6/2021 20:31

I would hope to see a trading update in early July, could be 7th or 15th?
News is needed to keep interest alive.

[janeann] 26/4/2021 07:19

Its all about price; I couldhave put a limit order in but was only testing the strength of demand - with no intention of selling. Sometimes i can sell a lot more than that without a limit; sometimes cant sell any!

[boadicea] 26/4/2021 00:10

Yes - Well 15k is a fair chunk for this share (about £26k) but if they don't want your sell and at the same time don't want my buy (which was only for about 3k) the market's obviously broken.

[janeann] 24/4/2021 20:09

its very tightly held and so small trades can change the price quite substantially. That said I couldnt get an online quote to sell more than about 15k shares friday morn.

[boadicea] 23/4/2021 10:25

What's going on now! Last purchase was 3p above market quote and nothing is available on-line.

Edit: (2pm) Max online availability is 250 shares at virtually full price.

[boadicea] 06/4/2021 11:22

The trend depends very much on the time-frame chosen. Long term is quite good and short term trends over past year are unlikely to persist in many cases.

[p1nkfish] 12/3/2021 15:51

Had an eye on this for a while but outside of it being a short term trade I cant justify buying. Trend is poor.

[johnthespacer] 12/3/2021 15:31

Leon Boros has sold a few..

[multibagger] 01/3/2021 22:04

Any thoughts or guesses as to what the Rishi is likely to do with CGT ?

I'm filled with trepidation....

[multibagger] 01/3/2021 22:01

Many thanks for kindly sharing Boadicea - much appreciated !

A good screening tool/aide memoire as any and incorporating many of the measures I loosely use.

I like to see amongst others you have mentioned....

* Demonstrable skin in the game by the Board

* Ideally no debt / easily serviceable debt

* No huge or recurrent capex

...but I tend to be swayed by my "instinct/gut feeling" too...so more qualitative than quantitative possibly.

As Janeann has said ARC is a beautiful little gem....but volatile on small volumes, a very conservative management with no fanfare or flurry of RNSs.

No drama and solidly boring in a nice way, if you can get used to it.

Good luck and happy investing in ARC :)

[boadicea] 01/3/2021 17:10

What a polite and welcoming board!

It's a straightforward A to G test - very rule of thumb, nothing clever.

A is the market (Aim or Main) with a personal bonus for AIM (on IHT considerations).
B is Balance sheet - Is it healthy or stretched?
C is for Cash flow - helps eliminate bogus profits by overstated asset valuation.
D is for Dividend - Does it normally pay one? (allowance for covid situation)
E is for Earnings - Is sensibly adjusted P/E reasonable?
F is for Field of operation (ie market sector)- Is it expansionary+/overcompetitive-
G is for Growth - Specific to company, how does it compare with peers.

Obviously this doesn't allow for every consideration and my evaluation criteria are therefore fairly elastic allowing that anything not being a 'cross' may be counted as a tick, but it can be a useful first filter, and not every factor needs a tick to be a good investment. However a company ticking all seven is probably fairly safe. D is probably the least important. If B is looking sick but most others are good, perhaps put it on one side but watch for a nicely discounted share offer.

I would strongly urge that it is not taken too seriously as it hasn't made me a multi-millionaire (yet), with probaly not very long to go!

[multibagger] 01/3/2021 14:25

Welcome aboard Boadicea !

Out of interest, are you able to share your 7 screening questions before investing in a company please ?

[janeann] 01/3/2021 13:19

welcome boadicea. Its a good little company but you will find it can be quite volatile - and at times a few trades can move the price quite dramatically. Ive been in it since well before the consolidation! Winning new customers is a challenge but hopefully patience will be rewarded!

[boadicea] 01/3/2021 12:08

For once I am feeling slightly smug at having entered ARC before ST raised its profile. My reasons were almost exactly mirrored in his comments. In fact I had a seven box tick list and this is the only share of half a dozen that I was following that actually ticked all seven boxes. My feeling was that it should probaly be trading in the mid 200's rather than the 190's where it stood at the time, so a dip even below that presented a useful buying opportunity imho.

There were a couple of others that rated quite well. Of these, D4T4 was relatively more expensive (and I had enough already) while Pelatro [PTRO] looked financially healthy and now lowly priced due to its sagging growth rate, the box it didn't tick. It appears to have bottomed out so I have bought it as a potential recovery prospect.

[speedsgh] 01/3/2021 07:59

Tap into a prodigious cash generator -

Simon Thompson runs his slide rule over an Aim-traded financial software provider

~ Trading in line with full-year earnings forecasts
~ 90 per cent of sales recurring
~ Net cash equates to a quarter of market capitalisation

You are unlikely to see a more impressive blue-chip client base than the one offered by Aim-traded financial software provider Arcontech (ARC:160p). The roll call of blue-chips includes Barclays, Citi, JPMorgan, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, Santander and Bank of England. These financial organisations generate recurring licence fees that equate to 90 per cent of the company’s annual revenue, offering investors a stable income stream...

[p1nkfish] 25/2/2021 14:06

Rotation occurring imho as UK comes out of lockdown and recovery plays available before ARC shows same.

Some edd and flow, but volumes low so no worries.

[p1nkfish] 24/2/2021 10:44

Take private or sell to PE.

[energeticbacker] 24/2/2021 10:29

Featured on Investor's Champion:

Having floated back in 2000 (as Knowledge Technology Solutions) this business is certainly taking a long time to realise its potential, which is somewhat worrying in the fast-moving world of technology, although 2020 was clearly a very difficult year. Progress has been slow and steady over the past 5 years and PLC costs will be making a big dent in net returns - they could certainly be doing more with their listing.

[p1nkfish] 23/2/2021 08:13

Die is cast for the remainder of this FY.

"We expect conditions in the second half of the year to remain challenging.  It seems unlikely that our sales team will have greater access to customers until at least the end of the year, however, we are confident that we will build on current growth once market conditions improve."