Drs Data&Rsrch Share Discussion Threads

[mrpig] 03/3/2004 19:42

hercules
Hope you are right this accounts for 15% of my portfolio. The run up to the 16th March should be very interesting.
mr.pig

[hercules10] 02/3/2004 11:22

DRS will produce good results. Has a good sustainable business that is growing. Believe plenty of upside here with Directors also buying before closed period. Time for a rerating as this is solid growth company with great prospects in my view with a market that will just grow too. It will all be about maintaining their market share of new business so China wil be important. London mayor elections will also be good news too.

[pippin] 22/2/2004 15:39

Peter Webb's in it, is he? Good, because he's one smart cookie and knows his smaller companies.

[jainsworth] 22/2/2004 10:08

Taken from the DRS web site -

Event Date
Year End Results announced to Stock Exchange 16/03/2004
Annual Report & Accounts distributed to shareholders 16/04/2004
Annual General Meeting 17/05/2004
Final dividend date 21/05/2004
Interim Results announced to Stock Exchange 07/09/2004
Interim Report distributed to shareholders 11/10/2004
Interim Dividend date 05/11/2004

[lardladpa] 17/2/2004 08:24

Does anyone know the date of the finals? Based on the past ones I'm guessing either the 10th or the 17th od March, but I'd like to know for sure.

[nurdin] 17/2/2004 08:06

Would be interesting to see what progress they are making in China.This from the interims:

''The international market for our Photoscribe scanners remains buoyant. A
project to process university applications in the Guangdong province of China
required a number of scanners to be shipped there at short notice. Fortunately
travel restrictions imposed due to the SARS virus were lifted just in time for
our engineers to commission the machines and the project was completed on time.
Guangdong is just one of a number of provinces in China that may have a
requirement for our technology and services....''

Finals should make interesting reading!

[kjoco] 16/2/2004 19:02

Here is the Citywire article mentioned above:

DRS Data wins Knott's vote.

16 February 2004
Citywire

Award winning data capture firm DRS Data & Research Services not only won its largest ever contract at the end of last year it also won the backing of top fund manager Simon Knott, who has taken a secret stake in the firm for his Discretionary Fund.

The £21 million company (DRS) was founded in 1969 and specialises in optical scanning technology that captures and processes data from a number of sources including handwriting, paper forms, fax, electronic media, photos and fingerprints. Its main commercial applications are in the examinations and electoral spheres.

Its largest contract to date, worth £3.5 million, is to supply electronic vote-counting equipment for the London mayoral elections in 2004. It has also worked with international organisations such as the United Nations to provide voter registration services in newly democratised countries. Its services could be useful in Iraq.

Knott, who carries Citywire's maximum AAA rating for his excellent risk adjusted performance, bought 1 million shares, or 2.89% of the company in December last year. The price has since come down from 69p to 61p. Mayborn, another Knott investment, is up by 178% since it appeared in this column in May last year.

A more recent buyer is the equally highly rated Peter Webb, who holds 4.23% in his Free Spirit fund.

In late October DRS settled a patent dispute with NCS Pearson to the mutual benefit of both parties. It has built profits steadily from £50,000 in 1998 to £1.75 million in 2002. It produced strong interims in September and said the outlook is satisfactory. Knott and Webb might not be so understated.

* This article also appeared in the latest edition of the Financial Mail on Sunday.

[jainsworth] 16/2/2004 18:13

d or q - do you take every comment so personally, please rest assured that I really don't care what Knott paid for his shares and I care even less about what you've done or may be about to do - I play the market to make cash and today has been very profitable, I hope everyone got something out of it.

[doubleorquits] 16/2/2004 17:50

It actually said that he "quietly took his stake in December and since then...." the price has slipped from 69p.....so if you want to nitpick it implies that, if anything, the price he paid could have been higher.

And why do you hope I have taken my profit?

[jainsworth] 16/2/2004 17:42

Hope you've taken your profit then, because it didn't actually say he'd paid 69p for them, it simply stated that he'd purchased them in December so he could have paid as little as 56p according to the charts. Good day all round whatever the reason!

[doubleorquits] 16/2/2004 16:17

Most definitely - they had the audacity to tip a little known Ofex share yesterday - Loyalward Group - so they went up by +33.00p. I wonder, despite the warning not to chase because it will fall back - how many did end up chasing it. Not sure what it opened at but the Power of the Press lives on.

[cockneyrebel] 16/2/2004 16:08

Blimey, as exciting as I've seen this one I think.

Probably goes to show not many read Citywire but a lot read the Sundays.

CR

[doubleorquits] 16/2/2004 15:40

The point is, of course, it was positive and probably the first time a lot of people had come across the stock. The fact it was 8p under the price that the "expert" paid for it, it made it a no-brainer for a lot of people.

[jainsworth] 16/2/2004 15:35

Based upon todays effect we obviously need a few more "not so good" articles of this kind!

[doubleorquits] 16/2/2004 12:31

CR,
The irony is that it wasn't! It was just a repeat of a Citywire article with a few added comments about Knott. Just goes to show how people are quite uninformed about shares they are looking to buy - one press tip and whooosh...
As you keep saying a lot of peeps can't do their own sums.

[cockneyrebel] 16/2/2004 12:20

Must have been a good article :-)

CR

[jadacards] 16/2/2004 08:22

They've alreay had a dabble in the elections of one oe two dubious countries, but their London Mayoral election was their most high profile involvement.

[nurdin] 16/2/2004 07:58

Anyone tell me premarket price please?

[pippin] 16/2/2004 07:52

I've got quite a few of these tucked away. I don't know of anyone else that can offer the election product. Given the scale of dodgy elections around the world, I would have thought the sales potential is enormous. And the company's profile may well be raised very high.

Could be a nice little run today!

[jainsworth] 16/2/2004 07:41

They've paid a good dividend last couple of times, which is an even better place to start. - Looking forward to results in March.

[warranty] 15/2/2004 19:01

jansworth, thanks for that, new to this share and that seems a good place to start.

[nurdin] 15/2/2004 18:44

It is frustrating though that William de Broe havent produced a forecasts for the company..one has to rely entirely on track record which does look good.I tackled the company on this point last week but the answer was simply that the brokers are waiting for the finals before doing anything.''Appointing a broker has been a big step for us....we will ensure that a forecast is produced soon after our results.''They are in closed period now so couldnt get much from them on current trading.''The statement made at the interims remians...'' is all he said

[doubleorquits] 15/2/2004 18:35

It is a citywire article. Says that he bought 2.89% of the company (1 million shares) in December and paid 69p. The rest is about the company's big contract with London for the mayoral elections. Says that shares have fallen since his purchase but that he is astute.

[jainsworth] 15/2/2004 17:31

Simon Knott has a AAA rating!!!!!!!!!!!