Empiric Student Property Share Discussion Threads

[dogwalker] 20/4/2017 20:47

It's a job to know, isn't it ? That's where bulletin boards come in handy : as forums for discussing the why's & wherefore's.
Nice post Jombaston. Thanks. I'm a holder here, but I don't honestly know why.

[jombaston] 20/4/2017 19:03

You are quite right, risk. Lets face it this company IPO'd in June 2014 and had only managed to grow the NAV to 105.9 per share some 2 1/2 years later by Dec 2016.

How would they have managed if the student market hadn't been booming over this period? I have been seriously underwhelmed. I'm not sure the share price really deserves a premium to NAV.

I know they have been using capital to pay uncovered dividends but I suspect advisors, developers, agents, directors and others have been the real beneficiaries of their expansion over this period.

Maybe shareholders will benefit in the future if they temper their ambitions but maybe they won't.

[riskvsreward] 12/4/2017 19:55

Although optimistic on the sector and the long term trend of this industry, esp has significantly underperformed compared to the peers like wjg, digs etc in the same sector, which makes the compensation package awarded to the esp management far too generous in compassion of its relative performance.

[riskvsreward] 12/4/2017 19:49

This should be a good cash generative business if managed well and sensible investment decisions taken by management, especially in current low interest rate environment. Student rent has gone up from around £80-100 per month in early 90s to now well over £700 to £1000, plus the capital growth for properties in key university cities.

esp should get better as time goes as at early days, some initial investments (pre-development and pre-rent) are not income earning.

[hyperboreus] 12/4/2017 07:43

Decent write-up in IC by James Crosland a couple of days ago mentioning analysts at Jefferies expect adjusted NAV of 116p at the end of 2017, from 105p a year earlier.

IC View:

Student numbers continue to rise, and Empiric is on course to meet its five-year target of 10,000 beds, set at IPO in 2014. The shares are little changed from our buy tip (109.5p, 5 Nov 2015) but the quarterly dividend is a must for income seekers.

BUY rating still applies

[bscuit] 11/4/2017 10:57

Risk,

Inclined to agree remuneration too high for size.

[shauney2] 11/4/2017 09:20

Given as a buy in the Times

[riskvsreward] 10/4/2017 19:10

I agree that the directors here seem to be too greedy for not a great job done so far compared to other companies in the same sector. The institution investor should hold them in check.

[jombaston] 10/4/2017 17:06

Like others, I bought this share 2 or 3 years ago because I liked the sector and I wanted a low risk, high yield, buy and hold investment.

Unfortunately, I have been disappointed on a number of fronts. I feel the expansion strategy is overly aggressive, the dividend is nowhere near covered and the latest dividend increase was disappointing.

I didn't like the revised director's remuneration policy as it would appear to give the directors further reason to pursue an aggressive strategy. The maximum annual award of nearly £5.5m for CEO, CIO and CFO combined seems quite high for a low risk company, which only gathered £19m in rent in the last 6 months.



I'd rather hold something with a more fully covered divi. I can see that if they stopped expanding the dividend might be almost covered but if they are not going to stop expanding that is somewhat irrelevant.

last 6 months
EPRA eps 0.38p
dividend 3.05p

I have sold all my shares and will have to settle for a lower but safer dividend yield elsewhere.

I don't want to be too negative but I feel I should have done better (and can still do better) in such a hot sector!

[stemis] 07/4/2017 09:53

DIGS and ESP are slightly different beasts. DIGS is London mostly and ESP more geographically diversified, with little London exposure. As a result DIGS owns more expensive, lower yielding properties - 1,923 beds at £431m (£224k/bed) yielding 5.05% (£11.3k/bed). ESP owns 4,257 beds at £443m (£104k/bed) yielding 5.9% (£6.1k/bed).

[davr0s] 06/4/2017 13:20

Decided to take my position here off ahead of results. Chart been a bit weak and the recent FD departure news bugging me so want to eliminate gap risk. Providing results are ok and it doesn't gap the other way I'll probably repurchase back once the results are behind us

[jonwig] 04/4/2017 19:40

fozzie (post #350). I haven't changed the views discussed in posts #338, 339. I still hold DIGS in the sector.

[fozzie] 04/4/2017 12:39

I don't disagree Peter but the share price action is poor given the booming sector they operate in, i have some knowledge of it and renting to students is a very lucrative place to be.

[11_percent] 04/4/2017 10:43

Ok, peeps are here for the divi, but a bit increase in the share price would be good.

[petersinthemarket] 04/4/2017 10:31

I suspect many are in here for the solid divi and not the share price

[fozzie] 04/4/2017 08:53

jonwig are you still in here? I still retain my original 5000 investment but am sorely tempted to get out. Booming sector and the share price goes nowhere.

[shawzie] 16/3/2017 09:08

"Michael Enright has resigned as a Director of the Company for personal reasons."
The CFO has gone, just a few weeks before results are to be announced.
Does he not want his name to be associated with the Report?
Perhaps I am too suspicious - we shall see.

[jl9] 21/2/2017 22:02

jonwig

It was more a sorry observation of national character.

[jonwig] 20/2/2017 09:42

From the wordings, Goldman Sachs seems to have borrowed stock on a regular basis - maybe for selling short. However, the short interest tracker shows a nil shhort position for ESP:



Over to somebody else!

[jonwig] 19/2/2017 15:43

JL9 - are you referring to post #340? I try never to make "political" comments myself, though I might refer to them occasionally.

However, I wouldn't want to disagree with you in what you said!

[jl9] 19/2/2017 13:05

jonwig

Most politicians don't understand where our interests as a nation lie, and when they do, they don't care. This has been the story of our nation's decline over the last hundred and fifty years and its not over and in fact never will be over. To take some examples - our successful technology companies and brands are bought by foreigners - and we call it success. Our leading scientists and technology gurus make great breakthroughs and then head abroad - and we call it success. Look at May as she proudly stands up and fights for Britain and British interests - even as she remains wilfully blind to the damage she is doing.

[gswredland] 05/2/2017 08:09

Disappointed holder here. Will hang on a bit but when I compare it to WJG. Ok the dividend is good but I did expect more capital growth as with WJG

[petersinthemarket] 02/2/2017 13:31

I think I must have missed a trick here somewhere. I have been waiting for a TU like end of jan2016. But I remember now, they changed year end from 30june to 31dec. I guess that means we are waiting for finals instead. Does anyone have any info on expected business update? pete

[skinny] 13/1/2017 14:06

Numis Add 107.50 120.00 123.00 Upgrades

[jonwig] 12/1/2017 10:25

shawzie - a telling comment from the FT recently regarding immigration numbers:

Ask a cabinet colleague whether she and her advisers are somehow ignorant of the material cost and paltry political gain that flows from curbs on foreign students, and the response is disturbingly crisp. “It’s not that they don’t know, it’s that they don’t care.”