Fisher (james) & Sons Share Discussion Threads

[bouleversee] 29/11/2021 20:15

Much worse than rather depressing. My family are losing an awful lot of money between us all. Too late to sell now. I hope Roddy and Illis can come up with some words of comfort. Very strange things happening to share prices at the moment. WH Smith up 5.53% today and FSJ continues its downward trek, as does AZN. I should have thought the latter would be going up. I wonder who FSJ use for their PR.

[bottomfisher] 29/11/2021 19:19

Rosemary Banyard, manager of Downing's Unique Opportunities Fund, explains why she exited James Fisher in the fund's latest fact sheet.

"The individual issue concerned marine services company James Fisher, whose shares fell 40%1 in the month on a profit warning, contributing 0.81% to the total decline. Coming only six weeks after the previous downgrades, the warning was ample evidence of a lack of visibility across a wide range of activities. Capital allocation errors by previous management have come home to roost, and existing management has been slow to react. The words “continues to trade within its banking covenants” may have been designed to give comfort, but did the opposite. The painful decision was taken to exit the holding, and amongst our reasons to sell, it falls firmly into the category of “made a mistake”. Lessons will be learned."

She is a well respected fund manager having worked closely with Schroders' Andy Brough for a long time. Found her comments about the new management being "slow to react" rather depressing.

[xxxxxy] 26/11/2021 15:19

Difficult decision. Leave till Monday. See how crazy the EUSSR goes over weekend.Mad price, because of mad politics.But just how mad?

[xxxxxy] 23/11/2021 09:21

Adolf in Austria and the EUSSR have certainly not helped.

[xxxxxy] 23/11/2021 09:20

Specimen still murky. But so is the World background.Come and look at 350 ish interested.

[leedslad001] 22/11/2021 16:06

Wouldn't like to guess the bottom here

[wunderbar] 22/11/2021 16:00

I bought in today @ 370p. Market cap now only £187m. Underlying operating profit for 2021 expected to be between £27m and £32m. General broker consensus forecast EPS of 38.2p. The valuation looks cheap to me but market volatility making it difficult to call the floor. Can FSJ fall further? Of course it could - but as they say: you gotta be in it to win it. No risk, no reward.

I guess the key question is, are Fisher’s problems merely short term or terminal? I certainly wouldn’t call this a conviction buy but it does look oversold at these levels. YTD shareprice is down 59% and over 80% down from its peak of c.2200p just 2.5 years ago. On day of profit warning (25 Oct) the stock fell 35% (to close at 507p), less than a month later it's fallen another 27% on no further news. Given the magnitude of these falls you’d think the market was pricing in Armageddon! This company has been around 174 years and been a reliable performer for shareholders since listing 25 years ago (up until Covid-19 struck). It’s what I’d call a boring, unglamorous stock, the kind I like - one which has market leading positions in niche sectors. I don’t tend to trade stocks so I’ll hold onto this one for at least a year and review thereafter. Ultimately, I’m looking to double my money at this level.

On a final note, just 2 days after FSJ issued profit warning, broker Peel Hunt set a target of 1150p. Make of that what you will.

[illiswilgig] 14/11/2021 08:23

Meee-owwwww

[shinnas] 11/11/2021 14:16

Recovering unwell this morning:-)

[our haven] 10/11/2021 11:20

Recovering well this morning:-)

[illiswilgig] 04/11/2021 19:43

3800 - 'rats leaving a sinking ship'

Yes, That had occured to me as well. Normally such rats are performing a service - in that it's cheaper than redundancy. If that is the case then I guess the silver-lining is that they have enough work to replace the 'rats',

cheers

[illiswilgig] 04/11/2021 19:38

Hi Roddie,

good to hear from you.

Yes, I also have a sad habit of browsing the JF vacancies page. The UK situation certainly looks healthy.

It's one of the things that reassured me enough to snap up a few more shares recently. Only a few though.

It strikes me that its only UK vacancies? Perhaps there are corners of the globe that are not (yet) so healthy? Which may be behind the comment about a shift in markets?

cheers

Illis

[3800] 04/11/2021 19:28

some evidence of where there is future growth potential?
Or rats leaving a sinking ship?

[roddiemac2] 04/11/2021 19:11

Hello illis,

There are currently 44 vacancies for staff in the various companies. More than half of these are shared between Fendercare ( having the most vacancies ), JFD, JFN and EDS: some evidence of where there is future growth potential?

[illiswilgig] 02/11/2021 07:33

Disposal announced -

- sale of James Fisher Testing Services ("JFTS") from its Marine Support division for £5.7 million to Phenna Group.

JFTS operates a number of materials testing laboratories based in Warrington, Harlow and Portlaise, Ireland, in addition to maintaining a team of field-based technicians and engineers delivering site-specific services to the construction industry.

The sale of JFTS is consistent with James Fisher's strategy of delivering sustainable, profitable growth through market leading niche businesses in the marine, energy and defence markets.-

......that looks good to me, non-core in the construction industry, probably fetched a better price than currently depressed marine assets.

cheers

[cassini] 02/11/2021 01:36

CEO bought £100k worth today at 419p.

[our haven] 01/11/2021 08:15

Topped up Friday at 399 as it has to be towards the bottom IMO.

[bouleversee] 29/10/2021 11:31

1tx -

I also have a small holding in Carrs, inherited from my husband's ISA. I see the current share price is the same as it was 5 years ago. I have to confess that I haven't followed it much (too many holdings to keep track of) so thanks for supplying further details. Oil support engineering is likely to decline but presumably the other areas could be expanded.

[xxxxxy] 29/10/2021 10:58

Bucket with holes.Can be repaired.Hopefully.

[1tx] 29/10/2021 10:54

Am I correct in thinking that the heart of the problem is the debt fuelled expansion into areas that have "failed to succeed",viz dive support ships,resulting in £80m+ write offs,rather than difficulties in established business that are the cause of the problem,although they maybe suffering order delays that in normal circumstances could have been met more easily,at least without finance problems.I note most of the write offs are intangibles but these intangibles have been paid for by loans I assume.I note that the company is still advertising many jobs which indicates business is normal in many areas.This does not help shareholders of course if the lost money has to be replaced to pay the debts,by raising new equity.I note the actual net profits earned in recent years are rather less than the "normalised" profits.I have an interest in another Cumbrian business Carr's best known for agriculure business but about a third of its business is in Nuclear,Wind & oil support engineering;so far business has been "lumpy" but seemingly improving according to most recent updates.

[elsa7878] 29/10/2021 09:31

Illiswilgig

Thanks. I was just about to do the calculations myself. Some wiggle room but can't afford any more mishaps.