Judges Scientific Share Discussion Threads

[monty9] 01/4/2016 15:31

Extracts from an Announcement this morning:

Judges Scientific, a group involved in the buy and build of scientific instrument businesses, announces that it has today acquired 100% of the issued share capital of Dia-Stron Limited ("Dia-Stron"), an instrument maker based in Andover, Hampshire. Dia-Stron designs and manufactures systems to test the mechanical properties of fibres (the "Acquisition"). The Board expects the Acquisition to be immediately earnings enhancing.

The purchase price of Dia-Stron amounted to £2.75 million in cash. An additional payment will be made to reflect any excess working capital over and above the ongoing requirements of the business. The Board expects such payment to be covered by the cash inherited at the completion date.

Dia-Stron's stand-alone accounts for the financial year to 31 March 2015 show revenues of £1.48 million and pre-tax profits of £0.59 million. Net tangible assets amounted to £0.81 million, including cash of £0.55 million. These accounts do not include the assets or profits of Dia-Stron US and Mar-Tech which were acquired by Dia-Stron prior to completion of the Acquisition and are not material in the context of the transaction.

It looks like they are buying it at about 6X earnings. It should add about 8p to EPS.

Conclusion: Small but perfectly formed.

[oregano] 22/3/2016 09:24

SCSW love this stock. they will give it a shunt early next month. And given illiquidity it moves pretty fast.

[alphabeta4] 22/3/2016 09:20

Yes - it's been a while but these look like a decent beat to me. Interestingly broker forecasts for 2017 are for a 15p increase in EPS - which by my calcs if Cool LED does the £1m earnout (which is to June 2016 and ignores any organic growth after) then 10.5 months of this (as acquired 18/2) would be almost the entire expected EPS growth.
The forward PE even on the expected EPS of 117.3p looks undemanding - at £16.35 a share it works out at 13.94 against a sector average of 18.13.
There has also been a move from $1.47 to $1.43 and €1.36 to €1.27 since the year end so there should be some positive flows should this continue and to add to this the positive currency effects in 2015 we're really until the second half which should boost revenue and profit once they are in a full year's figures.
Lots of positives here - IMHO I think this could regain a price of over £20 without a demanding valuation being required.

[oregano] 22/3/2016 08:46

very good numbers. upgrades.

[essential] 18/2/2016 08:00

Yes very impressive record of astute acquisitions

[cockerhoop] 18/2/2016 07:38

Nice little bolt on acquisition, looks like it could add £0.75m-£1m operating profit for a cost of £3.5m-£4.5m.

Has great margins too :-)

[lancasterbomber] 04/2/2016 11:46

Nice break out and spread closed

[cockerhoop] 19/1/2016 08:41

Encouraging update, they'll have done 60-65p in H2 compared to 41.1p in H1.

Order book sustained through the 2nd half coupled with exchange rate tailwinds means it's looking good for 2016.

[cockerhoop] 12/1/2016 13:52

Should be a trading statement out next week (last year it was accompanied by an acquisition)

I can easily see this on a PE of 15 - whilst they've had a growth hiccup recently they have increased EPS by 5 times over the last 6 years.

[pugugly] 12/1/2016 13:16

Continuing to fall back 0 p/e as quoted by fundamentals still too high for a company that while growing has slowed the %age rate of growth significantly.

Any thougths as to a fair p/e objective going forwqrd ?

[pugugly] 20/12/2015 10:09

A very illiquid stock so can move very fast on limited buy\ sell activity also usually a VERY wide spread so not a good stock to try and deal.

Agree with oregano above also DC is a safe pair of hands but sales could be under pressure from a slow down in capital investment and China BUT possibly gain from an increasing regulatory environment.

IMO however the multibagger days are probably gone - or only achievable over a very long (possibly 10 plus years) time scale.

[blueball] 20/12/2015 09:13

A not insignificant rise of 5% on Friday.

[droid] 18/12/2015 13:51

Some sort of breakout going on here - New Year tip somewhere maybe ?

[davidosh] 16/10/2015 14:47

If any of you would like to also meet the management and hear the story behind the Proactis results then do come and join me on Monday evening at SeaSalt. Just email me so that I can book you in. We have 42 already.

mellomeeting.co.uk

[davidosh] 14/10/2015 19:26

David Cicurel will be doing a short results presentation at our next Mello evening in Beckenham on Monday 19th october www.mellomeeting.co.uk

[oregano] 14/10/2015 16:47

Thanks Alph.

[alphabeta4] 09/10/2015 15:50

Momentum Oregano - they had loads of earnings beats so developed a sizeable premium to the sector.
Could be a good longer term play but needs sales to recover Imo which isn't easy if China continues to slow.

[oregano] 02/10/2015 15:17

interest returning after results roadshow, which bodes well. I am unsure why this ever traded above £20, but at £15 they appear respectable value. these guys are focussed on growth rather than yield so I am sure they would rather retain capital to acquire, and if they can pick up businesses on 5x then surely they should.

SCSW will give them a big write up in the next issue I am sure, though unsure whether that makes any difference.

[gengulphus] 25/9/2015 16:22

A line that caught my eye was
' The Board is conscious of the impending withdrawal of the dividend tax credit and will therefore consider paying a substantial second interim dividend before the end of the current tax year to utilise the current tax legislation before the changes come into effect. The Board would then seek to pay a nominal final dividend in the new tax year.'

I am wondering if this means the board are considering a significant return of cash to shareholders, rather than a normal divi increase of around 10%, in advance of changes in the tax regime.

My guess is not, because if they were considering paying significantly more in total than they would under their normal dividend policy, I think they would probably have said so! Instead, I think they're saying that what they would normally pay for the final dividend will mostly be paid as a 2nd interim dividend (which doesn't require AGM approval and so can be paid earlier than a final dividend), leaving just a small remainder to be paid as a final dividend. I.e. just bringing the payment of some of the usual sort of dividend forward.

But it is a guess and I could be wrong!

Gengulphus

[aishah] 25/9/2015 15:38

Have been adding here recently on weakness. Happy to hold post today's update. Full year fcst reaffirmed so take their word for it. Divi up too.

[cockerhoop] 25/9/2015 13:09

Cornishman33,

I read it as bringing forward the 2016 dividend into 2015 for tax purposes. Not mad keen on the idea personally as I'd prefer them to be spending the money on lower rated acquisitions.

I didn't expect a sharp fall as they expect to hit FY expectations and backed it up with tangible evidence in the improving order book. From memory 13.7 weeks of orders is as high as I can recall (I've held since 2009).

Armfield appears another decent buy with it's order book being fuller than the other underlying companies.

[cornishman33] 25/9/2015 12:43

After reading these results this morning I expected a sharp fall in the SP, but it seems the slightly optimistic outlook and the fact that the share price has already fallen ahead of these figures resulted in a small rise.
A line that caught my eye was
' The Board is conscious of the impending withdrawal of the dividend tax credit and will therefore consider paying a substantial second interim dividend before the end of the current tax year to utilise the current tax legislation before the changes come into effect. The Board would then seek to pay a nominal final dividend in the new tax year.'

I am wondering if this means the board are considering a significant return of cash to shareholders, rather than a normal divi increase of around 10%, in advance of changes in the tax regime.