Oxford Metrics Share Discussion Threads

[cammy3] 10/10/2010 17:52

bbonsall - many thanks for this. Totally agree with you - I expect much higher FY earnings taking full account of the recorded earnings for the first 6 months. Year end was Sept (LAST WEEK) so would have expected a profit warning long before now if it was anything otherwise. Gut feel is they've smashed market expectations which we should hear about in next 7 days per last year's release date. Fingers crossed - I've held this for a while and like Evolution I feel it will be re-rated shortly. On a PE of 4 and £4m of cash at the half way stage. It may well be on a PE of 3 with £5m of cash based on FY outcome

It has been ticking up the last 4 days so fingers crossed - many thanks Bonsall.

[cammy3] 10/10/2010 15:33

ITS A BIT OUT OF DATE Bbonsall

[cammy3] 10/10/2010 14:26

Thanks BBonsall - I wondered if there were any followers of this co. Year end now complete so would expect a strong performance based on first half

[bbonsall] 10/10/2010 13:34

Click the link and if you scroll down to Oxford Metrics Group you will see some indication, albeit not the formal forward looking brokers' forecasts. I will continue looking as I know I have seen them somewhere.

[cammy3] 10/10/2010 12:47

Can anyone provide me with market expections for this co?

[cammy3] 08/10/2010 11:25

Are we expecting a trading update soon? Been in this for a long time.

[empirestate] 07/10/2010 17:03

another nice contract win for vicom. decent 150k buy this pm

[empirestate] 04/10/2010 14:55

looking forward to the next trading update around 20th oct. has plenty of potential upside with the business value post net equity significantly undervalued at the current sp

[bbonsall] 07/9/2010 08:06

Thank you, very interesting.

[gengulphus] 06/9/2010 11:06

You are very knowledgeable. You aren't one of the beloved mms yourself are you?

No! I've merely thought through what it would involve to be a market maker, or more realistically to take up a market-maker-like role on Direct Market Access for lower-liquidity SETS shares (i.e. maintaining orders on the SETS order book both to buy shares at somewhat below mid price and to sell them at somewhat above mid price, to try to make a profit on the spread).

I came to the conclusion that I wouldn't find it a very attractive occupation. It's possible to make quite a bit on the spread when lots of shares are being traded and the price is holding steady, but profits can dry up if people simply aren't trading the shares, and can be severely reduced or even reversed into losses if the share price starts moving significantly in either direction. That last is because prices move down when people are selling you their shares, and up when people are buying shares from you, so you tend to have a long position when prices are falling and a short position when prices are rising - a lose-lose game... :-( Once you've contemplated that and done the thought experiments on a few simple scenarios, you quickly realise that it's essential to keep both the long and the short positions small so that the losses from that lose-lose game don't overwhelm the profits you make from the spread. And that basically implies that you have to respond quickly to a position starting to accumulate in either direction - i.e. quite small imbalances in the buy/sell balance of the trades mean you have to move your prices.

Gengulphus

[bbonsall] 01/9/2010 15:26

Gengulphus
Thanks again. You are very knowledgeable. You aren't one of the beloved mms yourself are you? Incidentally, I did buy loads and stil have them since 3 or 4 years. I paid 40p when OMG was half the company it is now - hence my frustration at the unbeliveably low current valuation.

[gengulphus] 01/9/2010 09:58

... but exactly the same process applies whatever the prevailing mid price. So instead of 25p the share price could be at 40p or 60p and the mms could do exactly the same as you describe. ...

Yes - and precisely that sort of thing happens. Shares quite often go into a long, slow decline, with the market makers lowering the price because too many shares are being unloaded on them, maybe getting a bit of a surge of purchases that stabilises the price for a little while, but the sales continuing and the purchases not doing so (probably because investors see that the price is in a downtrend and try to get out at as good a price as possible), so that the market makers then drop the price again. It's a self-reinforcing process, and tends to continue until either a purchaser emerges who thinks the shares are so undervalued that it's worth pushing the price up, or the supply of investors who sell because of the downtrend dries up and the share price stabilises properly.

... My point is that they do seemingly decide where an appropriate mid price is and in doing that are apparently ignorant of whe true value.

Agreed that they do that - my point is that they're not just apparently ignorant of the true value, they quite simply do not care about the true value at all. All they care about is the balance of buyers and sellers. And you won't change that by complaining about what they do, because only caring about the balance of buyers and sellers is the only sensible thing to do from a market maker's point of view: they need that balance both to maximise the number of shares being traded and hence the amount they take in the spread on those shares, and to avoid excessive risk caused by taking too big a position in the shares.

Basically, if you think that the shares are undervalued and wish to persuade market makers of that, there's only one way to do so: buy the shares. And if you want to be properly persuasive, buy lots of them!

Gengulphus

[bbonsall] 31/8/2010 14:19

Thank you for that Gengulphus. I do understand what you say, but exactly the same process applies whatever the prevailing mid price. So instead of 25p the share price could be at 40p or 60p and the mms could do exactly the same as you describe. My point is that they do seemingly decide where an appropriate mid price is and in doing that are apparently ignorant of whe true value.

[gengulphus] 31/8/2010 13:40

The market makers basically do not care about OMG's worth. They just care about making a profit on the spread from people buying and selling shares - as many shares as possible - and not being left with much of a net position in the shares. If investors unload 6000 shares on them, they want to sell those 6000 shares on asap, and they don't want to have to buy more shares. So they mark the price down to encourage buyers and discourage sellers.

They don't care about the effect of the mark-down on the 68m or so shares they don't own - just about its effect on the 6000 (or however many it is - they might have had some before today's trades) shares they do own. Each penny they mark it down is £60 (or whatever it is) off their potential profits from the market-making - but that's better from their point of view than letting their position build up to the point that it's hundreds or even thousands of pounds lost for each penny when they eventually have to drop the price. So they drop the price sooner rather than later when start finding themselves with too many shares - and the flip side is that they raise the price sooner rather than later when they start to find themselves with too few shares.

In short, if you want to understand what market makers do to the share prices they offer, you've got to work from the viewpoint that they're traders trying to turn a profit on the spread - not share valuers.

Gengulphus

[bbonsall] 31/8/2010 11:11

Here we go again. 6000 shares sold out of 68 million in issue and the mms mark OMG down nearly 5%. They appear to be clueless about OMG's worth. Company valued now at £17 million. £4 million of that is in cash with no debts, so valued at £13 million for the going concern. Do us a favour, HALF YEAR revenue was £14.4 million with profit of £1.2 million, so gives a PE of 11 for the half year alone, which would be a low PE based on full year results! So no further turnover and profit expected in the second half eh - ridiculous! Mms please learn something about the companies you deign to make a market in.

[standtall] 11/8/2010 12:49

OMG helps Scots train for 2012 Olympics

The organisation responsible for training Scottish athletes for the 2012 Olympics hopes hi-tech cameras bought from image technology firm Oxford Metrics Group (OMG) will help deliver plenty of gold medals in two years time.

A 10-camera Vicon T20 system has been acquired by the sportscotland institute of sport to accurately capture fast human movement.

"Our Vicon system gives us the ability to benchmark and assess athlete behaviour over time including the measurement of impact due to coaching and support interventions," said Malcolm Fairweather, the institute's head of science and innovation.

[standtall] 11/8/2010 09:08

DJ OMG: Sportscotland Buys 10 Camera Vicon T20 System

LONDON (Dow Jones)--OMG PLC(OMG.LN), a group of technology companies producing image understanding solutions for the entertainment, defense, life science and engineering industries, said Wednesday the sportscotland institute of sport has purchased a 10 camera Vicon T20 system to help develop better training methods for the 2012 Olympic and 2014 Commonwealth Games athletes.

MAIN FACTS:

-Sportscotland is the National Agency for Sport in Scotland.

-Shares at 0805 GMT unchanged at 26.75 pence, valuing the company at GBP18.3 million.

-By Tapan Panchal, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel [phone], [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 11, 2010 04:07 ET (08:07 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[standtall] 11/8/2010 09:00

DJ OMG PLC OMG's contract with sportscotland

TIDMOMG

RNS Number : 8631Q

OMG PLC

11 August 2010

?

11 August 2010

OMG plc

('OMG' or the 'Group')

sportscotland train 2012 Olympic Athletes with Vicon motion capture

OMG plc, Oxford Metrics Group (LSE: OMG), ("OMG" or "the Group") the technology group providing image understanding products for the entertainment, defence, life science and engineering industries, today announced that the sportscotland institute of sport has purchased a 10 camera Vicon T20 system to help develop better training methods for the 2012 Olympic and 2014 Commonwealth Games athletes.

sportscotland is the National Agency for Sport in Scotland and the institute is its high performance arm. The institute prepares Scotland's best athletes to perform on the World stage, and provides high performance expertise to sport and athletes in Scotland.

"We bought the Vicon T20 system because of its ability to accurately capture fast human movement. Also, the Polygon software includes key reporting methods, for example injury and physiotherapy intervention components," said Dr. Malcolm Fairweather, Head of Science and Innovation at the sportscotland institute of sport.

"Our Vicon system gives us the ability to benchmark and assess athlete behaviourover time including the measurement of impact due to coaching and support interventions. It's great to be associated with a company that has an excellent UK support base and worldwide reputation!"

Imogen Moorhouse, MD at Vicon said: "sportscotland is a great organisation. Their commitment to excellence is well known and choosing a Vicon motion capture system further strengthens that position. I'm looking forward to seeing the development of our athletes in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics!"

-Ends-

For further information please contact:

+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| OMG plc | [phone] |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| Nick Bolton, Chief Executive | |
| David Deacon, Finance Director | |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| Hayley Roberts, PR Executive | |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| | |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| Financial Dynamics | [phone] |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| Juliet Clarke / Matt Dixon / Emma | |
| Appleton | |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| | |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| Evolution Securities (NOMAD to OMG) | [phone] |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+
| Jeremy Ellis | |
+-------------------------------------+------------------+

About OMG

OMG plc (Oxford Metrics Group. LSE: OMG) is a group of technology companies producing image understanding products and services for the entertainment, defence, life science and engineering industries.

Be it for capturing the movements of actors (for the movie industry), sportsmen (for video games or improving team performance), or children with Cerebral Palsy, rehab patients and animals (for medical, life science and research industries); or recording the condition of highways and the assets that surround them or assessing the value of properties; or even providing image intelligence and situational awareness from drone aircraft. Through this diversified offering the Group has earned its strong international reputation for precision from pixels.

Founded in 1984, the Group is headquartered in Oxford, UK, and has four offices in the US and two in the UK. It has customers in over 50 countries and is a quoted company listed on AIM, a market operated by the London Stock Exchange. The Group trades through three operating subsidiaries: Vicon, the world's largest motion capture and movement analysis company, 2d3, a manufacturer of specialised image understanding software for defence applications, and Yotta, our highways and property surveying business.

The Group's global clients spanning the worlds of science, medicine, sport, engineering, gaming, film and broadcast include: major hospitals and research facilities such as Guy's Hospital, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and Loughborough University, engineering industry leaders including: Ford Motor Company, BMW, Airbus and Toyota, and in the entertainment sector: Sony, Industrial Light and Magic, The Moving Picture Company (MPC), Sega, Nintendo, UbiSoft, EA and Square Enix. In surveying clients include: Miami-Dade county, Atkins, and Oxfordshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire and Pembrokeshire County Councils as well as many others.

For more information about OMG and its subsidiaries, visit www.omgplc.com, www.vicon.com, www.2d3.com, www.yottadcl.co.uk or www.yottamvs.com.

For further information about the sportscotland institute of sport please go to www.sisport.com

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

NRAPMMATMBJBBBM

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-08-10 0800GMT

[bbonsall] 02/8/2010 11:01

OMG wins contracts from Local Authorities for highway surveys because it is cheaper than the old manual methods of surveying, so should win out there then. Anyway, that is still only about 20% of OMG total revenues.

[wjccghcc] 02/8/2010 10:14

Dont't they have quite a lot of revenue from the UK public sector, particularly councils? Perhaps the market is worried that will fall off a cliff.

[boraki] 02/8/2010 09:41

Yep, ridiculous

[bbonsall] 02/8/2010 09:17

Is anyone alive out there? Last post was from me 6 weeks ago. This company appears to be badly understood by the market. The teach-in did no good. This morning's latest share price tumble, for no reason when the FTSE is soaring, takes the value of OMG to about 60% of annual turnover. Ridiculous or what?

[bbonsall] 21/6/2010 15:06

The analysts and investors teach in didn't have any effect on the share price then. Was it worth it?
I am still holding a lot of these I bought 4 years ago at 40p when OMG certainly didn't have as much going for them as they do now! The market is a very irrational place, as we all know by now.

[garth] 10/6/2010 15:12

Picked it up - thanks. Started a reply this morning. Will complete later!