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RWA Robert Walters Plc

398.00
-14.00 (-3.40%)
18 Mar 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Robert Walters Plc LSE:RWA London Ordinary Share GB0008475088 ORD 20P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  -14.00 -3.40% 398.00 395.00 407.00 408.00 400.00 406.00 17,650 16:35:27
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
Employment Agencies 1.1B 39.1M 0.5343 7.49 292.71M
Robert Walters Plc is listed in the Employment Agencies sector of the London Stock Exchange with ticker RWA. The last closing price for Robert Walters was 412p. Over the last year, Robert Walters shares have traded in a share price range of 344.00p to 516.00p.

Robert Walters currently has 73,176,270 shares in issue. The market capitalisation of Robert Walters is £292.71 million. Robert Walters has a price to earnings ratio (PE ratio) of 7.49.

Robert Walters Share Discussion Threads

Showing 351 to 374 of 1000 messages
Chat Pages: Latest  16  15  14  13  12  11  10  9  8  7  6  5  Older
DateSubjectAuthorDiscuss
03/4/2008
07:38
Thanks CR - looked and bought. :O)
liarspoker
02/4/2008
13:19
Hey LS, look at HVN, on the move after some stock cleared today - a recruiter on a PE of 5, said they will meet already - results April 15th. I wouldn't hang about researching tho, it's moving a bit swift today.

CR

cockneyrebel
02/4/2008
07:03
Robert Walters plc

Notification of Interests

The Robert Walters Employee Benefit Trust ('EBT') has purchased a total of
1,000,000 ordinary shares on 31 March 2008 at a price of £1.75 per share. The
shares held in the EBT are intended to be used to satisfy future awards made
under the Company's Performance Share Plan, Executive Share Option Scheme and
Sharesave Scheme.

pote
31/3/2008
14:13
Yep, nice spot Gorse.

The trick with these kind of shares is not to do anything silly - just buy and hold imo.

liarspoker
31/3/2008
09:51
I notice Harris Associates have bought another near 1m. shares last week - takes them to 4.34%.
gorse
28/3/2008
07:49
Nice statement from STHR this AM.

Bodes well for the sector imo.

liarspoker
26/3/2008
09:40
Broken out and heading higher. :O)

What a chart !!

I really am amazed at the lack of attention this share has received.

liarspoker
19/3/2008
11:20
Reread that article again randsys - thanks for that btw.

Moving up nicely today too. :O)

liarspoker
17/3/2008
16:20
Buy Robert Walters argues Rob Cullum, editor of TrendWatch

ABOUT 18 months ago, TrendWatch recommended Robert Walters (RWA), the recruitment specialist, at 273p. After initially watching the share price move just as we had expected, it sharply reversed; so much so that when we jumped ship, we registered only a small profit. The company has done everything we predicted and more. Yet the share price continued to fall and only recently bottomed out at just over 100p.
Established for over 20 years, Robert Walters has built its global presence into 35 offices in 15 countries. It employs nearly 1,500 staff worldwide. It is a leading global consultancy, specialising in placing high calibre professionals into permanent, contract and temporary positions at all management levels. It embraces accounting, finance, banking, IT, management consultancy, general management, legal, sales and marketing, human resources, call-centre and support fields. The blue-chip client base ranges across leading investment banks and multi-national corporations.

So far pretty good, if pretty standard, stuff. A more audacious move came more than ten years ago when it established Resource Solutions, a recruitment-process outsourcing function. The argument went as follows; attracting and retaining scarce management talent is a critical issue facing all businesses, so it made sense for clients to work in partnership with Walters so as to design and implement best-practice strategies that optimise both direct and indirect recruitment channels. Resource Solutions is meant to be the partner of choice, of course.
Then about 5 years ago the process was taken a step further when Walters acquired Interim Leaders, a business focusing on filling senior interim-management roles.

Robert Walters has managed to establish a virtuous circle. It continues to build its brand through advertising paid for by its customers. Earning the plaudits of classy client companies will bring more of the same, for there's an element of bureaucracy in all larger organisations (especially one would guess in the departments such as HR); and the pressure to consort with a respected name such as Robert Walters is immense. This helps to establish carefully placed international offices, which quickly achieve profitability. That in turn reinforces the brand and widens the knowledge pool, so that the chances of being ever more value to customers is increased. Everybody in the business knows these things; only the few can actually do it.

Robert Walters can. Its track record between 2005 and 2007 has been exemplary. During that three-year period, turnover went from £234.55m to £319.8m; pre-tax profit from £12.69m to £24.94m; earnings per share from 10.6p to 23.2p and dividends per share from 3.4p to 4.7p.
One can discern four main pillars supporting its £120m market capitalisation:

* All disciplines grew net fee income, with core finance and accounting delivering a sharp increase in both numbers and margin.
* Europe and Asia Pacific achieved the highest rates of net fee-income growth. Asia Pacific is now the largest region in terms of both net fee income and profitability. It has just taken its first step into mainland China
* Investment in the contracting capability in these regions provides an even greater platform for long-term growth. Contracting now represents about one-third of the recruitment net fee income.
* About half of the free cash flow (£24m) was utilised towards a share buy-back programme.

As one might expect, with staff numbers growing as fast as they are, there will always be spare capacity within the group, which should help to give a built-in boost to the key figures in the current year, as productive consultants hit their stride, and up-front costs incurred in Resource Solutions start to be recovered.
So what menaces the chances of the future progression? In 2001 there was an unforeseen chill breeze stealing through the IT and investment banking sectors, serious enough to attack demand levels for permanent staff. By the following year the contagion had spread to hiring levels and the rates paid for temporary staff. The painful effect of all this on Robert Walters was the attack on the gross margin, so that its income of £260m (not surpassed until 2006) was only just enough to allow it to break even. The fixed costs must be high, and therefore it' is doubtful if the group would be able to withstand markedly lower activity levels without swift repercussions. any more than it did last time. This lies behind what the eponymous CEO refers to when he points to the main weakness of the sector: poor income visibility. And all eyes must be on the US economy as one wonders if a full-blown recession is coming; and if so, what will happen to Far East and other activity levels. So far, there is every indication that the Far East will be little affected by the dire state of the US economy.
The consensus forecast is that this year it will see eps of 21p and a dividend of 5p. This gives a p/e of 7.6 and a 3% yield. The comparative figures for 2009 are 25p and 5.25p respectively, giving an earnings multiple of 6.4 in prospect, and a 3.3% yield.
If there is to be a major slowing down in the world economy, those figures might just be relevant to the investment case. If there is not, they make the shares absurdly cheap. BUY

*The value of investments can go down as well as up. Investing in equities can lose you part or all of your capital. Smaller company shares can be relatively illiquid and thus hard to trade. And that makes such investments more of a high risk than larger company shares. Cornhill Asset Management Limited is an Appointed Representative of Argyle Investment Advisors Limited which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. UK-Analyst.com is owned by t1ps.com Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the FSA and can be contacted at 5-11 Worship Street, London EC2A 2BH or on 020 7562 3370.

Key Data

EPIC: RWA
Spread: 169.5p - 171p (0.4%)
Market Cap: £148.5m

TrendWatch is unique. It is the only publication that gives you complete listings of shares in uptrend and downtrend - vital information for investors and traders alike. Based on this, we make three fully researched share recommendations per fortnight.

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randsys
17/3/2008
14:25
Bought some more earlier 8-)
bigbigdave
14/3/2008
11:56
making new recent highs - clear breakout now.

CR

cockneyrebel
14/3/2008
11:13
Agree very much Liarspoker - just topped up and I hope it's a long-term hold.
gorse
14/3/2008
09:58
Just buy shares and hold for the long term imo although I suppose that you can just keep rolling the sb over.

I reckon Ruanne highlighted RWA to Harris & Co otherwise Harris got wind that Ruanne was holding RWA. Two very, very big names in the value investing world. I'd much rather see either of those two holding a stock as opposed to the pension funds who seem to own a bit of everything.

liarspoker
14/3/2008
09:39
Excellent rise, my spreadbet is looking better by the second! :-)
randsys
14/3/2008
09:39
Moving up nicely. :O)
liarspoker
13/3/2008
14:09
Yep, bodes well.....more value investors onboard:
liarspoker
13/3/2008
12:59
I always think it's a good sign when Harris Associates buy in:
gorse
13/3/2008
12:11
:-)

I notice that dip this morning got bought up like hot cakes. Seeing the large recent volume I am beginnin to think more and more there's a predator out there looking to nab RWA.

CR

cockneyrebel
13/3/2008
09:22
Read the Questor article. Apart from the sell recommendation, it makes RWA look pretty enticing! I can't wait for 20x earnings when the good times come back! LALOL.
edmundshaw
12/3/2008
18:44
GSands
A fantastic contrarian indicator.

zimbi
12/3/2008
17:06
Nice day here CR.

Surprised that these aren't much higher actually. Look at all the stock in solid hands. Standards increasing, Ruanne & co hold over 11%, directors have added and 10% of stock will be bought back if approved. I wouldn't have minded an EGM to approve 10% buyback these last few weeks. Would have gotten more bang for our bucks at the lower prices. Any increase in forecasts and these will run up strongly too imo.

liarspoker
12/3/2008
15:27
GSands - anyone that follows Questor blindly deserve to be skint imo.

CR

cockneyrebel
12/3/2008
15:19
Making new recent highs.

CR

cockneyrebel
10/3/2008
23:38
That's been posted earlier GSands.

I reckon my 2 month old son can tip better than Questor can. :O)

liarspoker
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