Smiths News Share Discussion Threads

[baracuda2] 06/12/2013 08:44

You should look at JIL, very good dividend yield, just under 9%

[edmundshaw] 03/12/2013 17:21

Interesting selection.

FWIW, I had SSE up till it reached about £13, then started to feel uncomfortable (I went a bit overweight in stocks on the basis of some low risk yield like SSE due to low interest rates). Sooner or later the politicians will wake up and do something about the ever-increasing dividends above RPI - it is just a money-printing monopoly that gets just a bit greedier each year. It cannot go on forever, and I don't know when it will stop - or, more important, when the market predicts it will soon stop. At that point yield will crash or the share price. Or both. Really become a bit speculative now imo, though nothing wrong with speculation if that is your bag. Haven't looked at UU. recently - held years ago for similar reasons. Just an opinion.

Will look at the others, cheers.

[lord gnome] 03/12/2013 17:02

On the income side I am looking at HSBA, RSL, CGL and even UU now that the yield is over 5%. SSE is also on my radar, I don't believe that there is a significant political risk, it's all posturing.
On the capital growth side I have bought into IGR - news tomorrow! CNKS is also going well for me - still a nice yield and with the prospect of good capital growth - the read across from NUM looks positive.
If NWS drops back to a level where I can get 5% yield, I will be back in if I haven't spent the money by then.

[edmundshaw] 03/12/2013 13:47

Care to share some of those piscine hordes?

I have CMS, HVN, NBU for eample. Be interested in other good quality cheap cos though, some of my cheap stuff has got quite expensive of late, I am glad to say. :-)

[lord gnome] 03/12/2013 13:29

Good points. I have sold hoping I can trade back in lower down. If not, plenty of other fish in the sea.

[edmundshaw] 03/12/2013 12:57

A good spot, and relevant. But...

I am not quite convinced about the read-across. With Smiths aiming to grow overall revenue and profit for the next 2 years, aiming to cut costs in newspaper and distribution, and aiming to have 50% of Group profits generated from outside of newspaper and magazine wholesaling by 2016, there still seems more to come. Education, Bertrams etc seem to be doing well, for example. Still only a PER of about 10, and an historic yield of around 4.2%, and a progressive policy.

Additionally, Menzies Distribution had poor results because of ancillary revenues,
sticker collections and weaker than forecast seasonal sales within the
marketing services business. I am not sure how much of that can be read across - certainly not the marketing services.

[lord gnome] 03/12/2013 11:21

I have finally parted company with my NWS. Happy to get out with a very good profit at 221.75p. There was something in the last update from MNZS that made me nervous - the read-across is obvious.

'Within Menzies Distribution poor trading conditions continue to prevail.
Magazine and newspaper volumes have tracked at the levels announced at the time
of our Interim Results. However, disappointing returns from ancillary revenues,
sticker collections and weaker than forecast seasonal sales within the
marketing services business are expected to impact the second half result.'

[skinny] 02/12/2013 07:50

New contact secures c£143m of annual revenues

Smiths News PLC ('Smiths News'), the largest UK newspaper and magazine wholesaler, a leading UK book supplier and a leading distributor of consumable products to the education market, is pleased to announce it has reached agreement with Trinity Mirror Newspapers to extend their newspaper wholesaling agreement until October 2019.

This new agreement secures 56% market share of Trinity Mirror's distribution business for an additional five years.

The contract is valued at c.£143m pa (at FY13 values) equating to 15% of the national newspaper distribution market. Trinity Mirror publishes The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People along with Regional titles Newcastle Chronicle, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and Birmingham Mail. Smiths News has now secured c.£900m per annum of revenues through to 2019 equating to 63% of total sales.

[edmundshaw] 12/11/2013 10:05

Nice update. Good to see the cash cow division still making progress in market share, even while sector sales inevitably decline. The robustness of the news division continues to impress me.

[edmundshaw] 18/10/2013 09:37

Now we have lost the profit takers, perhaps we can resume our upwards path.

Still some way to go I'd hope...

[edmundshaw] 17/10/2013 12:15

Very few: but I found 6 myself, not including insurance gems. No doubt others I missed...

[markie7] 17/10/2013 10:21

not really a risk - dawsons had collapsed, and they were winning work - it was a duopoly in a slightly declining market - really nothing to worry about compared with other risks around - and the pension deficit was obviously going to reduce as the markets improved.

[d40eq6] 17/10/2013 09:49

If you bought NWS at 75p to 90p you were buying just after the mini bear markets of 2011 and Spring 2012. They were a risk then with the prevailing market conditions and the company being at an early stage of its reform from print to digital. That is why the yield was so high. There are very few other high yielders from that time that have maintained and grown their dividend. I cite AV. RSA and Admiral.

[markie7] 17/10/2013 09:40

NWS was a clear 8% when I bought it originally - with no obvious risk - so it doesn't follow that these opportunities don't exist, or are more risky - you just need to look carefully.

[markie7] 17/10/2013 09:39

ok fenners, where would you put it?

yield is

[d40eq6] 17/10/2013 07:37

Fair point fenner66 but the 7% lot by and large carry a bit more risk. On these the yield could halve or the share price could halve before I was at risk on income or capital. Anyway it's a nice problem to have on a share that keeps delivering good news.

[fenners66] 17/10/2013 00:57

Yield on your original investment but not on current share price. There are others out there paying 7%...

[d40eq6] 16/10/2013 22:50

Bought in at 90p. Topped up at £1.15. Lovely 9% yield tucked away in pension even if no further capital growth. Why sell?

[bscuit] 16/10/2013 19:11

Markie,

Where to put it00that is the issue. At least with the great growth if one is only getting comparable income then one feels good with the growth. I came in at 78p on the back of IC Income share of the year at the beginning of 2012. I don't think the case they were making has changed.

[markie7] 16/10/2013 16:00

where will you put it though? I'm thinking LMP - like the story a lot.

[ibrox] 16/10/2013 14:09

I sold mine held since about 75p. Had a good run but now could find better yield elsewhere. May also be back if it falls but see consolidation here .

[markie7] 16/10/2013 12:21

sold half today - in at 78 and 92 - so very happy.

might buy them back if it goes below £2 - very good results indeed.

[edmundshaw] 16/10/2013 10:48

Management has done an excellent job trimming and refocusing on the desirable new streams of business.

The Shares comment suggests that maybe the business has done all the cost cutting and is perhaps now fair value, unless it finds some way of getting top line growth. But this business has been adding well-related and earnings accretive acquisitions with growth potential, like The Consortium, and Dawsons, and adding or developing new streams like Bertrams and Wordery.

Seems to me that there is an excellent cash cow of press publications underlying the business, and the proceeds are being sensibly invested in future replacement businesses where the company has expertise. I see no reason to suppose that the management will suddenly lose focus and fail to deliver.

Still, I watch carefully. I have been in this from 78-85p, and I am well aware that shares do not rise indefinitely. But I am still very positive here on this still undemanding PER.

[dell1234] 16/10/2013 10:23

Shares mag article on today's results