Tclarke Share Discussion Threads

[ivancampo] 24/6/2018 22:12

Thanks - proper lad. You know loads.

[dixies] 21/6/2018 15:45

Norbert,

Post 2639 - CTO listed by IC as a 'Genuine value small-cap'.

Post 2644 - CC2014 asked for the full text.

[ivancampo] 21/6/2018 14:24

the lower 50k trades are sells and these are being turned round for a 1p by the MM. Good news though means we have a conviction buyer to match out terribly boring convection seller - more volume please.

[cc2014] 21/6/2018 14:15

Well there's no way that the 50k at 84.0 is a sell as the bid hasn't been anywhere near there in days.

Streams of them coming through now at different prices. Hard to say what's going on other than someone is buying and therefore someone else must also be selling.

[norbert colon] 21/6/2018 12:55

Where is that narrative taken from?

[dixies] 21/6/2018 12:25

T Clarke

Investors are never likely to want to pay up for a low-margin, cyclical company, that has to manage the risk associated with carrying large (relative to profits) working capital items. That considered, it should not come as too much of a surprise that shares in fit-out group T Clarke (CTO) look very cheap.

CTO:LSE

T Clarke PLC
1mth
Today change
-0.60%
Price (GBP)
83.00

However, for bolder investors, it would arguably be wrong to dismiss the shares simply due to some of the key characteristics of businesses in T Clarke’s sub-sector. Indeed, offsetting some of the justified concerns investors may have, T Clarke looks a tightly-managed operation with a relatively robust balance sheet and market-leading positions in a number of strategically-interesting areas. What’s more, despite management’s assertion that a strict price discipline is maintained when bidding for work, business is currently booming. The order book jumped from a record £337m at the end of last year to £368m at the end of April. That means all of T Clarke’s expected £300m of sales are secured for the current year, along with a further £147m for the following year, and £40m beyond that.

Given the low-margin nature of fit-out work and the scope for intense price competition between companies, it is encouraging that T Clarke has been investing in specialisms that allow it to take on complex jobs where skills rather than price are a bigger determinant of successful bids. What’s more, with increased requirements for digitisation, 'intelligent building' design, and growing environmental regulation, fit-out work is only likely to become more specialised. As part of T Clarke’s ongoing efforts to capitalise on the opportunities these trends are expected to bring, it paid an initial £1.5m to acquire digital specialist Eton Associates last year. It also invested £1m to increase prefabrication capacity.

In a sign of its confidence in being able to win work on attractive terms, in March T Clarke set a medium-term target of achieving a 3 per cent operating margin compared with the current level of 2.7 per cent. This should be helped by action taken last year to address problems at the group’s Central and South West division, which slipped into the red, making a £1.8m underlying loss compared with a £900,000 profit the previous year.

Despite last year’s spending on the Eton acquisition and investment in new capacity, tight management of contracts helped the company increase net cash from £9.8m to £11.7m in 2017. And despite a step-up in pension top-up payments this year from £1m to £1.25m (to be followed with annual payments of £1.5m thereafter), broker N+1 Singer expects the group to end 2018 with net cash of £13m.

The cash needs to be seen in the context of a £23.4m pension deficit and the large amounts of money that T Clarke typically has owed to it by customers and others (£93.7m at the end of 2017) and it owes to suppliers (£98.5m). Having such large items on the balance sheet is to be expected, but also represents a noteworthy risk given the low-margin and cyclical nature of the sub-sector.

But trading is strong and, for this space, the company looks a well-positioned, quality operation. If the business continues to perform well, there should be scope for the rating to get more generous than the current level. The dividend yield is attractive, too.

[cc2014] 21/6/2018 10:52

Those 50k's are buys imho.

Today we have 3 at sells at 81.8, 81.6 and 81.4 coming to 22592 shares. These are flipper bots playing the bid/offer spread. If you are watching L2 when the first two sells went through they moved to about 84 on the offer to try and get filled. When the third one came through they changed and immediately put 22592 on the offer at 82.0. This sat there for about 15 minutes. Then along comes the 50k buyer (reported an hour late at 10:06:18 as allowed and just after the 22k buy at 82.0.

Any decent sized buy as an O trade through LSE always get reported an hour and a minute late.

imho we have someone collecting stock at 82/83 and has been for a couple of weeks now. What's surprising is not that they are buying but more that they are getting decent volume and given that they are getting volume they are not likely to have to be forced to offer more.


Probably what's most important is that someone is prepared to buy when large orders come on the book at 82/83 and aren't taking very long to think about it.


Does anyone have the full text of the IC article? I'm really interested to see what it says. I'll have to go shopping if no-one has it.

[ivancampo] 21/6/2018 10:15

50k seller again - probably shorting ahead of impending profit warning. Alternatively another small step to clearing the largest and longest overhang in the history of stock markets.

[squarepeg86] 20/6/2018 17:39

Glad it's finally getting noticed, but no doubt there will be more similar posters heading this way! Trades showing a 50k sell today, if it's the same seller surely there can't be many left now if it is a sell.

[cc2014] 20/6/2018 12:57

When the posters start arriving and claiming profit warnings on the horizon with no substantiation, is that a sign that momentum is starting to swing to the upside?

[opodio] 20/6/2018 12:48

profit warning coming imho

[mfhmfh] 20/6/2018 12:35

CTO listed by IC as a 'Genuine value small-cap'.

[squarepeg86] 15/6/2018 17:33

Very much so! I opened a spreadbet in the high 80's too... August is starting to feel like a long time away.

[cc2014] 15/6/2018 16:59

Groundhog day

[squarepeg86] 15/6/2018 12:59

Thanks Ivan, for some reason I can't see your reply on the mobile app so only just read it.

[tuscan4] 13/6/2018 07:44

Yesterday's fall should not be of any concern to core holders/buyers of cto. It could be down to boredom/frustration/sales by executors/but imo most likely driven by regulatory/compliance driven rules which have made it all but impossible for stockbrokers and investment professionals to venture into sub £100m companies. They are paranoid about risk and have all but given up on individual stock ownership outside the ftse100. As the valuation of cto diverges from its intrinsic value a trade buyer could appear,a management buyout could happen,a rising yield could attract buyers or in the a sense of any of these the stock could stay cheap. A sign that cot management are concerned about the pricing mismatch would be more effort to promote the financial markets via the small cap sector and by less conservative disclosure.

[ivancampo] 12/6/2018 18:39

If you have an account, click on market data - it tells you how many clients have a position and recent sells - 100% sells this morning in first hour - sells really close together - 2 and 2 together..... maybe 5.

[squarepeg86] 12/6/2018 18:18

How do you know it was an IG client out of interest?

[cc2014] 12/6/2018 13:25

It would be interesting to know whether that IG seller made or lost money and what their motivation for selling was. Were they margined out or did they sell simply to switch into something else.

A very strange morning. I added a few below 79 but was too slow really. I wasn't looking to add and on my second buy I got a quote below 80 dithered too long and broker wouldn't accept the trade when I accepted it.

I see we now have buyers at 84.4 which may or may not tell us something about where the share price is going next.

[cc2014] 12/6/2018 10:48

Good news for CTO as IRV holding prices down in London.

[ivancampo] 12/6/2018 08:49

Seller this morning an IG client.

[cc2014] 11/6/2018 17:53

Might as well forget about CTO until the half year results in August Igoe.

It closed on 31st December at 78.75 and it's now 84 and we've had 2.9p dividend so that's a 10% rise.

Perhaps we would feel better if it went up in a straight line slowly rather than this up 5p, then down 4p.

[kito692] 08/6/2018 21:44

Totally agree with you hvs way to many of them as well !!