Tclarke Share Discussion Threads

[cc2014] 26/3/2019 08:22

The Chairman's statement says "The Group is well placed to meet its financial objective of a sustainable 3% operating margin in 2019".

We can work out:

2018 Actuals:
Revenue : £326.8m
Margin : £2.7%
Underlying Profit : £8.8m

2019 Forecast assuming 5% increase in revenue (which seems very modest)
Revenue : £343.1m
Margin : 3.0%
Underlying Profit : £10.3m

An increase of £1.5m or 17%, which is a pretty strong statement for the company to be making only 3 months through the year set against the current Brexit backdrop.

[master rsi] 26/3/2019 08:09

I am glad I was spot on the dividend fcast, 3,34p final as I was expected a total round number 4p, after the 0.66p Interim.

Excellent results with Technology revenue increasing and made as the core strategic objective of the future.

[edmundshaw] 26/3/2019 08:06

Mr Market has generously marked us up 5%. If I wasn't already heavily overweight I'd be gobbling these up...

[edmundshaw] 26/3/2019 07:59

Excellent results of course. Great to see the forward order book so healthy at +22% too!

[impvesta] 26/3/2019 07:30

Yes, cracking results this morning. As rivaldo has noted the increase in technologies revenue is particularly impressive. I will try not to be surprised if the market reaction disappoints, as so often happens, but am more than happy to keep this one tucked away for continuing growth prospects.

[rivaldo] 26/3/2019 07:24

Fantastic results - and a very confident outlook.

The record £411m order book at the year end is up by another £19m to £430m at the end of February!

Great to see Technologies revenues tripling to £43m from just £14m - perhaps the City will start to wake up to this.

15.4p historic EPS and £12.4m net cash make the present 106p share price and £46m m/cap pretty miserly.

[cheshire man] 26/3/2019 07:19

Music to an investors ears :-)

Mark Lawrence, Chief Executive commented:
"I am pleased to report that TClarke's results for 2018 have exceeded market expectations,

[skyship] 26/3/2019 07:15

Pretty impressive by any metrics. My only comment is why so parsimonious with the dividend. With net cash at £12.4m, why do we need the dividend to be covered 3.75x?


Financial highlights: Change 2018 2017
Revenue +5% GBP326.8m GBP311.2m
Operating profit - underlying(1) +21% GBP8.8m GBP7.3m
Operating profit - reported +9% GBP8.6m GBP7.9m

Operating margin- underlying(1) +17% 2.7% 2.3%
Profit before tax - underlying(1) +23% GBP8.0m GBP6.5m
Profit before tax - reported +10% GBP7.8m GBP7.1m
Net cash +6% GBP12.4m GBP11.7m
Earnings per share - underlying(2) +24% 15.38p 12.37p
Earnings per share - underlying
(diluted)(2) +23% 14.98p 12.13p
Earnings per share - basic +12% 14.99p 13.44p
Final dividend per share +15% 3.34p 2.90p
Total dividend per share +14% 4.0p 3.50p
Forward order book +22% GBP411m GBP337m

[cielos] 25/3/2019 23:24

Bought some today as they look undervalued

My calculations

Operating profit - £8.6m
Profit before tax - £8.2m
corporation tax - £1.63m
Profit after tax - £6.57m
EPS - Underlying - 14.50p
EPS - Basic - 15.91p
Dividend Final - 3.24p

[davidosh] 25/3/2019 11:00

Just a reminder that T.Clarke will be exhibiting and presenting at the Mello2019 event on Thursday 16th May



They will almost certainly be doing two presentations so one in the morning and one afternoon.

More info and tickets here...

If you want a 30% discount you can use this code in the box ADVFN30

[cc2014] 25/3/2019 10:01

And my view:

Revenue : £320m
Underlying Operating Profit : £8.6m (from RNS 31/01/19)
Fraud recovery : £0.5m (As half year statement)
Amortisation : £-0.2m (Double half year)
Finance Costs : £-0.6m (Doulbe half year)
Reported Profit Before Tax : £8.3m
Tax : £-1.6m (19% corporation tax)
Profit after tax : £6.7m

EPS - Underlying : 15.1p (Underlying - Finance costs)x(1-Corp tax rate)/no of shares
EPS - Basic : Can't be bothered
Dividend Final: 3.19p
Cash : £12.4m


Which leads me to repeating myself about the cash flow. If the total dividend for the year is 3.85p and the underlying EPS is 15.1p, T Clarke are paying out 25% of their after profits after tax as dividends, a percentage which is getting smaller year on year as underlying profits are up 17.8% this year but the dividend is likely to be up (only) 10%. With £12.4m net cash and free cash flow of around £5m, that cash has to go somewhere in the long run. Either for working capital, acquisition, increased net cash or increased dividends.

However, you look at it the directors are putting the company in a very strong position to execute their long term plans.

[effortless cool] 25/3/2019 07:07

Okay then, here's my effort (rather less well presented).

Revenue : £319.9m
Operating profit : £9.1m
Profit before tax : £8.6m
Profit after tax : £6.9m
EPS - Underlying : 15.5p
EPS - Basic : 16.7p
Dividend Final : 3.1p
Cash : £12.4m
Pension commitments : £1.25m
No. of shares : 42.878m

[master rsi] 24/3/2019 22:32

From the "UPS" thread .......
"Master RSI" Forecast for Clarke T. - CTO
Final results due Tuesday 26th March


Item
Year 2018 Final


Revenue
320.00m


Operating profits
8.60m


Profit before tax
8.00m


Profit after tax
6.35m


EPS - Underlaying
13.75p


EPS -Basic
15.20p


Dividend Final
3.34p


Cash
12.40m


Pension commitments
1.25m


No. of shares
42.868m

[cc2014] 22/3/2019 17:02

I'm pretty sure the results themselves will be pretty boring. We've already had the profit and cash so the only thing left of note is the working capital (yawn) and the pension fund deficit. We know the half year valuation in 2018 of the pension deficit was cautious so even though equities and bonds had sold off at the end of 2018 this should be fine.

So, we are left with the forward looking statement. I expect something around reassurance on market expectations and cautious but firmly positive news on the 3% margin target. Plus at worst a stable order book. We know they have been winning lots of work regionally and this to me reassures on the margin. If you're winning work it's possible to go for margin improvement. Without it, it's very challenging.

The main contractors are reporting improving margins so that bodes well too.

It is after all only March so there's a long way left to go in year so I'm not expecting the directors to get overly excited yet. Happy to be proved wrong to the upside of course.


Here's another project win from yesterday. Note "further expanded forward order book".

[igoe104] 22/3/2019 16:10

The problem is I've had a few companies produce some excellent numbers on results day, but the share price still goes down, (kape ) being the latest one.

So Tuesday could disappoint regardless of results, markets are weird at the moment.

[squarepeg86] 22/3/2019 16:04

I honestly thought they'd wait until after results now. I wish I'd have known, I've been waiting for a dip to open a spreadbet and jumped in yesterday. Fingers crossed it'll look a lot better on Tuesday morning though!

[cc2014] 22/3/2019 15:46

Miton out playing "whack a mole" again I bet. Arrgghh. Roll on Tuesday.

[squarepeg86] 21/3/2019 18:07

It clearly started to rise in the run up to results but I expect more tomorrow/Monday. Since the trading update they have won a lot more contracts so it must be very good news to come. Tomorrow's IC mentions T Clarke in the section about next week, simply saying final results due Tuesday, no doubt that will prompt people to take a look and get in before then.

[cc2014] 21/3/2019 12:46

5 hours later and the share price is still holding up. I assume Miton will appear later to play "whack a mole" but I'm beginning to sense they are happy to drip their shares into the market so many a day rather than decide they want a certain price and just keep selling until they have none left.

All of bit of a surprise on a bad day for anything Brexit related. Most of the construction and house-builders are down today so this shows just how strong the underlying fundamentals are at T Clarke.

[cc2014] 21/3/2019 08:01

Something going on here. Price opens at 111.5-112.0 with 10k on the bid and buy side covered in orders below the bid

I assume someone wants in before the results

[cc2014] 20/3/2019 11:24

Hmm. The share price is ticking up before the results next week. Or perhaps it is ticking up as fears over no deal Brexit fade. Whatever.

I expect Miton will sell a few more if the price keeps ticking up.

[cwa1] 19/3/2019 08:29

Thanks for that riv, well worth a look.

[rivaldo] 19/3/2019 08:25

This new analysis dated 12th March from the IC runs GARP tests across all 3 indices below - CTO comes out top of all the small caps, passing 7 out of 7 tests:



"Growth at a reasonable price, or GARP, has proved a reliable strategy
that has previously generated market-beating returns. We run our
GARP screens across three indices: FTSE All-Share, All Small, and Aim"