Touchstar Share Discussion Threads

[jeevsje] 01/11/2019 07:33

Individuals having to sell nominal market size at almost 52 weeks low; yet, the CEO is happy to take £200k wages, with only limited investment in the shares.

[jeevsje] 31/10/2019 08:07

£205k for Mark does seem excessive, esp when revenues had been dropping in the last few years.

[sammyshares] 30/10/2019 21:25

head and shoulders?

[sammyshares] 30/10/2019 21:25

painful to watch

[jeevsje] 30/10/2019 19:34

I reckon we could do with a change in leadership at the top in the form of Mark Hardy. His salary is exorbitant, compared to his holdings in Touchstar. I have given him the benefit of the doubt previously but cannot afford to do so anymore considering the depressed share price. It is time Ian starts considering a replacement for Mr Hardy. Ian has alluded in his previous statement that it is time for management to deliver.

[jeevsje] 29/10/2019 12:32

Rivaldo, let's see whether Ian can reach his 25million to 30million turnover.
Sorry, got confused between NTQ and ENQ in our last conversation.

[rivaldo] 29/10/2019 09:53

Hi Pavey Ark, apologies for the delayed reply but been on hols.

I'm only not buying more as my current holding is already satisfactory. If I only had a very small introductory investment I would likely buy more, but that may be before or after another trading statement dependent on the markets in general and how optimistic or otherwise I was feeling!

[pavey ark] 16/10/2019 10:07

Rivaldo, thanks for that but perhaps you could explain the reason/background for the meeting.
Good detail given in the report but you did seem to damn with faint praise and I'm pretty sure that was not your intention.

Your current reluctance to buy at this time may be due to the investment you have already made but could I ask if you would buy if your current holding was say half of what it is now ?

I don't usually concern myself with other people's share dealings but this is my attempt at getting a better idea of your views after this visit.

[cocker] 11/10/2019 11:06

Thanks, very much appreciated. If and when funds become available, I will add as I see this at a rock bottom price given where the company is at present. Certainly at the very least a strong hold.

[cocker] 11/10/2019 09:02

Rivaldo and Jeevsje. Any news from yesterday's visit?

[leoboy] 07/10/2019 23:07

from here - case studies - Commercial Buildings: Cushman and Wakefield :

[jeevsje] 07/10/2019 22:39

Case study uploaded on website: hxxps://www.touchstar-atc.com/pdf/MH989_TSATCCASESTUDY_CWv3.pdf

[cocker] 03/10/2019 13:57

Your input would be much appreciated from what you find out at the event J

[jeevsje] 23/9/2019 20:59

Anyone attending the roadshow on the 09th and 10th Oct? Looks like they want to highlight the progress made after the half year results. I am trying for the 10th.

[jeevsje] 18/9/2019 21:43

With increase in revenue and a significant reduction in R&D costs, they could have some disposable cash in coming years. A 2% dividend at the current market cap will cost them only around £70k. Ian needs to get on the road to sell the story.

[cocker] 13/9/2019 17:37

Great note from WH Ireland. As I said recently, "those prepared to invest here even with the all to often wide spread, will likely have 100% gain 6/12 months out".

[rivaldo] 13/9/2019 14:16

I thought the interims were pretty encouraging. The company is obviously on the right path now, it's just a question of time as to how fast the transformation wrought to date reaps real profitability and dividends.

I don't think anyone's posted any of WH Ireland's note post-results, so here's a couple of extracts:

"Today’s H1 results show a pleasing +16% increase in revenue to £3.6m (+19%
stripping out the discontinued On Board business) driven by Touchstar’s next-gen
products against what remains a challenging market backdrop. As a result, the loss
before tax has reduced materially y-o-y to £224k (excluding exceptionals) from £592k a year ago. Given the usual H2 weighting, the H1 outcome puts TST well on the way to achieving our FY forecasts which we leave unchanged this morning.

Key takeaways

Today’s 16% increase in revenue halts the decline seen in the last financial year (FY revenue -12%) and is down to a large part to take-up of some of TST’s next-gen products and services. This is against a challenging market with the on/off Brexit saga leading to protracted sales negotiations not just in the mobile computing segment but across many sectors. Note that the 16% increase is slightly stronger than the 14% Q1 growth reported at the time of the FY results in May. Gross margin improved from 48.2% to 51.9% reflecting less hardware and more high quality
software/full solution in the mix. Impressively, the proportion of recurring revenue has also increased and represented approximately one third of revenues during H1.

Cash dwindles in H1 but should turn positive in H2 The balance sheet showed a
net debt position of £204k at the end of June (reflecting cash payments for
redundancies as part of the restructuring) but this will improve during H2 due to the receipt of a substantial tax reclaim from HMRC (delayed from H1 due to a processing backlog) in August amounting to £456k.

On the way to achieving FY forecasts On an adjusted basis, ie stripping out the c
£300k of exceptional reoraginsation costs, losses before tax more than halved from
£592k to £224k. This is a function of the improvement in gross margin but also the
operational gearing effect of a lean cost base. The £3.6m revenue outcome represents 46% of our FY £7.9m forecast – given the historically second-half weighting nature of the business, this puts the business well on course to hit our full year numbers.

WHI view

TST is half way through its three year turnaround. The H1 numbers show a return to revenue growth and should give confidence that all key metrics are moving in the right direction. Cash should also turn positive in H2 leaving a business with revenues of approaching £8m having an EV of ~£3m, an exceptionally low rating for a
technology stock."

[jeevsje] 12/9/2019 13:20

Well, If Ian is excited, then it should be looking positive.

[pavey ark] 12/9/2019 13:08

One of the key feature of BVM (now TST) was that it could't make a loss, at least in the short term, as the recurring income was greater than the running costs.

One of the points about TST which I feel is not emphasised enough is that the business model is very heavily slanted towards royalties and recurring payments.

We have a time lag between the old revenue stream being discontinued and the new one coming in but the recent results did point to 1/3 of income from recurring payments.

Heavy investment being made, contracts being signed but I don't think enough credit is being given to the long term income from these contracts.

On another topic.
Some may remember that in the final results the company pointed out that Microsoft were no longer supporting certain products and this could be of great advantage to TST.
I think this shows up in the recent danish contract.

I consider that things are looking very positive for the company.

[jeevsje] 12/9/2019 12:13

Varies, ask is 50p and it is NT to buy 5000 shares.

[varies] 12/9/2019 12:00

I have just been looking at the Morningstar web-site.
This shows no trades today and trades amounting to about 30,000 shares yesterday with recent averages being much less. I do not know how reliable this is but, if it right, then the market in TST shares can hardly be said to be over-heated !
it also shows a spread of c.7% (43-46)which is lower than it has been recently.

This is not a share for trading and I am holding on indefinitely in the hope of my recovering my losses of about 50%.

[cocker] 12/9/2019 10:39

I was here when JK was around and exited once he went almost. However, those who have followed bvm tst over the years will want to see facts of profit once again. Martin I feel is the right guy and for once has provided bullish comments that we are likely to reap the rewards of having bought in at levels lower than today's price. Unfortunately I have not enough funds to try a dummy trade, but that may well give an indication of buy levels