Touchstar Share Discussion Threads

[cocker] 08/5/2024 12:02

Where are all the buybacks?, something tells me that perhaps they feel that the share price is likely to go lower in the short/medium term. Otherwise they surely would be buying up their own stock!

[rivaldo] 30/4/2024 09:15

Any buybacks would have to be announced ASAP via RNS, so if there's any buying going on it's not from TST buybacks. Not yet anyway!

[cocker] 29/4/2024 23:30

Not me, I have only shifted 15k so far.

[cocker] 29/4/2024 18:58

Well one must assume that all these 5k 10k buys are TST picking up their own stock, but who is giving it all to them?

[adamb1978] 24/4/2024 08:24

Thanks for your efforts Davidosh. Management team should be doing more of that themselves rather than you having to!!

[davidosh] 23/4/2024 22:05

AdamB1978...I am working hard to really improve the latter the rest is down to the price reaching a level where liquidity appears

[adamb1978] 23/4/2024 16:46

The problem with valuing TST is whether you value it as it is today (i.e. with minimal liquidity and minimal investor-facing activity) or do you apply a multiple which assumes those are fixed?

I'd work on the background that the latter is upside given there is no clarity on when it might be fixed, but as a base case its more sensible to apply recent trading range.

I still think these are cheap, but only have a small position due to the liquidity

[rivaldo] 23/4/2024 10:56

Good to see 30,000 shares bought this morning in three tranches, at steadily increasing buying prices up to 89.75p.

[rivaldo] 18/4/2024 07:44

WH Ireland's 140p valuation seems reasonable and probably conservative imo.

With a cash pile of 37p per share, and 10p EPS forecast this year, a 140p share price would put TST on an ex-cash P/E of only 10.3.

Given this record of PBT and EPS I'd say even that multiple is perfectly reasonable.

And the PEG is just 0.28, which is ludicrously cheap:

2021 - £0.2m PBT
2022 - £0.4m PBT
2023 - £0.7m PBT
2024 - £1.0m PBT (forecast)

And for EPS:

2021 - 4.0p
2022 - 6.6p
2023 - 7.6p
2024 - 10.0p (forecast)

[russman] 18/4/2024 06:59

too small to be listed.
bulk up - acquisition risk.
or
sell up - net cash, strip out HQ overhead, might attract a foreign predator.

[smithie6] 18/4/2024 00:26

..there is a case I think for merging some small UK listed technology companies to reduce overall costs of dirs, being listed, dirs cars, etc

And reduce some common costs such as marketing, reception staff, accounts staff, etc
& try to benefit from cross selling

And as a bigger group try to get sales abroad and become a bigger fish.
Although TST on its own did amazingly well in '23 in growing it's sales outside of the UK.

How many small UK listed companies for example do
CCTV camera systems or human access control or vehicle tracking.
....I could name a few...

[cocker] 17/4/2024 23:01

If WH Ireland say 140 it must be true. If only brokers bought upto 80 percent of their target price, then we could all be millionaires.

[rivaldo] 17/4/2024 22:45

WH Ireland today reiterated their 140p price target (increased recently from 120p).

They summarise:

"Full year results: Recurring revenue strategy delivers further profit growth

Touchstar is a supplier of mobile data computing solutions and managed services to a variety of industrial sectors. This morning’s full year results reflect the outcome of a multiyear strategy coming to fruition for the group, with recurring revenue growth of 8.7% delivering overall revenue growth of 7.1% and in turn a 60% increase in PBT to £0.7m.

Over the past few years, Touchstar has focused on enhancing the returns from their product offering through a shift towards recurring software license and hardware maintenance revenues, whilst also charging a fair rate for customer requested software updates. Each of these strands continued to grow in excess of overall revenue growth in FY2023, delivering further improvement in gross margin, reaching 63.6% in H2 2023 up 19bp from 61.7% in FY2022A.

With FY2024E reported to have started to plan, we expect this strategy to drive further organic growth in the coming years, with additional potential for expansion into new overseas markets and strategic M&A.

Trading on an FY2024E PE of 9.5x and EV/EBITDA of just 2.6x, underpinned by £3.0m of net cash (37.5% of market cap), we see scope for the shares to continue to move higher as further growth is delivered. We see fair value at 140p."

"WHI view:

With recurring revenues reaching a new high of 40.4% in the period, we are encouraged by further progress against the group’s strategic aims and believe this should help drive continued organic revenue and profit growth in future years. With the potential from new overseas markets, product improvements, and M&A, we see scope for the shares to continue to move higher as further growth is delivered. We see fair value for the shares at 140p."

[cocker] 17/4/2024 17:59

Shareprophets have a piece on TST today. Improved financial performance and yet share price down 6 percent today, Why?

[smithie6] 17/4/2024 13:23

I agree....although we know that one poster doesn't !

[rivaldo] 17/4/2024 11:45

WH Ireland's numbers are as follows:

2021 - £0.2m PBT
2022 - £0.4m PBT
2023 - £0.7m PBT
2024 - £1.0m PBT (forecast)

And for EPS:

2021 - 4.0p
2022 - 6.6p
2023 - 7.6p
2024 - 10.0p (forecast)

I'd say this is rather impressive progress! And all now backed up by the £3m cash pile and 40% recurring income.

[varies] 17/4/2024 11:04

Whilst these results are much as expected and only modest progress is suggested for the current year, we should recognise that many small companies listed on AIM have suffered terribly in the last couple of years and that TST's performance has been relatively very good.
I had hoped for a final dividend of 2p rather than 1.5p but hope to see steady increases from now on.

[kinwah] 17/4/2024 10:46

TST has always been illiquid and the share buybacks don't help that. It's just a matter of time before an acquirer crunches the numbers and offers an acceptable price. It's probably the right time for the two largest shareholders who together hold about 22% of the company to cash in their chips. TST is just too small to be a standalone quoted company.

[cocker] 17/4/2024 10:31

Short term traders in the last few days ,oh come on your better than that Rivaldo as I think your comments are a case of clutching at straws. The best we can all hope for is a buy out at a decent premium to current sp, which would be remarkable given the performance