United Carpets Share Discussion Threads

[envirovision] 24/2/2014 17:41

Quite so. Charts are often unhelpful in early recovery stories and in any case I always thought a log scale should be used in a recovery and/or growth stock.

[dasv] 24/2/2014 17:13

I think with an illiquid share technicals should be taken with a big pinch of salt.

However I note UCG is well above its cloud on the daily ichimoku.

[bamboo2] 24/2/2014 13:00

dasv, Cheers for the reply. I'm mainly trading on the chart alone, and guess I'm disappointed that the share price has dropped out of my admittedly optimistic tram lines. I almost sold on Friday, thankfully I didn't. I did do one of my simplistic charts, [fwiw!] to show the pennants so far, and think now we could expect a longer pause, and a deeper retrace, perhaps up to 50% of the todays flagpole. gla

[dasv] 24/2/2014 11:46

more of the same - continued recovery after rationalisation of business - removal of loss-making stores, uptick in sales volumes.

Maybe even flood damage alone will result in materially higher than normal floor covering purchases.

[bamboo2] 24/2/2014 10:48

I'm just wondering what there is left to drive the price here, if we do get some slowdown in the market. Solid figures would be nice but not due until july?

[dasv] 24/2/2014 10:37

assuming last 6 months revenue will be the same in the next 6 months that gives a current Price/Sales ratio of 0.322. Anything 0.6 or below is v. cheap assuming company has a future. The turnaround plan at UCG is working so I'm hopeful of further upside.

Look at THT: it had a 0.2 price/sales ratio last summer.

[bamboo2] 24/2/2014 08:57

enviro, Thanks for highlighting this one. Taken profits for now but will be back.

[envirovision] 24/2/2014 08:55

Well undervalued in a forward basis still

[chrisis33] 24/2/2014 08:10

Was just exceedingly cheap down in the 3s. Another UK smallcap recovery story.

[dasv] 24/2/2014 08:08

excellent!

[bamboo2] 24/2/2014 08:05

:) Happy Mondays.

[bamboo2] 24/2/2014 07:51

Hope we get our step up today then.

24 February 2014

UNITED CARPETS GROUP PLC

("the Group" or "the Company" or "United Carpets"),

TRADING UPDATE

United Carpets, the UK's second largest chain of specialist retail carpet and floor covering stores, is pleased to announce that trading, in the second half of the current financial year, has been better than expected.

On a like for like basis, sales for the 21 weeks of our second half to date are up 5.4% against the comparable period last year. Whilst encouraging, the trading improvement should be viewed in the context of a weaker trading period last year which was affected by heavy snowfall.

Notwithstanding this, the positive trading performance shows the benefits of the actions taken to restructure the business. During 2012, the Group decided to close a significant proportion of its store base and re-evaluate the business, to create a smaller entity, better able to operate successfully in the current retail environment. The restructuring was implemented over the latter half of 2012 and during 2013 and, whilst a small amount of rationalization is still ongoing, this has resulted in a reduction in the number of stores from 85 to 59 today of which 48 are franchised and 11 are corporate stores. The core store network has responded well to the changes and is showing the benefits of the restructuring, particularly in the last few months.

The Board also believes there has been a slight improvement in confidence amongst consumers, however the overall market still remains very challenging. Our core combination of providing high quality and good value flooring ranges together with a continued focus on improving the instore customer experience is producing positive results.

Consequently, the Board now expect its final results for the year ended 31 March 2014 to be materially better than market expectations.

Paul Eyre, Chief Executive, said: "We have been encouraged with trading in the early part of this calendar year which will flow through to better than expected year end numbers. The changes we have made have transformed our business and with the economy as a whole appearing to move in the right direction, I am increasingly optimistic about the future."

[chrisis33] 24/2/2014 07:50

What are market expectations here though?

[chrisis33] 24/2/2014 07:49

Very good.

[herschel k] 24/2/2014 07:30

Materially better results.........there's a surprise!!

[bamboo2] 18/2/2014 09:00

Looking at the weekly chart, share price has stepped up every third week, so we may be due some action this week.

[lbo] 14/2/2014 13:24

Growth in construction industry revised up as house building leaps almost 20%

Read more:

[bamboo2] 10/2/2014 23:42

WMA's 200,50,20, showing a rising 200, just crossed by 20, about to be crossed by 50, could co-incide with the next step up.

[bamboo2] 31/1/2014 09:41

Live chart for the shorter term, and below for longer term.

[envirovision] 31/1/2014 09:38

Indeed it's still early days, although ucg will clearly have further to go, I see the entire portfolio is only ahead 2%

[bamboo2] 31/1/2014 09:18

H, Cheers, I got my top up through normal channels today. Looking very good. Will top up again at the next plateau!

[herschel k] 31/1/2014 09:06

bamboo,

yes I did, tried to get them in the open market and they couldn't do it at 6.25p, so I had to pay 6.4p.

I'm expecting good things here.

One of the main parts of my job is assisting housing developers in getting planning permission, so I know a fair bit about the central government drive to deliver new housing and the number of local authorities that are nowhere near providing their 5-year housing supply (which they are required to do).

H