Weir Share Discussion Threads

[phil140158] 12/9/2012 16:40

APAD - saw GKN tipped a few days ago. Growth potential based on takeover of Volvo Aerospace, if I recall. I haven't had a chance to research it yet, but might be worth a look.

[apad] 12/9/2012 16:21

Bit behind the curve isn't she tratante?
I was musing on increasing at £16 (Looking back, I have bought 7 times since early 2009!) but the price seems to have run ahead of me - back above ema(50), looks like a trend but all the other engineers are frisky.
Also thinking about increasing DPLM, but the same argument applies.
PRV and ELM increased last week.
I guess I need some inspiration.
Any ideas folks?
apad

[tratante] 12/9/2012 16:00

Someone is positive:

[cockneyrebel] 12/9/2012 13:08

I'd have thought if shorting was heavy all the bad news would be in th eprice imo. If there ever was bad news shorters are only going to get what they expect - no further fall then imo. Anything better than no bad news and the shoters get squeezed to death imo.

Rising well today tho and that bowl on the chart looks lpovely imo.

[tratante] 12/9/2012 09:34

Shares on loan turning down steeply; could be heading for the squeeze.

[apad] 10/9/2012 21:38

CR
I don't know how to judge. The shorters might be right or wrong I guess.
A short squeeze, if they are wrong, would be good fun to watch.
apad

[apad] 10/9/2012 21:34

phil
Vacancies up from 21 to 28, but still none in North America.
I guess it's "peers in the sector" are more project oriented.
Ceased bothering about the Tintins years ago.
Personally I have lost too many good shares to takeover bids - a good share is hard to find.
apad

[cockneyrebel] 10/9/2012 21:31

APAD - when a stock is heavily shorted do you not think that's a sign th estock has been driven artificially low?

And if shorting is heavy doesn't that mean any rally will trigger a short squeeze?

I think the dangerous stock to be long on are where everyone is too confident imo.

CR

[phil140158] 10/9/2012 21:06

APAD - it is trading at a discount to it's peers in the sector, but I more or less agree with what you say. Wonder where Goldman Sachs is getting it's information from to come up with a £28 target? Always hope of a takeover bid?

[apad] 10/9/2012 20:17

phil,
W is 5% of my portfolio with an average buying price of 1200 and I rate the technology very highly indeed.
But, I don't see the driver for a push to previous highs.
Cash flow not that brilliant.
Fairly priced at the moment I opine.
What I don't know about is what those short positions will do when they are unwound.
apad

[phil140158] 10/9/2012 18:50

APAD - I suppose we are less worried now it's not top of the list! Short-selling is by nature a short term position, we have to focus on fundamentals and the longer term. I was trading companies like Interserve and Ashtead Group at a fraction of their current share price I'm sure I had a long on Ashtead at 40p! Value always comes to the top. Patience is required.

[apad] 10/9/2012 18:29

WEIR is still number 5 in the Shares on Loan top 20.
Way above such stars as Punch Taverns and Yell.
Why doesn't this worry you folks?
apad

[danny murphy] 10/9/2012 17:16

In today at 1680p!!

[cockneyrebel] 10/9/2012 14:02

Lovely buy point for this leg up imo.

CR

[broadwood] 10/9/2012 08:22

TP uplift from the main men.

Goldman Sachs Weir Group PLC 10/09/12 08:17 Reiterates Conviction Buy Conviction Buy 0 2,790.00 2,830.00 40

[rogerbridge] 07/9/2012 14:47

Bought in today, Weir is not a one trick pony but the shale bonanza will help these along.

[cockneyrebel] 07/9/2012 12:50

Making higher highs again - nice cyclical for a rally on the US breakout imo.

CR

[cockneyrebel] 06/9/2012 10:26

Nice point to be adding or buying on the chart here imo - bouncin goff the trendline.

CR

[broadwood] 03/9/2012 08:12

Good comprehensive article CR - thanks.

[cockneyrebel] 03/9/2012 07:59

From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EUROPE)
By William Lyons
Shortly before Keith Cochrane joined British engineering company Weir Group PLC, the 141-year-old firm moved its headquarters out of its historic manufacturing site on Glasgow's South Side. It was, he says, a chance to "get away from being above the shop and get out of the hair of the local managers." It also gave the board and its 60-strong head-office team a new focus: they could get on with the job of running the global business without distraction.
Sitting in the boardroom of Weir, there are no distractions; the decor is a master class in simplicity. Despite this being a company with annual revenue of more than GBP 2.2 billion ($3.49 billion), operating in 70 different countries and employing around 14,000 people, there is no palatial corporate headquarters; just an open-plan workspace on the fourth floor of a central Glasgow office block. It is easy to conclude Mr. Cochrane, with his clipped, no-nonsense manner, polished delivery and references to efficiency, productivity and focus, prefers it that way.
"We are a very structured, disciplined business," says the 47-year-old, leaning forward at one end of the boardroom table. "Weir Group today in all senses is very different to the one that existed 10 years ago."
The office move epitomizes the journey Weir Group has made. Today, the company has exposure and business operations in all of the major markets in the world and the U.K. accounts for less than 10% of its activities.
"Part of that has come through acquisition," Mr. Cochrane says. "Part of it has been about becoming more efficient, more effective at what we do which is absolutely critical if you want to succeed in today's world."
It was in 1871 that two brothers, George and James Weir, created a company to supply pumps to Britain's burgeoning shipping industry. The firm grew steadily through the 20th century, listing on the London Stock Exchange in the 1940s. But the country's post-war de-industrialization wasn't kind to the manufacturing sector based on the River Clyde, and by the late 1970s Weir found itself in difficulties.
In the 1980s, under long-term Chief Executive Sir Ron Garrick, a process of change began -- moving into the products and services business. After a difficult time in the late 1990s, including a takeover bid and a boardroom shake-up by 2006, when Mr. Cochrane joined as finance director under the stewardship of Australian Chief Executive Mark Selway, the company's transformation was well under way.
Out went the old pumps business, Weir Pumps, sold in 2007 for around GBP 45 million. A range of acquisitions followed that resulted in the creation of an engineering group specializing in selling pumps, valves and related parts to companies in the mining and energy industries.
From providing slurry pumps to copper mines in Australia to fracking pumps for gas-extraction plants in North America, Weir's reach is now global. In September 2009, Mr. Cochrane was appointed chief executive. Just over a year later, the company entered London's FTSE 100 Index.
"If you think back 10 years ago, Weir was a pumps business," he says. "Today we no longer think of ourselves as a pumps business. We are a mining, oil-field and power-equipment business.
"When I took over as chief executive it was evolution not revolution. Mark [Selway] had done a fantastic job of building out the platform and together we had developed the strategy and vision for the group. It was about taking that platform and looking at how we could use it ahead of our end market."
The firm is now a market leader in pressure pumps, ahead of FMC Technologies and Gardner Denver Inc. of the U.S., while its mineral division competes with Finland's Metso Corp. and Outotec, and FLSmidth of Denmark.
Central to the change in strategy was the establishment of an after-market servicing business, which accounts for around 50% of the company's revenue. Like Rolls-Royce, the business model is not only to sell and install equipment but to service and repair it as well. The group now has 100 service centers around the world, which Mr. Cochrane says reflects the growth of the equipment manufacturing business.
"We generated about a GBP 1 billion-worth of original equipment orders from the start of 2010 to the first quarter of 2012," he says. "That will translate, based on wear rates and life expectations of the products, into around a GBP 3 billion after-market opportunity in a 10-15-year period. Which, in turn, translates into around GBP 300 million of incremental revenues over the next three to four years."
It is the company's diversity across a range of sectors -- mining, oil and gas, as well as after-market services -- that Mr. Cochrane says puts it in good stead to cope with any short- to medium-term downturns. The recent turmoil in the U.S. gas market is a case in point.
Initially, Weir capitalized on the shale-gas revolution, providing equipment used in the extraction of natural gas from shale rock. Shale gas has been touted as enabling the U.S. to be energy-independent by 2030. Because of the company's exposure -- it supplies 50% of all high-pressure pumps in the North American shale market -- in February the share price reached a high of 2236 pence. Since that high, an oversupply in the U.S. gas market has hit demand. This has been compounded by uncertainty in the Australian mining sector. Weir's share price now stands around 1635 pence, after falling to 1397 pence in June.
"There is no question the outlook in my mind for shale gas across the medium term, both in North America and other international markets where shale opportunities have been identified, is robust," he says. "In the last year or two we have seen significant pick-up in oil-related shale activity, so much so that people are now predicting within five or six years the U.S. will be self-sufficient in terms of oil production.
"At the moment there is underutilization of the pressure-pumping fleets, which is impacting on the business. But that is a hiatus in the long-term positive development of this industry. Over time the opportunities are there, and it is an attractive place to be and be positioned."
And the volatility in Weir Group's share price doesn't worry him unduly.
"The share price will move about for a variety of factors on a day-to-day basis which are completely out with our control," he says. "For me the key thing is for us to deliver the targets we have said we will deliver against our strategy."
Mr. Cochrane isn't a stranger to difficult circumstances. No sooner had he joined Weir in 2006 than the firm was embroiled in a legal case, accused of paying kickbacks to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein through the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
The case was resolved when Weir pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching UN sanctions on contracts and agreed to pay GBP 13.9 million to the Crown Office in Scotland. Mr. Cochrane himself appeared in court.
Before Weir, Mr. Cochrane spent three years with Scottish Power PLC, which he joined after an eventful nine years with bus and rail transport company Stagecoach Group PLC. During his time there, he helped float the company and oversee its retrenchment from North America before leaving as group chief executive, to be replaced by founder Brian Souter.
"You wouldn't go into business if you were afraid of challenge, and the challenges can sometimes be good and not so good," he says. "Irrespective of that, if we wanted an easy life we wouldn't be doing what we are doing."
Stagecoach was his first corporate experience after several years at accountancy firm Arthur Anderson. He had, he says, "nine fantastic years" working alongside Mr. Souter.
"We had some fun times," he says. "Some challenging times, but throughout we learned. I learned about focus, clarity of objectives and vision."
He says his work at Weir is about bringing all that experience together into a different area of business.
"I am not an engineer but it is about stepping back. Understanding the dynamics, drivers of each business and providing that clarity and vision of what you need to do to make it happen."
In July, analysts at RBC Capital Markets suggested that, at share price levels around 1531 pence, the group could be a takeover target for Siemens AG or General Electric Co., which has a stated strategy of building a leading drilling and surface equipment franchise. Mr. Cochrane dismisses this scenario.
"Look at where the group has come from over the last couple of years. Are we out of ideas as to how we continue to grow and develop the company? Absolutely not. We are still, to my mind, in terms of the opportunities, at the beginning of the journey."

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[cockneyrebel] 31/8/2012 11:52

Turning up here imo.

Nice bowl and bouncing off the 50 day and 100 day moving avereages as they cross.

CR

[cockneyrebel] 31/8/2012 11:52

Turning up here imo.

Nice bowl and bouncing off the 50 day and 100 day moving avereages as they cross.

CR

[cockneyrebel] 31/8/2012 11:51

Turning up here imo.

Nice bowl and bouncing off the 50 day and 100 day moving avereages as they cross.

CR

[edwardt] 30/8/2012 15:32

doesn't look so much of a 'bowl' now!

[apad] 24/8/2012 13:14

Still nearly 20% on loan.
apad