dokp
12 May 2016
Re: Ben Yitzhak Family The FT has an article saying that the shares were placed at 205p. The only way 888 will be taken out is by an agreed bid so stake building makes no sense. The Shakeds appear to have been proved correct in rejecting the bid around 200p but it seems unlikely that the Yitzhak family would sell out if there was a bid possibility in the near term. Nevertheless the Shakeds / BoD have called it mostly right so far and I will continue to hold through what I imagine will now be a dip in SP.
Hardboy
11 May 2016
Ben Yitzhak Family The huge volume today and the largish drop in sp is obviously due to Ben Yitzhak selling the majority of their holding. The question is why? And who has bought them. (Over 8% of the company's shares have been off-loaded.)
sage in the hills
01 Apr 2016
Re: 888 fuels bid speculation and, Hardboy, the press will probably be telling us all about it tomorrow ...SAGE
Hardboy
01 Apr 2016
Re: 888 fuels bid speculation This talk of possible take-overs made me have a look at recent volumes for any stake building. The average daily volumes over the last 2 weeks is over 2.5m shares. The average over the previous 3 months was around 330k.OK the finals were in that period and shares tend to be traded more heavily round the time of announcements; but even so it's a hefty difference. There haven't been any RNSs for increased shareholding, but I guess we should keep our eyes skinned for the next one.
john222
01 Apr 2016
Re: 888 fuels bid speculation like no chance 888 is fair at 225 and 50-75p bid premium is max...
sage in the hills
01 Apr 2016
Re: 888 fuels bid speculation ok john222, forwardboy, and loopWhat speculative price target are we looking at then ? ..... i suggest it should be pretty hefty , ie, like £4+SAGE
john222
01 Apr 2016
Re: 888 fuels bid speculation lets not forget they want to be taken over ideally certainly from major shareholder perspective what they wont do is let it go cheap I think this suggests that the business is strong and able to pay above average cash out therefore implying strong growing enticing earnings for someone like Hills to want to get hold of.
Hardboy
01 Apr 2016
Re: 888 fuels bid speculation I don't really follow the logic of a company paying a special dividend therefore it is likely to be taken over; but the analysis is pretty upbeat.
forwardloop
01 Apr 2016
888 fuels bid speculation shares mag courtesy of Alliance trust888 fuels bid speculation Special dividend increases chances of it being a takeover targetEmily PerrymanA special dividend from ongoing gambling company 888 is fuelling speculation it will be an acquisition target. This could act as a further catalyst for the stock, which has already risen 9.3% to 199.5p this year. The £629 million cap’s special dividend of 8c per share takes its total dividends for 2015 to 15.5c, made possible by its higher-than-expected $96.2 million of net cash. Simon Davies, analyst at Canaccord Genuity, reckons this implies a shortage of immediate acquisition targets and says 888 is more likely to be a takeover target itself. Gambling companies are consolidating in order to mitigate hefty taxes and regulations. Including the special dividend, 888 has an eye-catching yield of 5.9%. Davies thinks more special dividends are likely given the group’s high cash levels. 888 grew like-for-like revenue by 12% to $507.7 million in 2015, driven by a 37% increase in Casino players. Pre-tax profit more than halved to $32.5 million as a result of gaming duties and costs related to its aborted bid for Bwin.Party. It has started 2016 strongly with like-for-like revenue growth of 23%. Despite foreign exchange headwinds, Canaccord has lifted its earnings per share forecast for 2016 by 4% to 16.2c. Shares says: "888 trades on a 2016 price to earnings ratio of 12.3, which looks reasonable given its growth prospects and high yield. We share the bullish view of Canaccord."
john222
24 Mar 2016
Re: £2 Clarence I did the same re buying and still hold the majority of shares easily best performing by a country mile for me....sold some when IC wobbled saying that it was fair value at 65p only to see what I had sold worth £100k more 12 months later but still hold a lot from 30p days..........will continue collect divi and wait for the takeover bid. Hold GVC too and probably very overweight in online gaming for my portfolio but these stocks don't give you reason to exit in my view at the moment.
Clarence Beaks
23 Mar 2016
Re: £2 Certainly has been a long time coming.I've just look at my 1st buy in 888, it was from 2006 and the price was 165p! my lowest ever buy was 36p - if only I still had that holding, it would be looking most tasty today
Hardboy
23 Mar 2016
£2 We're finally back at the £2 level - not seen that sp for almost 10 years, at which time they were earning over half their revenue from the US. Onwards & Upwards
Clarence Beaks
23 Mar 2016
Re: volume and price rise I always miss the fun on this one sometimes 
Good to see it's roaring for the LTH's! Wish my oil rubbish would do the same, but no hope there.
john222
23 Mar 2016
Re: volume and price rise Special divi and trading well the reduction in profit is directly attributable to bwin corporate activity, hopefully this flushes out a bidder but will the owners ever sell for less than about 300p which I think from memory is why Hills walked away before.
MartinDrew
22 Mar 2016
Re: volume and price rise 39% drop in underlying profits according to the Evening Standard, but the casino and sports betting side doing well, poker and bingo down - so I guess the market likes the good news from the casino and sports betting OR someone is taking an interest as has been suggested.
