II Editor
08 May 2018
NEW ARTICLE: Stockwatch: A blue chip to buy for huge yield "Are they soaring in a sense of "peak Corbyn", that the risk of re-nationalisations is ebbing as Labour struggles to gain on the accident-prone Tories? Has a posse of hedge funds been short the sector, now re-purchasing stock in a sense, fears got ..."[link]
jackdawsson
02 May 2018
Re: Buy @ 138.68 - sold 155.52 Last of my CNA shares. Reasons academic/immaterial as they rest on key variables & there remains a gap at circa 163. That may be filled soon. I don't know. My target was premeditated as referred to recently & I also know one rarely exits at the exact top. For me, still too much uncertainty ahead in energy sector & I can’t help wondering how many more customers will be lost in months ahead due to latest price increases? I've noted some huge sells going through past few days. I'm also not at all convinced by the CEO. FTSE100 seems high again, despite major challenges ahead. UK govt seems very weak. IMO, it could fall within months. Even the remote possibility of a Labour-SNP alliance would cause a huge exit from markets & not least energy sector. Of course I may be wrong. Bar my disastrous SB’s which I’ll shut very soon & certainly before XD, frankly, I'm satisfied enough with my lot here. GL all holders. I hope you get your targets. Will post my SB losses here later & then I move on.
badinvestment
27 Apr 2018
Re: Good to see CNA's highest close in 2... Hi doug,Don't forget that CNA is heading towards Ex Div. That alone is likely to be responsible for a lot of this rise. It is also extremely unlikely to make this a permanent rise. 
Uncle Doug
27 Apr 2018
Re: Good to see CNA's highest close in 2018 153p as I type. Exceptional momentum - that's 12 consecutive trading days where the day's low has ended higher than previous day. Turnaround well under way and more to come. Soon to close gap to 167p and beyond. 6% divvy coming very soon (10/5) and trading update (14/5) which should include some nice cold weather news.
El Kel
26 Apr 2018
Re: Bristol There must be a bigger picture in Bristol, ---------- -------robYes there is - Bristol CC is financially hopeless.Paid £2.5m for a park and ride service at Long Ashton...that wasn't actually being provided.The fiasco of the MetroBus.Etc etc....the list is endless.Interesting that BG got the contract.But then I'm clutching at straws for progress with Centrica!
robbh
25 Apr 2018
Bristol I'm not sure if this is a positive reflection on British Gas or a sad reflection on the state of public sector procurement policy. There must be a bigger picture in Bristol, in relation to their energy supply (cost of redundancies, etc) than simply the costs in the bid.Next, the public sector will be having British passports printed abroad ... oh ...[link] said that, Bristol Energy has never made a profit.
jackdawsson
25 Apr 2018
Good to see CNA's highest close in 2018 Today's 147.20 closing SP also 2nd highest since November’s awful results - highest was 147.70 on 5th Dec. In context, not brilliant but encouraging rises, however small, as gained on a down day across much of the FTSE.But a key level ahead as 148 has also been strong resistance for a while now, tested unsuccessfully a few times over recent months. But considering a generous yield & with XD still over 2 weeks away (10th May), all things being equal we ought to break out into the 150s soon. That's not a given, but more likely than not. Somewhere (I'm not sure yet) in those 150s will probably do me for the last of my shares at least, a buy posted here at 138.68. SP will only fall back on XD, though there's a CNA trading update on 14th May which may give a further boost. - My SBs I may leave until closer to XD. No advice intended & to each their own applies as to whether people hold or book gains. - GLA.
Blanketstacker
25 Apr 2018
"Dark days for regulated utility shares" CNA is not included here, but the same principles apply:[link] interesting for dividend hunters!
frog in a tree
23 Apr 2018
Re: From Times More support for what I have been posting on this board for the last three years or so.CNA just doesn't get it. The first thing must be to find a business proposition which will stem the loss of customers. I don't think price rises will do it. All this stuff about smart meters and boiler contracts won't cut the mustard either. We have had comments on its boiler servicing previously and it wasn't great. As for smart meters it has been the customers paying and the energy companies reaping the benefits. I suppose watching the smart meter rather than Eastenders might be diverting for some.AVOID.F
nk1999
22 Apr 2018
From Times Extracts:"..... Centrica, as the former monopoly is now known, sits astride a shrinking supply business. It is buffeted by hungry rivals, rising prices and politicians promising price caps.The share price has collapsed since late 2013, ending last week at 146.2p and valuing it at £8.2bn.Last year’s 17% fall in its profits to £1.3bn added to the pressure. A small but vocal — and growing — chorus of analysts reckon Centrica will struggle to maintain payouts amid this climate.Chief executive Iain Conn has already slashed the dividend once, chopping it by 30% shortly after arriving in 2015. Another cut would be toxic, not least because of its huge retail shareholder following. ........Conn has a plan to ensure the sacred divi remains: axe thousands of jobs and improve efficiency; cap heavy investment and acquisitions; and keep a lid on debt to hold down interest payments. Assuming that cashflow of about £2.1bn a year continues, Conn reckons he’ll have more than enough cash to pay Sid at the current rate up to 2020.Conn is trying to escape the past. He has been shifting Centrica from centralised power plants towards distributed generation, such as local gas turbines, and hi-tech services in the home. Moving into boiler maintenance packages and smart meters should embed Centrica within households, he reckons, preparing it for the wave of change hitting the power industry.I’m not so sure. Can it really grow service and distributed-power revenues at the rate it is losing core business? Centrica is still a lumbering behemoth. I wouldn’t bet on it winning the tech battle against the likes of Amazon and Google, whose smart speakers could evolve into smart meters.Or will it lose control of its destiny? Another slip-up will have activist investors dusting off break-up plans. Meanwhile, deep-pocketed oil majors from Shell to Total are dipping their toes into the power supply market.Centrica’s shares are cheap — deservedly. At this price might it tempt a predator? Perhaps an oil major or a tech giant that wants access to 8m customers, such as Japan’s SoftBank? It’s a stretch to see the logic, but stranger things have happened."
SeriousInvester
13 Apr 2018
8.4p Ex-Divi (10th May) = 6% @ Current SP + Big divi 6% on current SP!!!+ Recent price increase announcement of 5.5%.All sounds good to me...DYORSI.
idontwanttolose
11 Apr 2018
HSBC downgrades Centrica on likely dividend cut HSBC's analysts downgraded multinational utility company Centrica to 'reduce' on Wednesday, saying that while its recently announced price increase would help maintain its margins, it may, in turn, precipitate further customer losses.For the shares to rerate, HSBC believed that Centrica had to stop losing customers as the firm had been squeezed by intense competition in both its conventional supply business from players such as Engie and Shell and in its Connected Home business from Amazon and GoogleHSBC said that while Centrica may well have the cash to pay its dividend in 2018, something it has been aiming to commit to at 12p for the year, its analysts believed that the market would need to see a return to customer growth in home energy as well as progress towards profitability in its connected homes and distributed energy divisions first."We cut our 2018e EPS by 8% and 2019e by 17%, including an increase in the SVT cap EBIT impact of £140m from £75m, previously. We assume a 25% dividend cut for 2019," HSBC stated.In addition to the downgrade, the analysts also cut their target price on Centrica from 150p to 120p.
jackdawsson
11 Apr 2018
Re: British Gas PRICE INCREASE: Energy b... Excuse misplaced words in first sentence of last post as focus elsewhere & possible trading. Correction: "So far, also not particularly good news for shareholders." - Cheers.
jackdawsson
11 Apr 2018
Re: British Gas PRICE INCREASE: Energy b... "The price rise was always on the cards jackdawson at the last update and just after, when price capping was firmly in everybody's minds and the CEO mentioned job cuts as a consequence.For customers it is not good news and it may lead to a loss of some more customers but if you take fossil fuels like coal out of the equation there are not many alternatives out there and any replacement system costs thousands of pounds. So whichever way you look at it and whether you are heating your home by electricity or say oil fired central heating - one of the energy producers will have you in their grasp. Fixed deals and working out the cheapest deal is your best hope. Such an approach however in some instances is not hastle free."========== ========== ========== ========== ========== ======Hi OWT,Thanks. So far, also not good particularly news for shareholders. Since the news, most of the SP gains of past few days have seen a reversal in rising markets. It will recover closer to ex-date, but no surprise if SP sees a fairly protracted struggle to recover much value after that. Unless of course the update on 14th May is a positive one. Granted some things are beyond energy companies control, like fluctuating global energy prices, we no doubt appreciate that public perception is fundamental to the L/T success of any business. Especially so in highly competitive sectors where switching suppliers is now so easy for customers, leading to hundreds of thousands moving last year. One key problem for CNA is that whilst they pay an extremely generous yield at historically low cover, they tend to be the first to raise energy prices, by often the biggest margins. That leaves more customers feeling irate, leading to even further outflows. Later on, that usually leads to more price increases to cover profit losses from ongoing customer outflows. It becomes a self-perpetuating vicious cycle.A well-run company would surely trim already high dividends first. Raise prices by lower levels only as a last resort, thus putting more pressure on other competitors. Get the company on a sound financial footing FIRST, then look to improve yields again later. Paying a yield one can hardly afford whilst increasing energy prices every few months seems not the way to win back customers, keep the ones you have & increase sustainable profits over the long-term. Regards.
onewayticket
10 Apr 2018
Re: British Gas PRICE INCREASE: Energy b... The price rise was always on the cards jackdawson at the last update and just after, when price capping was firmly in everybody's minds and the CEO mentioned job cuts as a consequence.For customers it is not good news and it may lead to a loss of some more customers but if you take fossil fuels like coal out of the equation there are not many alternatives out there and any replacement system costs thousands of pounds. So whichever way you look at it and whether you are heating your home by electricity or say oil fired central heating - one of the energy producers will have you in their grasp. Fixed deals and working out the cheapest deal is your best hope. Such an approach however in some instances is not hastle free.Good point made re perhaps this masking say other inefficiencies within the business but I think when it comes to CEO's he does comes across well in the media in what is now a hot potato environment. I also think others will follow suit with price rises.When the dust settles it may rise as tracker funds view the dividend as safe.Own due diligence
