Hardboy
06 Sep 2017
Re: Range Bound Oh Eadwig, your Royal Highness, please tell me you're not turning into a chartist!
Eadwig
06 Sep 2017
Range Bound Frustratingly so, in the last 3 weeks. Not quite enough volatility to trade. Appears to be both strong support around @457.50 and strong resistance @466.I might just manage to trade that in a company with no stamp duty, unfortunately MERL is not one of those.Strange week though, perhaps we'll see a move from this range if global factors settle down, now traders are back from their summer hols. Personally, I wouldn't mind a fall first to get another tranche @445p before the start of the next up leg.
Eadwig
05 Sep 2017
Meanwhile... ... and of great interest to MERL, I suspect:Worldwide AR/VR market up 25.5% in Q2, Samsung leadsSep. 5, 2017 By: Brandy Betz, SA News Editor "The worldwide augmented reality and virtual reality headset market was up 25.5% on the year in Q2, according to IDC. Total shipments were 2.1M.VR headsets accounted for 98% of the market and untethered units dominated over half the market with tethered headsets accounting for 43%, up from 34% sequentially. AR shipments were down on the year as the consumer market has stalled even as enterprise customers strengthen. Samsung led the market with 568K shipped units and a 26.7% market share. The untethered Gear VR did decline on the year but a boost in average selling prices kept Samsung in the lead. Sony came second with 519.4K units and 24.4% market share. The company’s PlayStation VR led tethered headsets. Facebook came third with 246.9K units and an 11.6% share. Facebook had dropped Oculus Rift prices by $100 to $499 in Q2, which started a price cut trend."
Eadwig
05 Sep 2017
Worrying Story Re:Lego On BBC this lunch time. CEO kicked upstairs, Toys R Us warning sales down in USA, price points criticised generally as too high, not tapping into the digital market. 1400 staff laid off.They don't directly own the theme parks any more, obviously, however, one of the major planks of the MERL strategy surrounds the Legoland parks and the supposed strength of the brand - one of the world's strongest, it has been said time and again. Weakness in the brand - and the films which have been said to be important to MERL this year - can only be negative.Price currently @466p +2% on the day, so the story doesn't appear to have impacted MERL at all - so far at least. I've had the radio on all day and that is the first time this story has been aired (News at One). So I guess we'll see.Lego is a private family company, the CEO was brought in around 13 years ago to turnaround a flagging brand, and was said to have 'worked miracles', especially in profitability.Its perhaps time for new blood and another look from the perspective of the next generation of children, their parents and how they see Lego. From MERL's point of view, the numbers enticed by the films will be watched very closely, I suspect, aftedr a big boost was seen in 2014:The Lego Movie (2014) U Animation, Action, Adventure Released Feb 2014 Grossed: $468,060,692 (Worldwide) (to 22 October 2014)Opening Weekend$69,050,279 (USA) (9 February 2014) (3,775 Screens) The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) U Animation, Action, AdventureRelease 10 Feb 2017 Grossed: $310,830,880 (worldwide) (to 7 June 2017)Opening Weekend$53,003,468 (USA) (12 February 2017) (4,088 Screens)The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017) PG Animation, Action, Adventure Release 13 Oct 2017 The Lego Movie Sequel (2019) Animation, Action, Adventure Release 8 Feb 2019
Ripley94
26 Aug 2017
Re: limit lifted. Bought in here after tip from a broker they seem such nice chaps and i like to try things out.Its lower now.Malcolm Stacey on Share Prophets wrote about it yesterday seemed positive.But instead of saying Buy / hold / sell.Finished stating see you in punters return . Anyone know what that means is it some sort of code word ?
Eadwig
23 Aug 2017
Re: Latest Analyst Views Ignore last post, market closing bell made me jump and I submitted it accidentally! Truth!
Eadwig
23 Aug 2017
Latest Analyst Views 18/08/2017 - 09:30Deutsche Bank today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) and raised its price target to 600p (from 530p).04/08/2017 - 09:50Peel Hunt today upgrades its investment rating on Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 530p (from 450p).
Eadwig
23 Aug 2017
Still hoping ... ... for a third tranche before the end of the summer @445p. The below helped shore up the price last week when it was slipping below @460p though.18/08/2017 Deutsche Bank today reaffirms its buy investment rating on Merlin Entertainments PLC and raised its price target to 600p (from 530p).
Eadwig
12 Aug 2017
Re: Dividend Announcement Hardboy,if I've given the impression that I'm only investing in MERL because I think it will be taken-over then its purely from comments I've made on top of my long-term thesis that I posted long ago and perhaps has been forgotten. I see MERL as a long-term growth story, a 5-10 year period. A play on the Global growth of:Brand importance and management.Population (MERL arguably benefits early as its aimed primarily at children and families).Middle classes, in emerging economies (that just love brands, especially Western ones).Leisure time.Technology integrating with entertainment experiences, continually refreshing them and making for repeat visits, including via internet virtual reality experiences.I rate the management also, especially the new finance woman, although I've seen little of her so far, I thought coming in right on top of the last full results and doing such a good presentation was very impressive. As are her credentials. (Free ice creams not withstanding).Personally I believe companies involved with big brands and entertainment will become more and more involved with media and connectivity and will, eventually, be sub-sumed by giant, global 'internet-based' companies at some point in the future. Those giants will emerge through consolidation which will involve seeking unique content that they can use as a selling point as they fight, merge and acquire until perhaps six or a dozen companies of a size never before dreamed of, have sliced up control of the internet between them. This isn't news to anyone who reads my stuff, including my current best bets for the winners in that struggle.I don't think a take-over is in anyway imminent - having said that, these companies have so much cash on hand they could decide to move early on certain targets if fx rates made them a particular bargain, for example. I don't expect that though. As things stand they're not largely ready to be integrated as yet. Don't under-estimate the speed of the current fashion for 'the internet of things' though, is my advice.In another five years time, perhaps sooner, VR experiences and robotics will have become increasingly integrated with entertainment experiences. MERL and Disney are already on it.Interestingly, I'm unsure how the growing (and most profitable) hotel business will fit in with that thesis - a thesis which is a very personal one, but a theme I've followed since the 80s and has served me extremely well over the decades in investment terms, starting with a doubling of money in Argos in the 90s because I thought a catalogue company with distribution centres was virtually ready to hop onto the net. I did double my money, but I was still ten years ahead of the market in my reasoning, it turned out.Yes, there is a general rule to never buy a company purely for take-over. If the company is sound then that's fine, if a take-over comes along, all well and good. But its a bonus. Sometimes its an irritation, but usually its a welcome windfall and a nice, clean exit.I wont say I *never* buy a company because I think it will be taken-over. When ITV was broken up into regions it was a no-brainer that the franchises were way too small to exist on their own in a ever-globalising media market. The only difficulty was picking the ones that would be the prey, rather than the predator, and that wasn't that difficult. Its a long time ago now, but I picked three or four correctly, although I can only remember Ulster TV and Border TV off-hand, and I'm unsure if I've even named them correctly.I almost always sell once the 'final bid' has been accepted, by the way. Otherwise you lose about 6 months with your cash tied up waiting for everything to go through, and there is always the chance it might fall through. Waiting six months for a few pence more on the share price has never been worthwhile, in my experience. I'd rather move on to a new investment that is going to play out, for good or ill, rather t
Hardboy
10 Aug 2017
Re: Dividend Announcement Hi Eadwig - excellent posts: you always do a thorough explanation of your views. I for one much appreciate it. All professions and pastimes have sayings and clichés which people know. Not all are right of course; but one about investing in shares is: "Never buy hoping for a takeover." Not sure if it's a good saying or not. Probably it applies to companies where there are takeover rumours and the price has risen because of them, and 9 times out of ten it comes to nothing. In the case of Merlin, it's a fundamentally sound business, with tremendous potential for growth. A Take-Over is always a possibility for any successful business; but I certainly wouldn't buy this just on the hope of a take-over. If one comes I wouldn't expect it for some time, but of course with a UK listed business and a weak £, it could be attractive. The reason I've invested in Merlin is a less greedy, more boring reason. I think it's a well run business, with tremendous potential for growth, so year on year I expect steady growth (albeit fluctuating with economic & political confidence) of turnover, profits and dividend. It doesn't pay a great dividend. but it seems like a nice core holding for me which I can almost (but I never do this) buy & forget about; and it will pay me an increased dividend each year, and the value of my possession will slowly rise. And if Fox decided to buy it, You'd probably have to wait a decade before Karen Bradley decided to allow it or not. (She really should be sacked over her handling of the Sky bid.)
Eadwig
10 Aug 2017
Re: Dividend Announcement SM, "Running the slide over this, you have got me interested."I've posted plenty of my research below - but many people probably don't agree with what I see as the ultimate outcome for this sort of company (I.e. bought up by an internet giant).If you don't agree with that kind of outcome, then, frankly the growth rate doesn't really justify the P/E, even though I think they are going to increase the growth rate, not least through the hotels business.[I've only ever owned one hotel chain that didn't end up being taken-over, by the way, and I sold that on take-over speculation! MERL is far from being a hotel chain just yet, and would be a very specialist one even if the balance went that way. There is a lot of opportunity for packaging the hotel and tickets to attractions for the family market. I can see such opportunities in many places, there are plenty of cities with multiple MERL attractions (now or planned) where finding a hotel designed for families first and foremost is probably currently impossible. Just a thought!]Anyway, getting carried away as usual, there are many other aspects to MERL, most of which I have covered below. Please do chip in if you think we've missed any. I'm trying to catch up on a busy summer at the moment and may well have fallen behind.
sound money
09 Aug 2017
Re: Dividend Announcement Well m8 for what it's worth I rate you higher than Liberum or Peel Hunt, I know it's not much of a compliment but there you are.Running the slide over this, you have got me interested.M
Eadwig
09 Aug 2017
Dividend Announcement 2.4pps interim ex-div 17 Aug payment late September.I have only scanned the trading statement so far, but all looks like it is on track, with losses due to terrorist attacks covered by out-performance elsewhere as the business continues to diversify.I managed to get my 465p entry for tranche 2 (shown below), as the pattern of lower lows and higher highs has continued to play out, although not for the reasons I had anticipated. STRONG BUY because its still near that point, which may be an excellent entry point for anyone looking to build a position or add to an existing one.Analysts continue to favour Merlin. I doubt I'll now get @440p for tranche 3 unless the whole market slips this Autumn ( far from beyond the bounds of possibility ).4 Aug 17 Peel Hunt today upgrades its investment rating on Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) to buy (from hold) and raised its price target to 530p (from 450p).I don't really rate Peel Hunt in terms of moving the market, and Liberum initiating coverage is a pain. The less analysts covering a growth company the better, as a rule. I don't rate Liberum at all in terms of moving market or their analyses - although I'm mostly aware of them due to mining stocks on which they are terrible. They may have good areas, I've just never seen them (I doubt they rate me either!).5 July 17 Liberum Capital today initiates coverage of Merlin Entertainments PLC (LON:MERL) with a hold investment rating and price target of 515p.I expect several more analyst updates over the next weeks into Autumn, have we seen the latest low? There could still yet be a drop away after this trading statement. I have a limit order for @445p set for my next buy. We'll see how that goes, but I imagine I will take @450p if I see it. leaving a single tranche for that market correction when it finally comes.
Hardboy
27 Jul 2017
Re: Madame Tussauds I wouldn't mind, if on a hot day, they gave away free ice creams to punters as they left. It would be a nice touch that adds to the experience, and one they are likely to remember.But if they're giving away free ice cream to Joe Public, that does sound silly. Unless they had a big batch which was close to the sell by date - if so at least they get some good PR.
FUNKY_SAUSAGE
27 Jul 2017
Re: Madame Tussauds There is no charge to him they let him work and split the money ... how does that make financial sense i dont know ... someone shoukd raise this issue at the GM
