gretel
28 Dec 2016
Jefferies positive on NCC [link] backs NCC despite downgradesIT and support services group NCC (NCC) has significantly downgraded its 2017 guidance but Jefferies says the dynamics of the firm ‘still remain attractive’.Analyst Milan Radia retailed his ‘buy’ recommendation but reduced the target price from 320p to 270p. The shares fell 7.1% to 190.2p yesterday.‘NCC’s H1 2017 estimated trading update to end of November seeks to provide the quantifications that the market was seeking at the time of the October profit warning,’ said Radia.‘Revenue growth remains strong – indeed, we are upgrading full-year 2017 estimated revenue by 2% - but profitability has been considerably impacted by the loss of particularly high-margin contracts. Critically there are no structural issues here and cyber sector dynamics remain attractive.’He added that overall the trading performance ‘remains solid’ and ‘headline revenue growth was 35%’"
stocklobster
15 Dec 2016
Small mercies I'm just thankful I don't own the CFP SDL UK Buffettology as well as NCC...
paul1945
14 Dec 2016
Director buying Large dir. buying
II Editor
13 Dec 2016
NEW ARTICLE: NCC slumps to two-year low " An October profits warning set the scene for LSE:NCC:NCC's first half, with major contract challenges burning a hole in its profits pot. The cyber security group has just released a detailed trading update and the shares have tanked again, ..."[link]
II Editor
13 Dec 2016
NEW ARTICLE: Share of the week: Profit from adversity "The sun finally came out this week and hundreds of smiling City workers fought over the tiny patch of grass outside our offices. And it seems most traders used Friday's US non-farm payrolls as an excuse to sit things out this week, leaving the ..."[link]
gretel
12 Dec 2016
Tipped by fund manager for 2017 A fund manager at the CFP SDL UK Buffettology (GB00BKJ9C676) fund tips NCC for 2017:[link] "He also likes FTSE 250 cyber security and technology company NCC (NCC), which manages highly lucrative contracts for a large swath of FTSE 100 companies. Its share price experienced a steep fall following an October trading statement in which the group revealed three of its large contracts had been cancelled. But according to Mr Ashworth-Lord, the market in which it operates has high barriers to entry and the company remains on a compelling valuation. NCC's shares lost almost half of their value between 19 October 2016 and the end of the month, and are now trading at around 190p. But Mr Ashworth-Lord says the issues were inherited through acquired businesses, while its core operation is solid."Group revenues had increased by 36 per cent (over the four months to September 2016) with organic growth of 21 per cent," he says. "The business is divided into two parts, an escrow division and an assurance division, and those showed organic growth of 25 and 4 per cent respectively. The underlying business is fine, but even if it doesn't manage to turn around those problems, it could be a sitting duck for an American takeover, given where the dollar is sitting against the pound. NCC is on about 16 times historic earnings and has a yield of around 2.5 per cent."
gretel
07 Dec 2016
Turning upwards now Looks like a base has been reached, or a seller is now out.This presentation in Parliament from 2 days ago is indicative of NCC's reach and influence:[link] Metcalfe, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, attended a reception in Parliament hosted by cyber security expert NCC Group, to discuss the importance of cyber security and how to stay safe online.NCC Group is a trusted advisor to more than 15,000 clients worldwide and provides cyber security and risk mitigation services to critical national infrastructure suppliers, as well as Government departments.It also provided the cyber expertise for the recent Channel 4 programme Hunted, in which a group of volunteer "fugitives" went on the run to explore themes of online privacy and security.Following the publication of the Government's own cyber security strategy, Mr Metcalfe was given a demonstration of the work NCC Group currently carries out. He also discussed the present cyber landscape and the current challenges facing central and local government in keeping the public safe.As part of the event, NCC Group conducted an 'open source intelligence' demonstration and its team of experts were able to provide a profile of a number of the attendees by collating and triangulating information that was in the public domain. This is often the first step for cyber criminals to target individuals in phishing emails. etc"
pasak
05 Dec 2016
Montanaro and now Hambro buying NCC post sell off What Investment - 5/12/16: Mark Costar, who runs the JO Hambro UK Growth fund, has been buying shares in UK Tech stock NCC Group as the shares have fallen by a third in a year. The JO Hambro UK Growth fund has returned 83 per cent over the past five years, compared to 59 per cent for the average fund in the IA UK All Companies sector in the same time period. NCC Group’s shares have fallen from £284.50 to £1.88 over the past year. The bulk of that fall came on October 19, when the company delivered a disappointing update to the market. Costar commented, ‘A confluence of contract delays, all unrelated but nevertheless unwelcome, was not taken too kindly by the market given the recent strong performance of the shares and the attendant expectations that had started to be built into the price. As frustrating as this was, now the dust has settled it is very much our view that the shares have appreciably overreacted and we have added considerably to our position.’ He continued, ‘NCC is the one of the largest, if the not the largest, independent cybersecurity consultants in the world. Cybersecurity has gone from being an IT decision to a boardroom decision and is exhibiting enormous underlying growth. NCC has world class capabilities in ethical hacking, threat detection and analytics, not to mention an enviable position in automotive cybersecurity, where it works with more than 90% of the global car manufacturers. As such, the business has considerable strategic value. Moreover, with a strong balance sheet, a cash generative core in its escrow business, and run by a proven management team that has a long-term approach and owns considerable equity in the business, we believe the business has a tremendous future. At this valuation, we believe the shares are materially mispricing these attributes and have acted accordingly.’
gretel
24 Nov 2016
RNS : Montanaro increase their stake Montanaro Asset Management have bought almost 800,000 shares - they're now up above 8% with 22.7m shares:[link]
pasak
18 Nov 2016
Interesting article From Recruitment International, 16th November 2016Procorre highlights 2017 cyber security hotspots"... France, Australia and the UAE will become the next big cyber security ‘hotspots’ for businesses and contractors working to combat the rise and evolution of cyber-crime, according to Procorre.Procorre, which manages the life cycle of cyber security projects around the world, has been tracking levels of government investment in ‘cyber hubs’ and the introduction of national cyber strategies in order to advise a growing number of clients and consultants on where to find the best project opportunities.The consultancy has found that between France, Australia and the UAE, more than $3 billion is being invested in cyber security over the next three-four years, cementing their governments’ commitment to tackling global cyber-crime.Wiktor Podgorski, head of the relationship management team at Procorre, said, “With an increasing number of high profile data security breaches regularly making the headlines, it is clear that cyber-attacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated, forcing businesses to invest considerable resources to protect themselves and their customers. This means demand for IT companies and cyber security providers will continue to rise in these countries throughout 2017 and beyond.”Global hotspotsFrance - €1 billion has been put aside to implement the country’s new cyber security strategy over the next three years. The strategy is expected to create a ‘unified, cooperative approach to protecting government, commerce and individuals’ helping the government to establish ways of protecting its fundamental interests on the internet, guard national information and defend critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks.Australia – This year, the Turnbull government announced its cyber strategy for 2016 and beyond which aims to bring more Australian technologies to market by supporting and creating innovative domestic companies. The government will invest more than $230m over four years to enhance Australia’s cyber security capability and deliver new initiatives, complementing the $400m investment already committed in the 2016 Defence White Paper.UAE – In 2016, Dubai officially launched its $270m Future Accelerators programme designed to transform the city into an innovation hub and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is predicted to spend up to $1 billion on cyber security by 2018.Procorre is urging IT businesses to consider these three emerging markets when looking at places to start or expand their operations.Podgorski commented, “Companies like the NCC Group which has its headquarters in Manchester, UK, has chosen to continue its international expansion in Dubai because of the prevalence and pace of its evolving IT sector, and we’re seeing other big companies investing in these emerging markets too. There will be many other companies across the globe thinking about their next move so it’s important for them to consider these burgeoning hotspots.”However, Procorre is warning that with increasing levels of investment and a higher number of companies starting or expanding in countries like France, Australia and Dubai, there won’t be enough specialist consultants to meet demand."The demand for cyber skills is expected to outstrip supply by a third before the end of the decade, but we need to make sure the skills shortage doesn’t reach a critical point. As certain countries invest heavily in their cyber security industries there will be a plethora of new roles available for consultants but not always the resources required.”Despite this, the buoyant cyber security market is expected to continue growing globally from $75 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020, further boosted by the £1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy recently announced in the UK.
gretel
10 Nov 2016
Trump win good news for NCC [link] Cotton , chief executive of Manchester-based cyber security firm NCC, which has 30 offices globally, said Trump would likely become a "champion" of their cause.The election spelled a ˜period of change", he said, adding: As a self-professed advocate for business and a President that promises to put the US first, Donald Trump will very quickly understand the escalating threat from cyber and will likely become a champion of it."
gretel
08 Nov 2016
New contract win [link] Registries provides threat monitoring and alert system for top-level domainsNovember 2, 2016Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, has announced its selection of global expert in cyber security and risk mitigation, NCC Group, to provide protective abuse monitoring services across all of Dominion's industry-specific, top-level domains. These include .Autos, .Homes and .Motorcycles. Not all domain name extensions have the same requirements for abuse monitoring and prevention. However, the new domains coming out of ICANN's (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) most recent generic top-level domain program have stricter requirements than most legacy domains. For example, anyone can register a .com or .net domain name, but all registrants of Dominion's new top-level domain names are validated to ensure they meet industry-specific eligibility requirements.In addition to registrant validation, Dominion is going a step further with continuous monitoring to identify and prevent abuse within its domains.NCC Group's Domain Assured solution provides Dominion with a complete picture of the threat landscape of its domains."
gretel
01 Nov 2016
Drop well overdone imho The latest forecasts, all post the latest trading update, are as follows N+1 Singer : this year 12.64p EPS, 5.12p divi, next year 14.6p EPS, 5.63p divi Shore Capital : this year 10.2p EPS, 5.2p divi, next year 12.6p EPS, 5.7p divi Cannaccord : this year 10.8p EPS, 5.1p divi, next year 13.4p EPS, 5.6p diviThis puts NCC on a current year P/E of 15 to 19, dropping to 13 to 16 next year (assuming H2 goes as NCC expect with no further glitches).Even the divi yield looks useful now!IMO in the next 2-3 years NCC's share price could go anywhere from back up to 350p to say 500p-700p. Whether it goes down a few more pence from here is pretty immaterial - this is a quality company in a huge growth sector which has had some one-off glitches and will recover. Unless it gets taken over first.
stocklobster
31 Oct 2016
Re: RNS Think it might be fair to say i could have waited a few days to top up...
stocklobster
25 Oct 2016
Re: RNS Sage,They did hence the RNS. They now hold 5.18 up from 5SL
