kapita
02 Feb 2017
Re: Reason for today's rise? It seems to provide continually rising dividends, which in turn support a rising share price, although it is going up and down all the time it seems to be on a slow but sure rise. I believe it recently joined a portfolio of British shares that are similar to those collected by the American investor Warren Buffett. No doubt it will eventually be taken over, who knows
Rhigos
02 Feb 2017
Reason for today's rise? Did a search on the Internet but could not see any news to explain today's rise of over 2%. SP shot up around 14
5. XPP proven to be one of my good share picks. Sorry now I made only a smallish purchase around 1/2 my normal value. Since buying in Sep 2016 SP up around 9%. I picked XPP based on following filter:Yield 3.5% to 8%, covered 1.3 to 20 times, forecast yield 4% to 9% Gearing <100Total return in last 6 months >2.5%ROE > 10%XPP does not meet all these criteria now but did in September last year.
sharegardener
14 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update Hi all,XP doing well all told with strong 4Q. SP looks more expensive after the recent rises but their growth model looks solid.revenues up this year by 7% and the EMCO acquisition from Nov 15 should be making a contribution. If anything, the divi has been rising at a faster rate than cashflow but they are paying back the loan for the acquisition.From 2015 Ann Report:''In order to finance the acquisition of EMCO, the Group took out a US$12.0 million term debt facility with Bank of Scotland PLC. The facility is repayable in equal quarterly instalments of US$1.7 million commencing in June 2016 and ending in December 2017. The facility is priced at LIBOR plus a margin of 0.95%. In September 2015 the Group renewed its annual working capital facility at a level of US$12.5 million (2014: US$15.0 million). This facility stepped down to US$10.0 million from 1 January 2016, then reduces to US$7.5 million from 1 April 2016 and to US$5.0 million from 1 July 2016. Interest chargeable under this facility is priced at the Bank of England base rate plus a margin of 1.5%.''also ''The Group owns 84.0% (2014: 84.0%) of the shares of Powersolve Electronics Limited (“Powersolve”
and had entered into an agreement on 19 December 2011 to purchase the remaining 16.0% of the shares in 2017. The commitment to purchase the remaining ownership interest has been accounted for as deferred consideration and is calculated based on the expected future payment which will be based on a predefined multiple of the earnings for the three years ending 2016.''Forex impact:''The Group uses forward currency contracts to convert Euro long positions to cover the US Dollar short positions in its parent company. The Group also uses forward currency contracts to hedge GBP liability on its parent company books. The Group had £11.3 million of forward currency contracts outstanding at 31 December 2015 (2014: £12.4 million).''''The Group does not hedge any translation of its subsidiaries’ results to Sterling for reporting purposes.''More in note 22 of the accounts (15AR)This years finals should be out late Feb and will quantify the currency & loan costs. Hopefully the loans and repayments are in USD without conversion to GBP and back! SG
PIE-EATER
14 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update PharmaAgree with your comments re XP (but beg to differ re Richard Beddard - somehow just doesn't inspire me. Wouldn't do for us all to be the same!)GLA PE
PIE-EATER
14 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update Health,Thanks for your thoughts.I think your comments prove my point / my uncertainty.The sterling increase was 18%If there had been no sterling increase it would have been 7%Therefore 11% is attributable to currency.BUT, the sterling / dollar rate has changed by16% over the timeframe so some of the dollar benefit has been lost (16 -11%). I know there could have been various hedges, I know that the strengthening dollar will increased £ profits, but my comment was that a 10% fall in the pound against the dollar won't impact profits by about 10%. and so that is more muted than might at first sight seem likely.GLAPE
pharmaspecialist
14 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update I agree with the positive tone of these comments about XP's progress. I tend to assign greatest importance to a company's fundamental qualities, though of course the current trading performance is also important. I think XP scores heavily on fundamentals. There are very few companies in its sector which can boast an apparently sustainable return on capital employed of around 25% (please let me know if you know of others) so, notwithstanding currency windfall effects, this should help the company continue to grow by reinvesting its profits. As a conservative investor I also like the low level of debt which, speaking from memory, is around one third of the annual net profit. Further confidence is gained by the fact that Richard Beddard (whose opinions I respect greatly) has now included XP in his Share Sleuth portfolio.
Health Observer
13 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update Below is an extract from the trading update todayRevenues for the twelve months ended 31 December 2016 were £129.8 million, an increase of 18% over 2015, or 7% in constant currency.They buy in dollars and sell in dollars..........they qualified this in a previous statementSo you can see that the real increase is 7% and the sterling value is 18%. Therefore we as shareholders benefit from the dollar appreciation Does that answer your question?
PIE-EATER
13 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update Health ObserverForgive me as having a bit of a mental meltdown at the minute......Are the dollar translational benefits not a bit muted for XP?The reason I ask (and here is the mental meltdown bit)..if memory serves manufacturing takes place in China / Vietnam????? So we have the Chinese / Vietnamese currency vs Dollar one way and then dollar vs sterling for the next stage? If the dollar is the strongest of those currencies then there will be potential loss from manufacturing to sales, but gain from sales to translational profits.....or am I overthinking it ??? (Please say yes to the last bit so I can go and open a bottle and start the weekend! )PE
Health Observer
13 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update I agree with the comments and am probably a bit more optimistic due to the following- opportunities to be squeezed from the last acquisition in America- operating margins at 22%- dollar translational benefits- continued momentum which seems to be ramping upFor me this is a buy and hold with steady capital gains, decent sustainable dividends and the possibility a significant gain through a takeo
PIE-EATER
13 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update GamesI know what you mean...borderline hold / buy, which is why I have it a weak buy. The fact that they are designing and making the stuff themselves for high end spec products gives me the confidence /hope to say weak buy. The key thing for me is the GROWING momentum of the orders and the info given on that at year end. IF, and I do mean IF, the BOD re-iterate that growing momentum when the results are published then there could be a significant uptick. Lets not forget the PE is only of the order of 17 / 18 and the divi yield 3.7%ish. Decent return on equity at the minute as well. Those are fairly steady figures for a company which is moving forward with established profits and the orders potentially entering a growth phase.I dipped a toe in a while ago via Mrs Pies ISA, have powder dry to double holding if updates are as hoped....or if markets start to pull back significantly (which is also likely given the progress of the last month)GLAPE
gamesinvestor
13 Jan 2017
Re: Decent trading update Pie - it looks a tad expensive.However it has a lot going for it like minimal to no debt, high margins and ROCE.Games - undecided on this one at this price
PIE-EATER
13 Jan 2017
Decent trading update The key thing for me is the apparent increasing (not just increased) strength of orders.Will wait to see final results / report before deciding whether should be strong buy.PE
II Editor
23 Dec 2016
NEW ARTICLE: How the Share Sleuth portfolio almost tripled "As the year draws to a close, it's tempting to look back and assess what went well, and what went badly. The easy thing to do would be to look at share prices, and the value of the model Share Sleuth portfolio I run, what went up and what went ..."[link]
II Editor
21 Nov 2016
NEW ARTICLE: Why Share Sleuth just sold Rolls-Royce "In comes LSE:XPP:XP Power, out goes LSE:RR.:Rolls-Royce. It's the will of the Decision Engine.Every month we publish the top 20 shares ranked by the Decision Engine. Unusually, for a ranking system, the Decision Engine incorporates qualitative ..."[link]
II Editor
11 Nov 2016
NEW ARTICLE: A 'very good' company to buy and hold "LSE:XPP:XP Power is a very good company that should be a good "buy and hold" investment.You won't find XP's power convertors in your computer, or other consumer electronic. They do the same job, converting high-voltage electricity from the mains ..."[link]
