Lombard Risk Management - Re: LRM Stream Log - Hi, this is from Shareprophets...

Hi, this is from Shareprophets site Lombard Risk Management (LRM) yesterday announced the resignation of Finance Director Paul Tuson. With no specific reason given and a replacement still to be identified, the shares traded lower on the news and now stand at 11.25p - having shed 1.25p in 24 hours. Is this a buying opportunity? Tuson has been in the role since September 2010 and was the finance ‘face’ of Lombard to the City – thus with the company’s (31st March) year-end approaching, the timing is unhelpful in this regard. However, the announcement noted that “Mr. Tuson will remain with the company for up to three months to ensure an orderly handover of responsibilities” and I understand there is a strong finance function, led by a Head of Finance, which does the number-crunching and should ensure that there is no disruption to the financial reporting. As such, this looks more of a presentational rather than serious operational issue. The shares are now back below the price at which Tom & I tipped them on our Nifty Fifty site. We note other directors having been buying shares at price s well above today’s level in recent months. Earnings in the year set to start in a few weeks should come in at 2p. The rating is thus far too low for a company with a string balance sheet and which is very much a growth stock. At up to 14p, with an initial target price of 20p, we continue to rate the shares a buy.