Taking Stock on Tuesday 5th December 2023
If cash is King, then this small cap is British Royalty
Oxford Metrics #OMG
Market Cap = £118.68
Cash = £64.8m
Roughly 55% of their market cap is cash.
Companies discussed on “Taking Stock” today:
02:50 & 19:59 BT Group #BT.A
04:30 Barratt Developments #BDEV
09:50 Oxford Metrics #OMG
12:29 Water Intelligence #WATR
15:57 & 20:25 Premier Miton #PMI
21:20 Fintel #FNTL
23:05 Diversified Energy #DEC
23:28 Valrix #VAL
24:10 Helium One Global #HE1
24:25 Gfinity #GFIN
24:40 On the Beach #OTB
27:15 SSP Group #SSP
28:20 TinyBuild #TINY
30:10 Team17 #TM17
31:55 Quiz Plc #QUIZ
34:53 Solid State #SOLI
36:25 CML Microsystems #CML
37:30 Gooch & Housego #GHH
39:50 Velocys #VLS
40:30 Marstons #MARS
46:15 Future #FUTR
TOP BUSINESS STORIES
Britain's dominant services sector rebounds, cost burdens persist
Activity in Britain's services sector grew in November after three months of declines, a survey showed on Tuesday, but companies reported an uptick in prices charged, a potential concern for the Bank of England ahead of its interest rates decision next week.
The final UK Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 50.9 from 49.5 in October, above the 50 threshold for growth, and stronger than the 50.5 provisional estimate for November.
UK grocery inflation slows again
Market researcher Kantar said annual grocery inflation was 9.1% in the four weeks to Nov. 26, down from 9.7% in last month's report. It said grocery sales rose 6.3% year-on-year over the same period, with 28.4% of sales made on promotion, the highest in over two years.
The researcher said the average cost of a frozen turkey Christmas dinner for four with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding and sparkling wine was up 1.3% at 31.71 pounds ($40.00), with Brussels sprouts and the pudding cheaper year-on-year.
UK pub group Marston's says Christmas bookings ahead of year-ago levels
Marston's said Christmas bookings were ahead of year-ago levels after the British pub group posted a lower-than-expected jump in annual profit.
Shares in the FTSE midcap company, which operates more than 1,400 pubs and bars, fell more than 2% in early trading.
The industry is hoping to usher in customers as Britons gear up for the holiday season in a year blighted by a prolonged cost-of-living squeeze and gloomy macroeconomic outlook.
"We anticipate an improving outlook in which cost headwinds are largely abating and like-for-like sales are up over 7% since the year-end," Chair William Rucker said in a statement.
The pub chain, which has not declared a dividend since 2020, forecast 2% margin growth in the medium term after posting an underlying operating margin of 14.3% for the 2023 fiscal year.
Peel Hunt analysts wrote in a note that the company continued to "outperform the market", adding that energy costs and a significant proportion of food and drink costs were fixed for the current fiscal year.