MONKEYSO
01 Aug 2018
Closed at 202.5p today. Very cheap! Quality aim share,with prospect of capital gains and growing dividend. Also IHT qualifying. What’s not to like!
EdinburghInvestor
04 Jul 2018
Closed at 202.5p today. Very cheap! Interesting to read your take on this. I have placed lighter emphasis on technical analysis in stock picking - prefer fundamental analysis. To link the two, the moving average (red line) was weighed down earlier in the year with the change in CEO. The new appointment took the share price back to the 200 mark a few months back. The most recent peak to circa 220 was driven by their very impressive interim results. Surprised to see it retract back to the 200 mark since then - provided the opportunity to increase my holding however. Perhaps just general noise in the market (macro driven), who knows… Their P/E ratio looks phenomenal at 8.6 (13.6 TTM), and yet to see any slowdown in their earnings update. Momentum in their financials year on year has been the stand out highlight for myself. Given the interim results, they seem very well placed to show further year on year growth here to new highs. Good to see GLG Partners building a 5% stake here too in recent days. I will be sitting tight until the Nov/Dec and the year end and the 2018 results. I see great upside here given the 52 week high was 251.
Bowman
03 Jul 2018
Closed at 202.5p today. Very cheap! No, I am not adding further to my already quite large (for me) holding in WJG. It represents 3.3% of my portfolio already. wjg 1.png1074x569 91.7 KB We are still above to 200d EMA, but we are more then 15% below the most recent peak (orange line). Overall the SP seems to be moving laterally. WJG has fallen down my ranking list quite a way, and the PEG level is a bit high. I have this on my list of those to monitor with a view of reducing or selling. My first tranche was bought about 16 months ago, and I am still up 33% (excluding dividends), so I am reasonably happy with the performance.
EdinburghInvestor
03 Jul 2018
Closed at 202.5p today. Very cheap! Surprised that the share price has retracted back to 202.5 today. It was at this level a month or so ago prior to their very impressive interim results. I have dipped back in again today, couldn’t resist at this level. Given their strong year on year trading performance, and off the back of their very impressive interim results last month this stock is looking in great shape before the year end in September. Broker forecasts have this stock at 240p. Anyone else been dipping their toe in here?
EdinburghInvestor
03 Jul 2018
Deep value here Interested to hear where you see the ‘deep value’ based on Current Assets Vs Liabilities. Pretty common given the nature of the business, current assets would be higher to reflect higher Inventory with regards to WIP? I see plenty of value as well in terms of recent trends in underlying EBITDA performance and the build to rent initiative although difficult to tell how much weight this would actually carry going forward. I worry about the student accommodation market becoming saturated long term. Don’t see much scope for an improving dividend. A solid investment thus far however.
lawdoc
05 Jun 2018
Deep value here Took an initial position here yesterday at 220p. What attracted me was their balance sheet. Current Assets far exceeded Total Liabilities which is rare. There is deep value here.Pity the SP went down after I purchased; rather questions my timing. Nevertheless, I'm confident this will come good. Telford homes are doing well with their Buy-to-Rent strategy in London and WJG are also focusing on the Build-to-Rent sector too which is increasingly looking attractive as so many cannot afford to but their own home.
gretel
03 Jun 2018
Aberdeenshire project "progressing well" Encouraging:[link] developments are progressing for Superscheme Limited, part of the Watkin Jones Group. Caledon Court student accommodation, adjacent to the main RGU Campus at Garthdee, will see 199 new student beds made available with a mix of studio flats and apartments. Scheduled to complete this summer, ahead of the new university term, work is progressing well on-site with the show flat now open for viewing.A second project for the same client will see the Pittodrie Street student community grow further with development ongoing for an additional 618 beds. This project will be completed in two phases with Block B scheduled for the 2018 University year and Block A in the summer of 2019."
PIE-EATER
01 Jun 2018
Re: Large buys reported after the close Especially if you look at the trades on II at 16.35.......shows about 40 or 50 of that sort of size at 16.35....somebody buying the whole company? PEjust goes to show.....DONT rely on II for FACTS. (not doubting that ONE of them was for £477k)
gretel
31 May 2018
Large buys reported after the close Nice finish today, presumably partly due to the £477,000 buy at 218.5p reported after the close.Hopefully bodes well for tomorrow too.
PIE-EATER
31 May 2018
Re: an alternative view Which is why they have started to look at the BTL opportunities for building. The management of student rooms is a "side line".....compensation for cancelled contracts is being received.There will be an increasing number of BTL opportunities as others beyond L&G etc come into the market. I was aware of the tail off of student accommodation and was thinking of possibly taking profits but their expansion into BTL is timely and so continue to hold. Would I buy? Yes on market weakness - I might top up say 10% around the 180p mark assuming it is general weakness and not company specific weakness due to bad news.Can't disagree with macro caution which is why I am not re-investing any divis from any of our holdings and have a leveraged short ETF for the FTSE 100 as an insurance. (Don't have spread betting account and not good enough to use one) Have also top sliced some funds.
swisspaul
30 May 2018
an alternative view from adam on another boardSold my small holding this morning; roughly doubled my money on them so a decent return. Reason for exiting is that I see the valuation as being fully up with events particularly given that the risk around earnings growth seems to have increased due to: - student accomm delivery pipeline slipping and somewhat buried in the detail - now talking about 2723 beds in FY19 whereas at this point last year they said it would be 3545 - will now manage 14821 beds in 18/19 down from the 16,185 at the start of the year (impacted by the sale by the owners of the property, but still hits SJG's recurring earnings) - now contracted to manage 17053 by FY21 whereas before they were contracted for 19,532 by FY20 - the BTR risk flagged above I'm also in the process of de-risking and holding greater % of cash or near-cash investments given my macro views, but felt like WJG is now fully up with events given the above risks to the downside. All the best for those who continue to hold. AdamThoughts?
PIE-EATER
30 May 2018
Re: RNS: Woodford buying and above 14% Is it?Most other funds yes, but Woodford at 14%....I think I will reserve judgement if you don’t mind? I need to check the likes of Evenlode to see if they have taken an interest......Hugh Yarrow seems to be the new Woodie IMHO as he seems to be far more “dependable” and risk aware like Woodie used to be.Moved the Woodford stuff to Evenlode and haven’t been disappointed.
PIE-EATER
30 May 2018
Re: Jefferies have Buy and 250p target Claud,Yes, I think you are missing the point (if I have interpreted your question correctly)L&G and M&G in London with Telford want to basically OWN a development of BTL and run it in the same way as they would any of their property portfolios. This has been the case for many years - certainly 10 years in M&Gs case but there was no real proven mechanism for doing it. They are content to pay in instalments for a bespoke set up.... (look at TEFs results and report) and invest in the long term nature of property....or sell the whole development on, much the same as they would with an office block or shopping centre. The key difference is that office blocks, retail etc have uncertainties which the short supply in housing hasn’t got, meaning there is a much more dependable market from renters. Just look at how much BTL. / social housing etc is in the news of late for various funds and builders....TEF, WJG, PRS REIT, CIVITAS ETC ETC. It’s a dependable diversifier.WJG are basically builders with a management arm on the side. They don’t want to OWN the property and so tie up capital. They are happy to build student accommodation, or BTL for that matter, and to manage the properties for a suitable fee....this effectively keeps their capital requirements way down in either situation. It also gives them much greater clarity of cash flows than just being a “house builder”. Currently both TEF and WJG have clarity of forward sold developments for the next 2-3 years. They don’t have to have marketing suites for these and sell in ones or twos, they sell 80, 160, 320 at a time.
gretel
30 May 2018
RNS: Woodford buying and above 14% Good to see Woodford buying more and increasing above 14% with 35.8m shares:[link]
gretel
25 May 2018
Tipped by Simon Thompson in the IC Here's Simon Thompson's tip in full FYI:"Watkin Jones (WJG:213.5p), a construction company specialising in purpose-built student and private rented sector (PRS) accommodation, has made a raft of important announcements.Firstly, the company has appointed Richard Simpson, the property director of Unite (UTG:854p), the FTSE 250 manager of purpose- built student accommodation, as new chief executive. It’s a real coup and he is an able successor to Mark Watkin Jones who will be stepping down from the position at the year-end. His family still retain a hefty 27.6 per cent stake in the company, having floated the shares at 100p when I first suggested buying in ('A profitable education', 3 Apr 2016).Secondly, the company has entered into a development arrangement with M&G and Lochailort to deliver a 315 apartment build-to-rent (BTR) scheme in Reading. Fully funded by the new investors, works start shortly on the £68.5m project and completion is slated for 2021. Watkin Jones is targeting the delivery of 1,500 new BTR units across five schemes by 2023, and has several more in negotiation, to take advantage of increasing demand for an asset class offering net initial yields of around 3.8 per cent, and prospects of rental growth, to pension funds and institutional investors. Property experts estimate that the number of UK households in rental accommodation could hit 6m by 2025, representing a 100 per cent increase since 2007. The directors are now exploring the possibility of establishing a new listed vehicle (to be managed by Watkin Jones) that will acquire its BTR projects on a forward funded basis. It would take a minority stake to benefit from the investment upside, while maximising returns for its own shareholders.Thirdly, Watkin Jones has a bumper pipeline of 25 student accommodation projects with a development value in excess of £900m that will deliver 10,300 student beds by 2022. All 3,415 beds scheduled for delivery in the 12 months to the end of September 2018 have been forward sold, and so too have all bar 478 of the 2,723 beds slated for delivery the following year. Moreover, all seven sites (3,000 beds) for the 2020 financial year have been secured, and one has already been forward sold.The robust development pipeline is highly supportive of analysts’ expectations that point to the company delivering EPS of 15.4p this year, rising to over 16p in 2019, to underpin 10 per cent hikes in the dividend per share to 7.3p and 8p, respectively. Net funds more than trebled to £38.4m year on year and with cash flowing in from developments then expect a year-end figure close to £75m, or 29.5p a share. On this basis, the shares are priced on 11.5 times 2019 cash-adjusted EPS, and offer a 3.7 per cent prospective dividend yield. That’s value in my book. So, having rated them a buy at 190p ahead of the results (‘Hitting pay dirt’, 9 Apr 2018), I maintain that view and introduce a new target price of 250p. Buy."
