Shares News

For Saga (SAGA) shares to jump nearly 10% on news that half year profits have more than halved illustrates how far this company has fallen in investor estimations. The over-50s insurance and cruise-line operator floated in London five years ago at a £2.1bn valuation when it raised £550m of funding at 185p per share. It was supposed to be a safe haven play on grey pound growth ...

Specialist pharma services company Clinigen (CLIN:AIM) reported full-year gross profits in-line with the July trading statement, up 30% to £182.3m. The market pushed the shares up 1.25% to 894.5p. The company released its first formal five-year guidance for expected growth in annual organic gross profits of 5% to 10%. Chief executive Shaun Chilton said ‘we have continued our run of double ...

Productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls manufacturer Spectris (SXS) saw its share price rally 3.5% to £25.83 after agreeing the sale of its BTG business to Voith for €319m in cash. BTG designs and makes specialised measuring instruments and software used by paper industry players to improve operational performance and streamline costs. This is not seen as an attractive market for ...

One of Shares’ key selections for 2019, retail bellwether Next (NXT) has proved a stellar year-to-date performer, yet the shares fell 4.1% to £59.16 this morning on what appears to be profit-taking. Given the challenging backdrop for retailers, first half results from the clothing and homewares colossus are pretty impressive, showing sales and profits progress and with full year guidance ...

Having opened lower, London’s FTSE 100 edged 15.1 points higher to 7,329.1 on Thursday as tension mounted ahead of the Bank of England’s latest interest rate decision and after last night’s rate cut by the US Federal Reserve left investors confused. While the cut was widely expected, the market doesn’t know what to make of split views in the Fed as policymakers in the committee failed to ...

Engineering group Avingtrans (AVG:AIM) passed the £100m sales barrier and moved back into the black during a record year for the company. Revenues for the year to 31 May jumped 34% to £105.5m, up from £78.9m 12 months ago, reflecting the first full year contribution after its acquisition of electric pump and motor business Hayward Tyler. The firm also recorded a pre-tax profit of ...

Keywords Studios (KWS:AIM) reported like-for-like revenue growth of 17.3% to €153.2m in the first half to 30 June 2019, and said it was on track to meet full year profit expectations. Yet shares in the company, which provides creative services to the video games industry, fell 4% to £13.55 as investors worried about the need for profit margins to ramp up in the second half if the company is ...

Shares in motor retailer Pendragon (PDG) reversed 9.8% to a paltry 9.85p on first half results revealing an alarmingly larger lurch into the red than most anticipated. Given its hard-pressed finances, management axed the half year dividend and guided to a full year loss at the bottom of the consensus range, putting another dent in an increasingly clapped-out valuation. READ MORE ABOUT ...

Amid all the Brexit drama and the high profile bid action around London Stock Exchange (LSEG) it would be easy to miss some of the other significant recent announcements. Supermarket Morrisons (MRW) impressed the market, managing a near 5% gain above the 200p mark, as it unveiled a big bump in its first half dividend and announced an extension to its wholesale supply partnership with online ...

A mixed day for corporate reporting leaves UK markets without firm direction in early trade on Wednesday as investors weigh Government intervention in defence contractor Cobham’s (COB) planned £4bn sale with stabilised oil prices. There is also ongoing interest in what the US Federal Reserve may do with interest rates Stateside later today. Market watchers had been anticipating a cut but ...