Shares in specialist services provider to the pharmaceutical industry Ergomed (ERGO:AIM) jumped 11% to £11.80 on Tuesday after the company said 2021 profit would be ahead of analysts’ forecasts. The company said ‘excellent’ trading across both Pharmacovigilance and Clinical Research Organisation businesses in the first half had continued through to the year ended in December, resulting ...

Investors who want to tap into the rich seam of UK small cap opportunities will struggle to find a more passionate advocate than Georgina Brittain. The seasoned fund manager has been running the JPMorgan UK Smaller Companies Investment Trust (JMI) since 1998, and alongside co-manager Katen Patel since 2017. The smaller companies space has always struggled for analyst coverage yet the ...

BlackRock Throgmorton (THRG) 916.59p Gain to date: 30.4% Original entry point: Buy at 702.79p, 26 November 2020 Our call to buy investment trust BlackRock Throgmorton (THRG) for its focus on quality companies which had been sold off in the initial value rally has proved a canny trade. The portfolio is dominated by small and mid-cap names which have performed strongly in the interim. A ...

Shares in specialty pharmaceutical services company Ergomed (ERGO:AIM) traded 6% higher on Tuesday to 730p after the board said it was exploring ways to make shareholder distributions through restarting dividends or buying back shares. First-half revenues to 30 June 2020 grew 14% to £40.4 million, driven by 26% growth in service fee revenues to £36.9 million. Margins increased as a result of ...

UK stocks opened higher on Tuesday after European leaders agreed to a massive regional stimulus deal, sending the FTSE 100 up 0.45% to 6,289.75. Mining titan BHP (BHP) fell 1.2% to £17.76 despite meeting full year production guidance for iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper, as petroleum production fell marginally below guidance following the impact of COVID-19 in the June 2020 ...

FTSE surged 2% higher on Monday to 5,932 and oil prices hit a five-week high as countries opening up from lockdown spurred markets higher. Oil and mining shares led the FTSE 100 with Royal Dutch (RDSB) and BP (BP.) around 5% higher. Overnight data from Japan confirmed the world’s third largest economy slipped into recession in the first quarter, but investors focused on the prospect that ...

Three of the best performing shares over the last three months are healthcare companies. All of them are at the leading edge, developing testing kits, therapies and vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Realistically, developing a vaccine will likely take at least 12 months, and so the immediate priority has been to test as many people as possible alongside isolating those with the ...

As the UK continues to step lightly through the coronavirus pandemic’s social distancing minefield, many investors have turned their back on the small cap space. This is a mistake. We can understand why small caps might not appeal to everyone at the moment, given this space can include unproven business models and fragile balance sheets. It can also be harder to sell small cap shares when ...

Clinical research services firm Ergomed (ERGO:AIM) released a trading update for the year ended 31 December 2019 saying that a strong focus on profitability will result in earnings being ahead of market expectations, giving the shares a 4.7% boost to 450p. The shares have been on a tear over the last year, rising 149% as the company has returned to profitability. Executive chairman Dr ...

ERGOMED (ERGO:AIM) 177.3p STOPPED OUT Original entry point:  Buy at 227p, 24 May 2018   Pharmaceutical services specialist Ergomed (ERGO:AIM) has crashed out of our Great Ideas portfolio after various delays hit sales. In a trading update on 28 June, Ergomed revealed delays and reduced scope for the size of certain contracts, meaning 2018 revenue would be approximately 5% lower ...

A company which provides important services to pharmaceutical companies has the potential to become a much bigger name in the future, thanks to the way the drugs industry is going. Ergomed (ERGO:AIM) may only be worth £102m at the moment, yet a recent strategy shift places the company in a much stronger position and analysts certainly believe earnings are going to explode over the coming ...

Have you ever wondered how a fund manager picks a stock? Some investment trusts and funds run screens on equity valuations, income statements and balance sheets. Others may place greater emphasis on meeting management and deciding whether they like the story or not. Occasionally you find an asset manager which sticks out from the crowd such as GVQ Investment Management which runs small ...

Small to mid cap broker N+1 Singer has published its top picks for the second half of 2015, highlighting 15 stocks that it believes should outperform in the run up to Christmas. While investors should treat the list as ideas to research further, and definitely not investment advice, there is certainly merit in studying N+1 Singer's list given that its first-half portfolio of 'best ideas' beat ...

Eagle Eye (EYE:AIM) 165p AIM is littered with strugglers chasing the mobile commerce dream but Eagle Eye is off to a decent start. SMS marketing and vouchers space has potential, but this is also high-risk territory. Earthport (EPO:AIM) 45.25p New management is key to ending years of failure and cash calls. Making rapid progress to promised global platform for medium-sized cross-border ...

UK market nudge higher as marginally better-than-expected growth figures from China offset global growth target cuts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Washington-based lender now sees the world's economy expanding at 3.5% in 2015, down from the 3.8% pace projected in October. UK Banking group Barclays (BARC) leads the FTSE 100 higher in early trade Tuesday, with Britain's blue-chip ...