Juniors up 47% for 2015

August 5, 2015 by

Lasco Manufacturing's bottling line. The company's stock has a bid at $2 to buy, well ahead of the last price of $1.71.

Lasco Manufacturing’s bottling line. Lasco’s stock had a bid at $2, well ahead of the last price of $1.71.

The JSE junior market has gained 47 percent this year when the market added 8.90 points on Wednesday, continuing its relentless ride to higher heights to close at 1,011.65 points. As profit results for a number of junior market companies are released, especially those with positive results, the chronic shortage of stocks being sold continue the impede price movements.
At the close, Access Financial had little supply with the offer to sell 5,134 shares at $25.50 against a last sale price of $19, while Blue Power has only 2,000 shares on offer at $13.05. Lasco Manufacturing has a bid at $2 to buy 12,147 units, well ahead of the last price of $1.71, but the offer is for only 10,000 units at $2.50.
One technical indicator shows potential resistance around the present level, with 8 junior market stocks having bids above the last traded prices particularly that of Lasco Manufacturing with a large capital base and only 2 with lower offers, the market should clear the resistance level decisively, with the junior market heading to 1,200 points before a major resistance develops again.
In actual trading on Wednesday, only 5 securities changed hands with 2 rising and 1 declining resulting in 172,196 units valued at $540,274.
At the close, the junior market had 5 securities closed with no bids to buy, while 8 had no stocks being offered for sale.
Stocks trading are, Access Financial closed at $19 but with 4,234 units changing hands, the company had previously released results for the six months to June showing a 71 percent gain in the quarter resulting in profit of $112.5 million versus $65.6 million and for the six months $252 million, compared with $145 million previously. Lasco Distributors traded 1,400 shares to close at $1.76, with a loss of 4 cents, Lasco Financial Services traded 121,700 units to close at $2. Lasco Manufacturing with just 10,313 units changing hands, gained 7 cents to close at $1.71, for a new 52 week’s high and Paramount Trading ended with 34,549 shares changing hands with a gain of 25 cents to end at $5.75.

Filed Under: JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , ,

Profit drops at Blue Power

June 29, 2015 by

BluePower150x150Sales for the Blue Power to April this year increased from $1.046 billion to $1.06 billion, with both divisions showing improvement. Lumber Depot division moved from sales of $728 million to $735 million while the Blue Power division improved from $318 million to $325 million.
While revenues were flat administrative cost climbed 16 percent or $22 million to $157 million, helping to push profits down for the full year.
Profits for the financial year stood at $71 million before tax with the Lumber Depot division contributing $26 million and the Blue Power division adding $45 million in 2014 profit was $93 million. The company produced only $7 million in profit in the final fiscal quarter compared to $12.4 million in the January quarter from slightly less sales in the fourth quarter. After providing for corporate taxes $654,000 were profit for the year ended at $70 million as the company became liable to tax after completing five years on the Junior Market in the third week of April compared to net profit for the previous year of $93 million. Earnings per share ended at $1.24.
The company that will meet shortly to consider a dividend has cash of $166 million on and as of April with cash generated from operations being $55 million compared to just $13 million in the prior year.
The stock which is priced at $9.50 on the junior market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange may be fully priced currently.

Filed Under: Company News, Company Results Tagged With:

Access now 1,000% of IPO price

May 18, 2015 by

General Accident closed at 52 weeks high on Monday but the company reported a decline of 74% in profits to hit $26m in Q1.

General Accident closed at 52 weeks high on Monday but the company reported a decline of 74% in profits to hit $26m in Q1.

The Junior market closed at a new record to start off the week with 13 securities trading, with the price of stocks advancing and declining and closing at 52 weeks’ high. the most for some time, and ended with 1,683,746 units changing hands valued at $22,509,881 with Access Financial accounting for the bulk of the trade with Mayberry Investments selling 1,257,938 at a new high of $18, valued $21,452,426.
In closing at $18, Access is back at the IPO price before a ten for 1 spilt putting at the equivalent of $180 had the split not take place no other stock has performed so well on the Jamaica stock market in recent time. The stock was issued at $18 per share, making those who held on to see a 900 percent gain on their investment, plus dividends to add to the gains and the company is yet to stop growing.
The JSE Junior Market Index gained 4.60 points to close at a new all-time high of 896.80 and with 3 stocks closing at 52 weeks’ high. At the close of the market, there were 5 stocks with bids higher than their last selling prices and only 1 with a lower offer. The junior market ended with 3 securities closing with no bids to buy and 11 securities that had no stocks being offered for sale.
Other stocks trading in the junior market are, AMG Packaging ending with 27,885 shares changing hands ,to close at $3.25, Blue Power Group closed with 979 shares trading at $9.80, Caribbean Cream finished with 100,000 units to close at $1.20, Caribbean Producers with 32,000 shares trading, closed lower by 3 cents at $3.07. Consolidated Bakeries had 2,429 shares changing hands at $1, Dolphin Cove traded 3,525 shares with the price rising 27 cents, to a 52 weeks’ high of $11.02. <a href="http://icinsider.com/profit-up-at-general-accident-but-just/" title="Profit up at JM 18-5-15General Accident but just”>General Accident Insurance concluded trading with 25,400 shares changing hands to close 10 cents higher at a 52 weeks’ high of $2.18, Honey Bun ended trading with 4,586 shares to end with a rise of 1 cent at $2.51. Jamaican Teas traded 194,500 at $3, Lasco Distributors traded 1,100 shares unchanged at $1.65, Lasco Financial Services finished trading with 15,000 units, the price remained at $1.31 and there was dealing in 18,304 Lasco Manufacturing’s shares as the stock traded lower by 5 cents at $1.40.

Filed Under: Feature Stories, JSE Junior Market, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sagicor & JMMB active insider trades

March 27, 2015 by

A number of insider trades in JMMB shares occurred in March

A number of insider trades in JMMB shares occurred in March

Insiders were active, in buying stocks they are connected to in March with Sagicor Group and Jamaica Money Market Brokers (JMMB) insiders being pretty active in trading their company’s shares. While Sagicor insiders, were buying the stock, JMMB connected parties were mostly sellers. For the various companies reporting inside trades, insiders were mainly buyers but there were a few sale of stocks, of the companies to which they are connected.
A series of listed companies released information to the Jamaica Stock Exchange about each trade that took place in 2015 recently. Connected parties at Jamaica Broilers sold a total of 10,236,510 shares on January 28 and February 12. Sagicor Group had a senior manager purchasing 246,944 shares on March 18 and two senior managers purchased a total of 2,061,715 shares under during the period March 11 and March 16. The trades were done under the Executive Long Term Incentive of the group.
Insiders are buying into Sagicor Group's vision of the future.

Insiders are buying into Sagicor Group’s vision of the future.

A Desnoes and Geddes’ director purchased 180,000 shares between the March 4 and 18, while over at Blue Power Group a director purchased 13,000 of the company’ shares on March 10. Grace Kennedy had seven non-executive directors acquiring 69,895 shares on March 12, as part of compensation for the year 2014. Mayberry Investments’ related party purchased 100,000 shares on March 24 and another purchase by a related party for 65,000 shares was on March 13.
Pan-Jamaican Investment saw a related party purchasing 24,401,900 shares on March 6.
There were only a few sales by insiders for the various companies reporting, with Jamaica Money Market Brokers’ connected party selling 778,362 shares on March 17 and a related party selling 20,219 shares on March 16 and 211,249 on March 11. On February 24 and 25 a related party purchased 5,533,174 of the company’s shares but between March 19 and 24 a related party to a director sold 4,000,000 shares.
Scotia Group had two senior managers disposing of 53,926 shares held under the Employee Share Ownership Plan.

Filed Under: Company News, Insider Trades Tagged With: , , , , , , ,