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Pan-Jamaican Investment Trust declared a second interim dividend of $0.45 per share payable on September 20, 2013 to shareholders on record as at August 23. The ex-dividend date is August 21, 2015.
Pan Jamaican made a payment of $1.10 cents in March and forego what would have been a second payment in June. The payment to come is a reduction in the amount that is normally paid per quarter.
Related Post | Pan Jam’s profit dented too
Friday, 9th August 2013 | Cable & Wireless was the dominant stock traded on the last day of the holiday-shortened week, when buyers picked up 11.5 million units of the telecom company at 15 cents each for a total sum of $1.73 million thus cutting the supply of the stock at that price, to 12.5 million. The company should be releasing results for the June quarter by next week and this most likely will stimulate interest one way or the other.
The market closed off the week with high volume of 13.2 million shares but only because of Cable & Wireless trades as the total value for trading only amounted to $11.2 million. Stocks of 26 companies traded with 8 stocks advancing and 6 declining.
Main market trades of note | The all Jamaica Index shed 542.03 points to close at 86,348.95 and the JSE market index fell 308.06 to close at 85,906.57.
Caribbean Cement traded 23,956 shares and was up 20 cents to close at $1.59, a 52 weeks high, the bid closed at $1.61 for 258,000 units. Carreras traded 59,363 shares between $51.18 and $50.50, the stock closed off 98 cents at $50.52. Desnoes & Geddes closed 9 cents down at $4.61 as 68,250 units traded. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded 65,033 units with the last traded price of $8, but was as high as $8.45, the stock lost 20 cents. Pan Jam gained 64 cents to close at $51.75 with only 1,100 units changing hands. Sagicor Investments traded just 13,385 units to close at $16.53 down $1.47 and Seprod traded 100,000 to close firm at $14.75. Jamaica Money Market Brokers 8.5 percent preference shares traded 400 shares at an all-time high of $3.70 up 14 cents on the day.
Junior market | General Accident Insurance traded 42,000 shares firm at $2 but traded as low as $1.85, Lasco Distributors traded 700,232 units to close down 2 cents at $1.46, Lasco Financial traded 136,381 units to close 1 cent higher at $1.52, Lasco Manufacturing closed at $1.56 gaining 4 cents while trading 148,500 units.
Newly listed Eppley have still not traded and has no bids or offers at the close of trading.
Proven Investment Preference shares traded 101,000 units valued at $514,000, at $5.09.
Market intelligence | The pressure eased on Cable & Wireless this week as the amount of stock on offer at 15 cents dropped sharply to 12.47 million after trading 15.8 million shares since Wednesday. The demand for the stock has not changed much. After the offer at 15 cents, the next meaningful level is at 19 cents. The coming week will determine the medium term direction of this stock with results due this coming week.
Demand for Carreras is low with about 120,000 units on the bid. Supply does not appear all that great but could overwhelm demand if sellers want out considering the poor first quarter results that could continue into the second quarter. Caribbean Cement demand has built up significantly while supply has disappeared almost completely helped by the release of quarterly results showing a return to profitability. Desnoes & Geddes is under some selling pressure with 1 million shares on offer at $4.85 and 1 million at $5.18 with a major bid at $4.50 for 1.5 million units. Results for the June quarter which should be up on 2012 is not expected until month end. Gleaner has selling at $1.49 and $1.50 for 13 million units with a bid for 1.15 million at $1.16.
In spite of a 41 percent rise in second quarter profit, Grace Kennedy has not attracted a preponderance of buy orders. Jamaica Money Market Brokers is not in very strong demand ahead of the June results, due in days even as selling seems to be close to $9. Mayberry now has a second bid of 1 million shares at $2 per share after weeks of just one bid in place at $2.60, supply of the stock is low. National Commercial Bank has less than 50,000 units on offer below $23, at $23 is 103,000 units, at $24 is 20,000 units and 43,000 units at $25. Bids around $19 are in excess of all the supply in the market.
Radio Jamaica continues with a large bid or 4.3 million at $1.23, there is virtually no supply at this stage. Sagicor Life has a little more than 200,000 shares on offer between $9.02 and $15, the bids have stayed below $9 but could change soon with the company reporting a strong increase in second quarter results. Scotia Group looks fluid around the $21-23 level and may need the onset of results which are likely to be released by month end to change direction, supply of the stock is not very heavy.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer sentiment indicator shows that bids for 6 stocks were higher and offers of 2 were lower that than their last selling price.
After the bell | Sagicor Life posted strongly improved 2nd quarter results up by 39 percent to $1.56 billion versus $1.12 billion in June 2012 for the six months period. Profits, which was hit by the write off of gains in investment when the government debt exchange took place in the first quarter came in at $2.18 billion compared to $2.6 billion in 2012.
Sagicor Investment profits were flat for June quarter at $331 million while year-to-date results was $338 million versus $800 million in 2012.
Big jump in Consolidated Bakeries profit before tax of $14.25 million for the six months to June vs $9 million in 2012 represents a 58 percent increase with $10.6 million in the latest quarter vs the 2012 results being $1.85 million or a 47 percent increase. Revenue for the six month period increased by 30.69 percent and for the quarter by 40.46 percent over the same periods last year.
Barita Investments showed vastly improved numbers for the June quarter with profits of $99 million compared to $48.5 million in the same quarter last year. The June quarter numbers had no taxes applied compared to corporation tax of $22.5 million charged for the 2012.
The results swung the loss at the end of the March quarter to a profit of $78.6 million year-to-date for the current financial year, down from a profit of $191.5 million for the same period to June last year. The nine months results is a huge improvement over the loss reported for the six months to March this year. The improvement in the latest quarter came from a nearly $30 million increase in foreign exchange trading and gain on sale of investment of $47 million more than in 2012. However, net interest income fell from $119 million down to $78 million but this may be due to a shift of the investment portfolio to foreign currency denominated investments to take advantage of the weakness in the Jamaican dollar currency, rather than a permanent shift in reduction in net interest margins.
The improved June results seem to bear the fruits of what management indicated would be a diversification of revenue streams by increasing product offerings and growing non-interest income.
Barita Investments suffered a $240 million hit in February as they wrote off investment gains which related to the government’s bond swap. In a release to shareholders, the company in commenting on the March results, stated “without the impact of the National Debt Exchange, the financial performance would have surpassed the prior year to date profits of $143 million”.
March quarter | For the second quarter of the financial year, losses of $98 million were incurred and year-to-date $20 million. The company was able to grow income with the main drivers being dividends, which grew by $13 million, foreign exchange trading and translation gains with an increase of $78 million and unit trust operations. Operating expenses at the end of the second quarter were $240 million compared to $226 million for the same period of 2012.
Looking forward, earnings for this year which ends in September, is unlikely to match that of 2012 due to the debt swap charge. But looking beyond that one-off charge, the results from ongoing earnings make the stock a very attractive medium investment. Revenues could be boosted above normal as the indicators are that the stock market activities will pick up strongly going forward.
Barita is an investment bank with a stockbrokerage arm and unit trust operations. The company is listed on the Jamaican Stock Exchange. At the current price in the $2.32 range and with signs of the local stock market exhibiting increasing interest, investors could reap good returns from this stock in 2014, if not before.
Insider call | Barita Investments is an IC Insider Buy Rated stock.
Related Posts | Barita, Lasco Financial get thumbs up | NDX hits out Barita’s profit
Thursday, 8th August 2013 | The Jamaican stock market suffered declines across the board for all indices in spite of a positive advanced decline ratio of 8 to 6, albeit moderate. The all Jamaica Index lost 89.71 points, closing at 86,890.98 and the JSE market index slipped by 50.98 to close at 86,214.63 and the Junior market eased to close at 801.72, 19 points lower than on Wednesday.
Just under $18 million worth of shares traded accounting for a volume of 6.57 million units. Cable & Wireless, which barely traded for several weeks, has now attracted interest ahead of the June quarter results as the stock traded 3 million units, in addition to 1.32 million on Wednesday, thus reducing the amounts on sale at 15 cents to 24 million units. Elsewhere, the other main contributions to the volume were Lasco Distributors traded 1.2 million units, Supreme Ventures 943,000 and 650,000 of Jamaica Money Market Brokers.
Carreras traded flat at $51.50 with just under 50,000 units. Caribbean Cement, continuing its response to the return to profit in the June quarter, gained 19 cents to close at $1.39 as 56,423 units traded. Grace gained 20 cents to close at $56.40 with very limited volume. Jamaica Money Market Brokers followed up yesterday’s 502,000 units traded and valued at $4 million with today’s larger volume worth $5.49 million and closed at $8.20, up 20 cents. National Commercial Bank traded just 21,750 units between $19.10 and $19.30 before closing at $19.30; demand seems to be building at the $19 level but supply is drying up below $23 and this is contributing to the low volumes being traded as investors try to get supplies at the lowest prices possible. Sagicor Life traded 256,514 units, closing up 5 cents at $8.70 but traded as high as $9. Scotia Group traded just 58,586 units down from just over 2 million units on Wednesday and closed the day at $21.01 after trading as high as $22. Supreme Ventures traded down to $2.75, off 15 cents, in direct response to the lower profit reported for the June quarter.
Junior market | Only stocks of 8 companies traded in the junior market as the prices of 3 gained and 2 fell, all with small changes. Caribbean Creams traded 44,644 shares to close firm at $1.06. Dolphin Cove traded 24,417 units firm, at $1.35. KLE Group traded 10 cents down to another all-time low of $1.70 with 5,000 shares trading. Lasco Distributors saw 1,198,070 units changing ownership and closed firm at $1.48 and Lasco Financial, which traded 195,148 units, closed at $1.51.
Eppley shares still have not traded and has no bids or offers at the close of trading.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 8 stocks were higher with3 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.
After the bell | Kingston Properties released results showing a loss before fair value gain on investment property and miscellaneous income at $6.7 million for the six months ended June, 2013, compared with a profit of $6.7 million for the similar period in 2012. Profit for the latest quarter is $554,000 versus $4.2 million in 2012.
Lasco Distributors reported an 11 percent drop in pretax profits in the 12 months ended March this year even as sales climbed 10.6 percent for the same period. The March quarter revenues only grew by one percent, pulling down what was a more robust increase up to the December quarter. But things seem to be back on track in the June quarter as revenues are up 15 percent to $2.31 billion, an increase of $303 million over the corresponding period last year and profit is up to $164.2 million, an increase of 21 percent or $28.5 million over the same period in 2012. Earnings per stock improved from 4 cents in June 2012 to 4.9 cents in June 2013 quarter based on the new amount of shares issued.
LASCO Distributors continues to introduce new brands to market. Most recently, Baby Yum Infant Cereal and Breathezy, a generic alternative for Asthma Management, were launched.
Operating Expenses to Sales ratio was 13.1 percent compared to 14.1 percent, a significant improvement over the corresponding period last year.
“Revenue and profit performance was due to the increased volumes, aggressive marketing activities and improvement in efficiencies,” the company’s Chairman Lascelles Chin stated recently. He went on to say that “It is commendable that even with increased marketing activities and the introduction of new products each year, the company was still able to contain operating expenses. LASCO Distributors continues to do very well and will expand its range with exciting products and grow its revenues with brands from pharmaceutical principals, as well as our own LASCO brands. This will be bolstered in particular from the new products to come from the LASCO Manufacturing expansion.”
The company is looking good going forward, especially after September when the Lasco Manufacturing factory expansion is completed and starts production of new products which will be marketed by the distribution company. IC Insider is forecasting that sales will pick up in the second half of the company’s year and earnings increase to $840 million or 25 cents per share for the year ending March 2014.
The company was able to reduce inventories from $1.28 billion at the end of March to $967 million, as such cash and investments increased from $507 million to $817 million over the same period. Current assets exceed current liabilities by $1.69 million at the end of June. There is virtually no debt financing at the end of the quarter and the equity is at a little over a $2 billion.
Insider call | Lasco Distributors is an IC Insider Buy Rated stock.
Related posts | All 3 Lasco companies approve splits | LASCO Distributors lowers profit
Wednesday, 7th August, 2013 | The Jamaican stock market was dominated by trading in Scotia Group as just over 2 million units of the stock traded valued at $45 million as high as $23.49 but closed at the last trading price of $21.02. The other major trade on the day after the Independence Holiday was Jamaica Money Market Brokers trading 502,000 units valued at $4 million as the stock closed at $8, a decline of 16 cents. Jamaica Producers traded firm at $17.05 while trading 45,549 units valued at $816,000, Sagicor Life Jamaica traded 80,000 units closing down 20 cents at $8.65. Cable & Wireless traded 1,324,034 with just one trade at 15 cents thus reducing the amounts on offer at that price to 27 million units.
Carreras gained 39 cents to close at $51.50 with just under 7,000 units. Caribbean Cement responding to profit reported in the June quarter gained 20 cents to close at $1.20. Grace gave up 30 cents to close at $56.20 with limited volume. Kingston Wharves lost 29 cents to close at $7.51 with nearly 30,000 units trading.
The market closed today with stocks of 26 companies trading 6,149,080 valued at $61.36 million. There were 7 stocks advancing and 11 declining. The all Jamaica Index gained 209.24 points to close at 86,980.69 and the JSE market index went up by 118.92 to close at 86,265.61.
Junior market | Stocks of 11 companies traded in the junior market as the prices of 3 gained and 4 fell and the index inched up by 0.21 points to close 801.91. Caribbean Producers traded 76,108 shares to close firm at $2.03. Consolidated Bakeries traded 78,542 units firm at $1.35. General Accident Insurance traded 78,542 units and closed at $2 after trading as low as $1.85. Jamaican Teas chipped in with 107,474 shares between $4.41 the last traded price and $4.50 as the stock gained 11 cents for the day. KLE Group traded firm at $1.80 with 84,000 shares trading. Lasco Distributors saw 378,260 units crossing the monitor in today’s trade as the price gained a cent, closing at $1.48 and Lasco Financial which traded 120,840 units and closed at $1.50 off 4 cents.
Blue Power lost 40 cents in closing at $9.60 on small volume and so did Cargo Handlers that lost 50 cents to close at $13.50 and Dolphin Cove that lost 20 cents to close at $8.90 off 10 cents.
Eppley shares have still not traded and has no bids or offers at the close of trading.
Proven Investment Preference shares traded 787,900 units valued at $4 million while the ordinary shares which are quoted in US dollars traded 297,526 units at a value of US$34,232. The stock lost a fraction of a cent to close at US0.115 cents.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 8 stocks were higher with2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.
Image courtesy of Photokanok/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The year 2013 is the year of the snake in the Chinese’ calendar and the crawling pace that the snake normally exhibits is pretty much what’s happening to Honey Bun, a Junior Market listed company. Increased sales and profit which in slowed down in the first quarter of this year, has slowed even further in the latest quarter to June. Revenues crawled along at just 5 percent over the 2012 quarter compared to 20 percent in the Easter-boosted March quarter. Even then, the March quarter growth was slower than the near 32 percent growth for the first 3 months of the financial year.
Revenues were $161 million in the June 2013 quarter up from $154 million in 2012 and profit was only $2.3 million down from $7.5 million in 2012. For the year to date, sales are $540 million, up 17.9 percent from $458 million in the prior year. Profit on the other hand is flat at $40.8 million versus $41 million in 2012.
Gross profit in the latest quarter actually fell by $2.5 million compared to 2012, but year-to-date gross profit is up 9 percent while administrative expenses are up even more by 16 percent to $125 million. The increase to June clouds what has been taking place earlier. There was one-third jump in administrative and other expenses to $41.6 million, up from $31.3 million a year ago.
The company generated $189.6 million in sales in the March quarter up from $160 million in 2012 and for the six months $381.5 million versus $305.8 in the prior year.
Management attributed the reduced margin to rising prices for flour and other inputs, which could not be passed on to consumers at the same pace as the cost hikes. For the March quarter, management stated that sales improvement was as a result of increased sales to new markets and exports, which increased by over 150 percent, year over year for the 3 months.
Healthy finances | The company continues in a healthy financial state with working capital at a ratio of 3 to 1 inclusive of cash and investments amounting to $75 million. This cash is up from $24 million at the end of September last year. Receivables grew at the end of the quarter to $61 million compared to $43 million in 2012.
Equity was $297 million and loan borrowing at a low of $24 million at the end of June. The stock last traded at $4 each but could well decline somewhat with these results. This year’s earnings at the end of June was 43 cents. The September quarter’s results are difficult to predict as it is the worse quarter of the year for the company. As such, the EPS at year end in September is likely to be lower than for the nine months based on past years’ numbers.
Related post | Honey Bun not so sweet in Q1
Monday, 5th August, 2013 | The JSE market closed today with stocks of 27 companies traded resulting in a volume of 2.8 million shares valued at just $17 million. There were 6 stocks advancing and 7 declining as all the indices with price changes lost value moderately, in what seems to be a holiday mode market. Price changes were low with only Carreras with a 50 cent gain to $51.11 being the most pronounced movement as 44,487 units of that stock traded, valued at $2.28 million.
Main market trades of note | The all Jamaica Index shed 68 points and the JSE market index dropped 38.72 points. Jamaica Money Market Brokers traded just over 100,000 shares to close at $8.20, a gain of 11 cents on the day. Sagicor Life traded over 72,000 shares and lost 15 cents as it closed at $8.85. Scotia Group traded 266,649 units closing at $21.12 with a value of $5.64 million. Seprod traded 87,200 units valued at $1.285 million as the stock closed at $14.75 the same as on Friday. Mayberry Investments chipped in with 287,609 units at $2.60, accounting for $748,000.
Caribbean Cement cemented the gains over the last few weeks as the company reported a profit in the June quarter and investors cheered the results by bidding the stock up to $1.12 at the end of trading but bought all that was available at $1 and 99 cents. The stock closed up 10 cents on a volume of 471,000 units.
Junior market | Trading took place in the shares of 9 companies as the index shed 5 points. Honey Bun which traded 10,100 at $4 reported results to the June quarter which was flat with the nine months for 2012 but the results for the quarter showed a 4 percent sales increase but that was inadequate to prevent a reduction in profits which declined from $7.5 million to $2.34 million in the quarter. The stock has no bid at the end of trading.
KLE Group dropped 20 cents to trade at an all-time low of $1.80 but only 4,000 shares changed hands. Lasco Distributors traded 279,350 units and closed down 2 cents to $1.48, Lasco Financial traded 184,737 shares to end up 5 cents more than the opening price to close at $1.55 while Lasco Manufacturing traded 110,160 units and dropped 8 cents to close at $1.52 after trading as high as $1.60.
Eppley shares that were listed last week still have not traded and have no bids or offers at the close of trading.
Proven Investment Preference shares traded 532,000 units valued at $5.09 valued at $2.7 million while there was a small volume traded in the ordinary shares.
IC bid-offer Indicator | At the end of trading, the Investor’s Choice bid-offer market sentiment indicator shows that bids for 7 stocks were higher with 2 stocks having offers lower than their last selling price.
Monday, 5th August 2013 | Two weeks into the earnings season and quarterly reports continue to flow in. How will the markets respond? Our ‘Stocks to Watch’ list gives clues for some of the market action expected this week.
Buy Rated Stock | New to our Buy Rated list are Barita Investments and Lasco Financial, which brings the number to 5 companies that have received a ‘two thumbs-up’ based on our review of their 2nd quarter results.
Other companies that reported results and solidified their position on our Buy Rated list are Access Financial and Lasco Manufacturing.
Better than a broker’s ‘buy’ recommendation, IC Insider has no vested interest in any stock transaction or conflict of interest. Our research is backed by published reports of the company’s performance and insights of future earnings that can be found at ICInsider.com. The final decision to buy, or not, is your personal choice.
Related posts | LASCO Financial small but tallawah | Access growth continues | LASCO Manufacturing profits in the future
To find published reports for a Buy Rated stock on IC Insider, please use category ‘Buy Rated’ under Company News or enter the company name, in full or part at ‘Search IC Insider’.
Image courtesy of ImageryMajestic/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Caribbean Cement Company is reporting a major change in fortunes in the latest quarter ending June from a loss of $497 million in the first quarter to a profit of $359 million in the June quarter. For the six months to June, the Group is reporting loss of $137 million, compared to a loss of $1,204 million in the corresponding period of 2012.
The loss of $137 million is after charging $701 million of non-cash foreign exchange losses compared to $136 million of foreign exchange losses for 2012. In the June quarter, Forex loss is $252 million but interest cost fell by $62 million and is down $60 million for the year to June. The bright light is not all that it appears to be at first sight as the results benefited from the write back of $591 million of withholding taxes on interest that was due to the parent company which have been reversed. The write back results from the restructuring of the parent company debt into preference shares.
Management states that, “We note that even before the write back of the withholding taxes, operating profit for the second quarter had improved over the prior quarter from $98 million to $153 million. This improvement is principally as a result of increased revenue from the 3% price adjustment in the domestic market in April and a doubling of export sales volumes in the second quarter, due primarily to our entry into the very vibrant Panama market.”
The numbers are saying that excluding extraordinary charges or income and assuming business is maintained at least at the current levels then a small profit should be eked out quarterly. The preference shares which are redeemable are effectively participating shares and are entitled to receive the same amount of dividend per share as the ordinary shares. There will only be a total of 115 million preference shares to 851 million ordinary shares.
Sales | Revenues for the quarter is up to $3 billion from $2.4 billion last year and $2.68 billion in the 2013 first quarter. Local sales in tonnes was the same as the first quarter but exports grew to 68,000 versus 33,000 in the first quarter. Local tonnage is up year to date by 20,000 tonnes but exports are below last year six months by 34,000 tonnes. Last year the local company exported cement to Trinidad as the plant there was under strike.
The restructuring of US$75 million of debt due to Trinidad Cement, contributed shareholder’s equity moving from negative $2.939 billion at the beginning of 2013 to positive $4,501 million at the end of June. The restructuring of the debt was completed with the conversion of US$37 million to preference shares, in accordance with the approval given by the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting, and with TCL making a capital contribution of US$38 million to defray the balance.
Caribbean Cement’s management stated that “they experienced operational gains through significant improvements in our plant efficiency, in particular specific energy consumption, following expenditure of approximately US$5 million in capital maintenance and upgrade works earlier in the year. As a result of the improved performance, we have been able to meet our debt obligations over the last six months. With the restructuring of the intra-group debt, the threat of foreign exchange translation losses has been significantly mitigated. We expect to maintain the improvement in export sales and grow these even further as we enter new markets in South America. While we do not foresee any meaningful growth in the domestic market, with careful cost management and the expected growth in export earnings, we expect to maintain these favourable results over the rest of this year”.
The June results is pointing to earnings per ordinary share of around 40 cents for a twelve month period. With these results, the stock which has risen from a low this year of 60 cents to a $1 recently, could enjoy further gains in the period ahead.
Related posts | Carib Cement profit mired in concrete