Professor Glen Arnold

Fletcher King did not make a loss in the recession, which is quite a performance since its business depends on the health of the commercial property sector (it helps property owners with valuations, rating reviews, finding investments, etc.). I’ll look at four and one-half years of numbers to gain an impression of the earnings power […]

Fletcher King (LSE:FLK) have just reported a massive rise in profits for the six months to the end of October – up by 309% from £231,000 to £945,000 after tax. Since buying into this share at 30p in July 2013 it has more than doubled if you include the 13.25p of dividends received. The dividend […]

To judge whether Titon (LSE:TON) is still worth buying I need to start with an examination of its balance sheet: Is Net Current Asset Value greater than market capitalisation? £’000s October 2015 October 2014 Inventory 3,786 3,479 Receivables 4,992 4,589 Cash 2,870 2,149 Total current assets 11,648 10,217 minus all liabilities -4,275 -3,913 minus non- […]

When I bought into Titon (LSE:TON) in 2013 it had a market capitalisation of only £3.9m. Compare that with the profits it reported in 2014 and 2015: 2014: Profit after tax £1.28m. Profit after tax attributable to holding company shareholders, £0.90m. Eps 8.52p. 2015: Profit after tax £1.71m. Profit after tax attributable to holding company […]

Titon (LSE:TON) reported excellent results last week. Since I bought into it at 37.9p in September 2013 it risen to 93p. If you include dividends it’s grown to 2.5 times my investment. It was a classic Net Current Asset Value investment back in 2013 – much neglected and unloved. But it had an able management […]

In 33 out of the last 34 years the dividend has grown by 5% or more. Earnings per share have doubled over nine years. Pence per share 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Earnings 26.87 38.92 38.43 40.97 30.67 42.98 11.28 46.22 51.99 Dividend 5.40 5.76 6.06 6.36 6.69 7.02 (plus 5p […]

Yesterday’s AGM was very interesting. The Board were very welcoming to the five shareholders who made the effort. There is a lot more value in the property portfolio than shown in the balance sheet. And there is a reasonably good chance that both the warehouse and the offices will be sold with the company piling […]

Rather than repeat the summary of the different product lines – explained in previous Newsletters – I’ll concentrate on the performances of the different divisions over the year to 30th September 2015. First, it might be helpful for you to know the rough revenue splits (2014 numbers): •Lift components: about £34m (72% of total revenue) […]

So I can buy a share in this company at 8.5 times last year’s earnings. Surely, you might ask, there must be something seriously wrong with it? Perhaps earnings and dividends have been volatile? No. Earnings per share have steadily risen from 11.82p in 2002 to 51.99p in 2015 (with a bit of a dip […]

In 1978 the banking regulators told Warren that he will have to separate the Rockford Bank from the rest of his businesses by the end of 1980. They were tightening up on allowing banks to be part of a non-banking organisations. He announced that the most likely solution would be to spin it off to […]