Small-cap round-up: featuring SigmaRoc, Gattaca, Worsley Investors and more…

SigmaRoc (LON:SRC) – aggregating a holding?

Is Stephen Lansdown, the Guernsey-based founder of Hargreaves Lansdown, looking to build up his stake in SigmaRoc, the construction materials sector buy-to-build group?

I noted yesterday that Pula Investments has just declared a 10.4m share stake, some 3.72% of the equity.

Pula is the ‘family office’ investment company of Lansdown, is described as an active equity holding company.

The materials group’s shares have been a firm market of late, hitting 101p in the middle of last month. Could we gett a first-half trading update shortly?

Currently 94.5p they obviously still have ‘pulling power’ and as such holders should just sight tight.

(Profile 04.09.20 @ 49p set a Target Price of 65p*)

Gattaca (LON:GATC) – upgrading of estimates sought within two months

The share price of this human capital resources group has done very well indeed over the last two months.

The specialist engineering and technology recruitment solutions business will see its current year close by the end of this month. Of late we know that its net fee income has been rising, despite the still ongoing hassles of Covid-19.

It has been enough to encourage a rise in the group’s proposed dividend payments.

Analyst Sanjay Vidyarthi at Liberum Capital rated the shares as a ‘buy’, looking for this current year to report some $13m of sales and a fall from £4.6m to £2.7m in pre-tax profits.

However, for the coming year he sees a near £500m sales figure to end-July 2022, with profits leaping to £6m, worth 13.6p in earnings and giving a 3p dividend per share.

For the 2023 year he estimates £544m of sales, £9m of profits and 20.6p of earnings, covering a 5p dividend per share.

The full-year trading update is expected on 17 August, at which time I would hope for an upgrading in estimates.

The shares, which have been up to 288p in the last month, are currently trading at around 256p, a handy 73% gain within two months.

Hold tight.

(Profile 10.05.21 @ 148p set a Target Price of 185p*)

Worsley Investors (LON:WINV) – its portfolio is building up, so too are its assets

This little Guernsey-based investment company 29.88% controlled by activist Blake Nixon did very well in building up its portfolio over the last year to end-March 2021.

It now has a number of smaller company stocks in its holdings, with my favourite, Smiths News (LON:SNWS), of which it holds 4%, being a key part. It also includes stakes in Shepherd Neame, the brewery and pubs group, Northamber, the hardware distribution group, and other companies, totalling 16 as a whole.

But remember it also has the near €10m cinema freehold in Curno, Italy – which it is looking to sell.

Once that happens and the company’s cash balances are increased through the disposal, I would then expect some even more interesting ‘special situation’ positions being taken.

Between now and its AGM on 22 September I would like to hear of the progress that the company is making in selling off the multiplex cinema site. 

I am pleased to note that yesterday the shares, now 32p, achieved my price objective of a 25.5% gain set three months ago.

This could be the ground floor of a rising active investment, which could well go to a significant premium on its net asset values, now circa 43.5p a share. Hold tight.

(Profile 19.03.21@ 25.5p set a Target Price of 32p*)

Totally (LON:TLY) – announced biggest contract 

This healthcare services group has just announced its largest Insourcing contract to date.

Providing endoscopy procedures to a six-hospital group in Galway, in the Irish Republic, is worth £850,000 to the group during the contract, from now to end-March next year.

CEO Wendy Lawrence declared that “Totally Healthcare was launched specifically to address this issue and to reduce waiting lists in trusts and hospitals across the UK and Ireland by utilising their spare capacity outside of normal working hours and weekends. The business has made significant strides since its launch in October 2019 and now, further to this new contract in the Republic of Ireland, Totally Healthcare is also operating across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

I really do like the feel of this whole group, it has an important function which investors will soon realise has massive upside.

The whole group confirmed yesterday that it will be announcing its finals to end-March 2021 next Tuesday morning and it will also be holding an Investor Presentation at 2pm on Wednesday 14 July.

The group’s shares, now 43.25p, are destined to rise a great deal higher in due course.

(Profile12.03.20 @ 12p set a Target Price of 18*)

(Profile 25.06.21 @ 38.5p set a Target Price of 50p)

Maintel Holdings (LON:MAI) – only on 10 times current year p/e

The shares of this telecoms and data services group were looking fairly strong of late, climbing from 290p at the start of June to a 358p peak for the month.

Still not as high as the 410p price scaled in late January this year.

They are now trading at around the 350p level, which is still some way off the 600p price objective put on the shares by finnCap analysts Andrew Darley and Kimberley Carstens.

They are estimating £105m of revenues for the year to end-December, generating £5m of profits, worth 30.4p per share in earnings.

We will have to wait until the interims are announced in October to see the financials, but in the meantime, I anticipate some bullish news that will help to more than justify the current price.

(Profile 03.06.20 @ 173p set a Target Price of 250p*)

Some Quickies……

I see that Coral Products (LON:CRU) still finds its own shares attractive enough, because it continues to add to its ‘Treasury’ stock, another 100,000 @ 12.95p each, this week, taking its holding up to almost 3m shares.

It is a shame that seeking additional funding can be such a visible task for some companies. Lamprell (LON:LAM) needs another $135m working capital boost. It knocked the shares for six, collapsing the price from 67p to 45p, before picking up to 48p currently.

Shipbroking services group Braemar Shipping Services (LON:BMS) is looking a lot stronger in the last few days, up 40p to 310p now. The results from peer group Clarksons have stirred action in this stock. I am looking forward to the delayed AGM on 26 August for further updates and upgrades.

Let us hope that next Tuesday’s AGM for retailer N Brown Group (LON:BWNG) gives us some positive news. The shares are trying very hard to get off their backside currently, now at 57p. They should be back up over the 80p level they breeched in January this year.

I noticed that Octopus Investments have been sellers down of part of their holdings in the ‘stunningly wonderful’ investment called Trackwise Designs (LON:TWD). How many times has that company disappointed investors upon revealing its results? It even had its own broker pull back on their estimates. I have sympathies for the poor punters sucked into the stock when they hit 394.5p at the turn of this year. They are now 198p.

(Asterisk* denotes that Target Prices have been achieved since profile publication)

Profile company results, meetings and updates expected within the next two weeks: