Soooo, 2020…What A Crazy Year!?

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Alphabet, annual review, Applegreen, COVID, CPL Resources, crypto, KR1, KR1 plc, owner-operators, portfolio allocation, portfolio performance, Record plc, staking, VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.’

A Happy (& Safe) New Year to my readers & fellow investors!

This time last year – or even last April – we had little/no idea of the #COVID challenge still ahead, but we’ve made it this far…and doubtless, after surviving 2020, we can surely look forward (America willing) to a far better 2021! If not, perhaps, in terms of superlative returns…but hey, that’s a hedge I think we can all accept.

Let’s try skip the #pandemic itself – I leave that to countless articles (‘The Plague Year‘) & a library of books to come – but obviously its consequences will reverberate here (& for us all). I must say though: I’ve been awed & inspired by the incredible effort & sacrifice humanity’s made to save lives, help those directly & indirectly impacted by COVID & come up with multiple vaccines at such an accelerated pace. But equally saddened – by comparison – to reflect on the fraction of preparation, effort, ingenuity & most of all expense that was perhaps required to prevent the worst ravages of COVID, let alone reduce or even eliminate some of the major health & social issues we endure (or scarcely even notice) today. Above all, great investors will focus on the character of management…it’s time we realize we need to assess the character of countries & their leaders too. And in both cases:

‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.’

Or not…

So let’s dive in – as a reminder, here’s a mid-year snapshot of my benchmark:

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2014 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part IV)

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CPL Resources, Glanbia, Grafton Group, Irish shares, Irish Stock Exchange, Irish value investing, ISEQ, ISEQ 20 UCITS ETF, Papua Mining, Petroceltic International, Petroneft Resources, San Leon Energy, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project

Continued from here:

Company:   Grafton Group

Prior Post(s):   2012 & 2013

Ticker:   GFTU:LN

Price:   GBP 665p

Revisiting last year’s post, I see this prediction: ‘don’t be surprised to see Grafton suggesting a GBP re-denomination later this year…they might just go the full hog & dump their Irish listing in favour of the UK.’ Six months later, that’s exactly what they announced! Which makes sense really – over 75% of Grafton’s revenue now comes from the UK. On the other hand, you’d think the bloody Celtic Tiger was back, considering how the share price has behaved – a triple in just 18 months!? I was pretty bullish originally on Grafton, but my valuation estimate’s certainly been marking time ever since…

In the latest trading update, FY-2013 revenue reached GBP 1.90 billion & like-for-like sales were up nicely across the board. Recent reports suggest the 4.2% operating free cash flow (cash generated from operations, less net capex) margin’s still running well ahead of underlying operating profit – let’s assume that’s still the case on a FY basis. And I continue to believe Grafton will, in time, revert to its prior 7.0% peak operating FCF margin. For valuation purposes, averaging the two seems fair – a margin of 5.6% still deserves a 0.5 Price/Sales multiple, in my opinion. With net interest hovering ’round 15% of operating profit, no further debt/cash adjustments are necessary. [At this point, I don’t believe a P/E multiple’s a practical (or effective) valuation alternative to also incorporate here]. Which gives us:

2013 – The Great Irish Share Valuation Project (Part V)

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Abbey plc, Better Capital, Big Pharma, CPL Resources, Gallaghers, Glanbia, ICON, Irish shares, Irish value investing, Jon Moulton, milk quotas, STV Group, TGISVP, The Great Irish Share Valuation Project, TVC Holdings, UTV Media

Continued from here. Let’s take the next batch:

Company:   ICON

Prior Post:   Here

Ticker:   ICLR:US

Price:   USD 28.43

ICON’s starting to fire on all cylinders again, as I correctly anticipated. Well, except for the share price…but I’m sure investors aren’t complaining! 😉 Last year, the company was squeezed between (virtually) zero growth in its existing contract revenues & the challenges/expenses of ramping up to meet some v large contract wins. Operating margins, even on a pre-exceptional basis, had fallen to near-zero – but valuing ICLR on that basis would clearly have been incorrect. It seemed reasonable to presume margins would return to 10%+ as new contract revenues/margins matured.

TGISVP, Q3 2012 YTD Performance (I)

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Aer Lingus, Alpha Portfolio, Beta Portfolio, Cove Energy, CPL Resources, Datalex, Fastnet Oil & Gas, FBD Holdings, garbage stocks, junior resource stocks, performance appraisal, Petroneft Resources, portfolio performance, Prime Active Capital, Providence Resources, Siteserv, TGISVP, US Oil & Gas, Worldspreads

Now Q3 2012 is over, it’s time to revisit The Great Irish Share Valuation Project. Here’s my H1 2012 performance post, for reference.

First, note there’s been 1 de-listing – we already had the heads-up on it last quarter: Cove Energy (COV:LN) was taken out for GBP 240p in cash per share by PTTEP (PTTEP:TB). A marvelous result for most shareholders, except for a few over-enthusiastic latecomers that bid the shares up to GBP 270p+ in the dying days of a Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB:LN) vs. PTTEP tussle. [I’ll continue to include Cove – at its final GBP 240p value – for performance purposes for the rest of the year].

Note: Q3 2012 YTD performance for each stock is TGISVP specific – that is, performance is measured from the specific date (in Q1) I set a target price for each stock. [Apologies if you’d prefer to see actual YTD performance for all stocks – but I suspect there’d be a high degree of overlap in the winners & losers, anyway].

The Great Irish Share Valuation Project II

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Alkermes, CPL Resources, CRH, Datalex, DCC, Donegal Creameries, Elan, FBD Holdings, Grafton Group, Great Western Mining, IIU, Liberty Mutual, Monaghan Mushrooms, Produce Investments, Sherlock, TGISVP

OK, folks, let me throw another dozen stocks into the mix!

The Great Irish Share Valuation Project II     (xlsx file)

The Great Irish Share Valuation Project II     (xls file)

A couple of housekeeping items, if you’ll take a look at the first (Wexboy) sheet:  I’ve added a Blog Link column to the right – if I’ve written about a stock already, you’ll find the link there. I’ll bold any stock (see FBD, for example) where I’ve disclosed an ownership stake. I’ve also added some averages at the bottom of the sheet. I’ll discuss these in more detail when there are valuations for a majority/all of the shares listed, but they’re pretty self-explanatory and already look interesting.

The Great Irish Share Valuation Project I

Tags

Abbey plc, Aer Lingus, Allied Irish Banks, Aminex, Bank of Ireland, Conroy Gold, Continental Farmers Group, CPL Resources, CRH, Irish shares, Irish Stock Exchange, Irish value investing, stock screener

Time to take a little breather from Catalysts..! I’ve finally got ‘round to beginning a project that’s been top of my to-do list ever since starting this blog:

Yes, I wanted to identify all the listed Irish companies out there, (re)acquaint myself with their business fundamentals and financials, come up with a rough and ready valuation for each stock, and thereby come up with a list of the most potentially under- and over-valued Irish stocks.