Hello, Share Scrimpers. Opening a letter from one of my brokers I discovered that a company I’d long given up on was paying me a special dividend of 6p a share. As I only hold 13 shares apparently, I benefit by 78p. I wish there was a way of getting rid altogether, but to sell this piddling number of shares would probably cost me much more than I’d get back.

Yes, folks, it’s that time of the month again when Neil Woodford updates us on his funds, and what is in them. The good news is that both unit trust (Equity Income and Income Focus) had net cash as at 31 August…….and Woodford Patient Capital (WPCT) didn’t.

The Independent Newspaper thinks that I and 17.4 million others need a better education. Does anyone read that rag anymore? In today's podcast I look at Neil Woodford's Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), notably its holdings in Autolus and Purplebricks (PURP) in light of data out today, Eve Group (EVE), Nigel Wray's Simba, Thomas Cook (TCG), i3 Energy (i3E) and Iconic Labs (ICON). 

“Arena Events Group plc (AIM: ARE), is pleased to announce that it has completed the installation of the largest single temporary hospitality structure ever installed in Japan”. However, it’s an RNS Reach announcement…

A “Funding update”, following half-year results from gold miner in Kazakhstan Altyn (ALTN)...

Previously writing on provider of online B2B platforms for the UK conveyancing and financial intermediary markets ULS Technology (ULS), in May with the shares at 70p I concluded doubting the investment here can insulate it sufficiently, avoid / sell. Today a “Customer update” announcement – and the shares further lower, below 50p. Uh oh…

There is quite a lot of news out for a Friday. I was pleased to see that the industrial to medical conglomerate Smiths Group (SMIN) - which I wrote enthusiastically about in March - has blasted today deeper into my then hoped for 1600-1800p share price range…

Analyst Tavi Costa sees the current business cycle as being almost over and is waiting on an overall downturn in equities. Two-year yields reveal that we are near the top of the cycle. In the US, manufacturing reports are trending lower, and non-farm payrolls have had a sizeable downward reversion. 90% of the yield curves in Canada have already inverted, and many other countries are similar.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It is a recurring nightmare for Neil Woodford’s disruptive play on all things sleep related as AIM-listed Eve Sleep (EVE) has announced yet another profit warning as the company also announced that merger talks with Simba are all off. It is enough to disrupt even the heaviest of sleeps and the shares have opened 28% down – and are still falling.

When a share keeps on falling you have to decide whether the decline is terminal or how good the chances are of a recovery at some point. In some cases you will just be throwing good money after bad, and just because the shares have traded at a higher level in the past doesn’t mean that they will necessarily do so again if the fundamental changes to the business are terminal. But we also see cases where there is a temporary decline followed by quite a strong recovery, especially where the business is reliant on factors that are cyclical – such as in the natural resources sector as commodity prices fluctuate – or where it has suffered from shorting or a persistent seller, or even a combination of all of these...

Yesterday the FTSE All-Share (Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Income Focus and Equity Income funds) put on 0.5% and Income Focus almost matched it with a 0.44% gain in NAV per unit. But Equity Income only put on 0.26% as underperformance continued...

Hello, Share Savers. Some of my colleagues use Sage (SGE) for their accounts and to keep their businesses in top shape. But I’ve sometimes had doubts about the share price. Like many British technology giants, it’s faced stiff opposition from competitors.

Tungsten Corp (TUNG) has updated on its quarter ended 31st July 2019 including “revenue grew 5% in comparison to Q1-FY19”, “reflecting revenue growth, ongoing cost containment and collection of receivables written off in prior periods of £0.2 million… adjusted EBITDA increased to £1.0 million from a £(0.1) million adjusted EBITDA loss in Q1-FY19” and “our sales pipeline continues to grow, both by number and value of opportunities”. The shares have though currently responded to 43.5p, slightly lower…

Fully-listed Kier Group (KIE) has released its full year results to June this morning, and alongside them came the announcement that the Chairman is off. The market doesn’t seem to know how to take the numbers, and having closed yesterday at 132p the shares have wandered between 113p and 140p so far today and last seen sat almost unchanged. But one thing is sure: Neil Woodford looks a right Charlie, having piled in for ever more stock since the long-term collapse from around £8 per share at the start of last December as a flopped rights issue, management change, a strategic review and the scrapping of the dividend all took their toll...

In today's podcast I look at Xeros (XSG) as I consider the disruption of my own washing machine at the Welsh Hovel, Sound Energy (SOU) and EVR Holdings (EVRH). 

“Petards Group plc (AIM: PEG), the AIM quoted developer of advanced security and surveillance systems, is pleased to report its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2019” and “remains confident in the group's future prospects”. The shares have currently responded to 16p, capitalising the company at £9.2 million – er, approaching 18% down…

This story is about grubby nepotism, egregious compensation schemes, and aggressive business strategies, with an old-fashioned, car auction house at its heart.  It threads together the microeconomics of executive incentives with the macroeconomics of the credit cycle.

Neil Woodford dog, AIM-listed revolutionary washing machine purveyor Xeros Technology (XSG) has released its interim results this morning and the news is grim: revenues of £1.6 million led to a pre-tax loss of £9 million. Ouch.

Elephants cannot gallop but that does not mean larger cap shares are uninteresting, because institutional investor types can get overly excited (or rudely underwhelmed) about shares almost just as easy as bulletin board types can do crazy things around smaller cap shares. With large caps it is about spotting big themes, looking carefully at the numbers and setting your levels. With this mindset you can find plenty of double digit plus total return opportunities – which is way better than money in the bank earning you the square root of nothing. Three cases in point today…