Tuesday 20 October 2015

AUKETT SWANKE #AUK



AUKETT SWANKE
#AUK

Buys - decided not to
Average -  
Currently - 7-7.5
Target – 10-12p
Timeframe - within 1-2 months

Current Mcap - £12mill

What do they do?

Formerly known as Aukett Fitzroy Robinson, now Aukett Swanke. These folk are a global architect and interior design firm. Most of their business is in London but the do work in Russia, Europe, Middle East etc. They’ve won plenty of awards and are number 19 in “Building’s Top 150 Consultants” (sounds impressive but ive no idea how good this actually is). They have many project you can look up at http://www.aukettswanke.com/projects

Past performance
2013 revenue - £8.4mill
2013 P/L – Pre-tax profit £550k
2013 Net assets - £3mill

2014 revenue - £17.3mill (106% increase)
2014 P/L – Pre-tax profit of £1.4mill (155% increase)
2014 Net assets - £5mill

2015 1st half revenue - £9.2mill (21% up on same period 2014)
2015 1st half P/L - £815k (up 9% on same period 2014)
Earnings per share up 39% at 0.43p (2014: 0.31p)


Investment case
As you can see above, this company is expanding, increasing revenue and profit. They comment that the first half 2015 figure is down on what is possible due to the election and the second half promises to be better. For nearly 2 years they have been mostly range bound between 6.5-8p with occasional spikes.
The catalyst here should be their upcoming November trading update. Year on year superb profit growth cumulating in a profit this year of £1.5-2mill at a guess should have a PE higher than single figures surely?! They have demonstrated they know what they are doing, winning awards, increasing staff numbers and are even paying a dividend!
A bit on the bear side. Two of the BoD sold a small number of shares in sept but the company have told another investor in an email they this was for personal reasons and not reflecting their view on the company. Indeed another director took some and an II took some and bought more to go over 3%. It is doubtful that they would have been allowed to sell if any profit warning was about to drop at this update (I think!)

Bear case
The "wholesale" price with limited downside was in the low 6s. Ive missed this, will it return?

Comms with the company
They have confirmed November update.

Summary 
AUK is posting some impressive profit figure and yearly growth figures. The second half seems on course to be better than the first half meaning profit will be around £2mill this year. That would have them on a ludicrously small PE. Surely it deserves a bit more? No?

So I've went around and around on this. I think it's likely it's got good upside but I've set out to be disciplined so I think I'll watch this one and learn. No doubt it'll do 100% now. If I'd more capital I'd buy, will you??


EDIT : UPDATE 15/11/15

Having a look at the broker targets (no RNS that they will be missed) is interesting here...
2015E Revenue 19.6mill
2015E EPS 0.93 (+43.5%)

Sector median PE 15.4 vs 9.1 AUK

Looks like the target SP should be north of the 10p area.
I would rate this as a BUY with an initial 10p target over the next month. 

2 comments:

  1. Updated my rating of AUK to buy with 10p short term target. Lets see!

    ReplyDelete