JAMES HALSTEAD (AIM:JHD) Broker view - upgrades or special dividend required to justify price?
Broker Shore Capital has suggested that while they continue to hold the business model and management of James Halstead (http://www.jameshalstead.com) in very high regard, they feel the shares are overvalued. In order to justify the share price they feel the payment of a special dividend is required!
We think they understatement the attraction for IHT planning money .
Shore Capital points out that JHD pays a special dividend every two years or so at the time of the AGM and last year witnessed a return of cash to shareholders via a share buy-back programme. In their opinion the alternative to justify the current rating would be improving trading which resulted in an upgrade to estimates. Shore thinks this is unlikely in view of the proportion of revenues generated in Europe and Australia, although management did suggest that there were signs of a pick-up in UK activity at the recent preliminary results. We would argue that the mere quality…