Quiet news day today...

....as no doubt the news agenda will be dominated by the to bomb or not to bomb Syria debate and vote later today in the UK Parliament. Aside from that we have had a few announcements from stocks I have covered in the past, Matchtec, Greene King and Renewable Energy Generation.

First in a very brief AGM statement, Matchtec (MTEC) the £160m market cap. international recruitment firm confirmed that it is trading in line with expectations. They had a good run up after I wrote them up recently, but have drifted off again since.

So they still look good value to me down here & therefore they may still be offering an attractive entry point, although of course they could just continue to drift as they have up to now   as there was nothing to get excited about or worried about in this update. I also note that they now have negative 12 month price momentum and only come out as average on the CIS with a score of 51 versus 79 on Stockopedia. Next up today

we had some good looking interims from the reliable Greene King (GNK) the £2.6bn pub, restaurant, hotel and brewing company. In brief their underlying earnings seemed to be very strong being up by 15% which compares to forecasts which suggest 5 to 6% growth so I guess there could be scope for upgrades to earnings. This earnings growth was achieved on the back of revenues which were up in all of their existing division and by 5.4% overall.
This was then boosted to total growth of 49% after a 17 week contribution from their Spirit acquisition where they have achieved  £2.1m of synergy to date. They also said that this integration was ahead of schedule and they are raising their target for these to £35m from the £30m previously indicated.

On the back of this they also increased the interim dividend by 6.3% which also seems slightly better than the 5% or so factored into analysts forecasts. So there is a chance that dividend forecasts could be upgraded modestly too, The market seems to agree as it has marked the shares up by 8% first thing to 920p where it is closing in on its all time highs from 2007 & 2014. This may act as resistance, but equally momentum followers suggest it can provide an opportunity if people book profits because of the price while ignoring the improved fundamentals which have driven the price up.






I guess time will tell on that, but if we say 70p of earnings and 32p of dividend after assuming forecasts upgrades on these numbers, this would leave them at 920p on a reasonable looking 13.1x with 3.5%. So while you might not want to rush out and buy them after the spike today which has left them looking over bought in the short term and given the resistance from the all time highs, they look like a strong hold to me for the yield and growth. They might however be worth revisiting on weakness if they should drift back. I note they were on a CIS of 58 prior to any changes on the back of today's numbers.

Finally in brief (I promise) I note that Renewable Energy Generation (WIND) which had been hit badly by the governments withdrawal of subsidies for on shore wind farms has literally announced its final results. This is because they also confirmed the 60p bid / liquidation that they previously tentatively announced. So seems like an OK end to an otherwise messy situation.

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