Small talk today..

 ..as we have had a few results from small cap. stocks today which I have mentioned in the past. The first one was one I wrote up recently when I looked at some "cheap" retailers, SCS Group the sofa and carpet retailer. They announced final results today which looked OK and had a reasonably upbeat current trading statement, but with a hint of caution going forward given tougher comparatives. They are however opening new stores and concessions in House of Fraser so this should help to boost overall growth.

The numbers saw revenues which seemed a little behind forecast but the adjusted earnings came in ahead at 13.75p which is also ahead of the current years forecast. Given this and the positive start to the current year I guess this may leave scope for upgrades which is usually positive for lowly rated stocks such as this one trading on 11.4x at 157p.

On the dividend they achieved their IPO goal of a 14p dividend with an 11.2p final in these figures. This alone gives a 7%+ yield while the forecast unchanged 14p for the current year potentially gives a near 9% yield. This is backed up by £21.2m of cash on the balance sheet. So with a positive start to the year against an improving consumer background this one should be OK in the short term. However, as it is not the great quality and did go bust in the last recession it may not be one for the long term.

However in brief talking of quality for the long term we also had another set of record results today from the AIM listed flooring provider James Halstead (JHD). This is a good quality company but it is expensively rated at 25x given the quality and the steady delivery of rising profits earnings and dividends in recent years. So I'd definitely suggest holding this one for the long run, but it might be worth waiting for another downturn to see if you can pick it up more cheaply if you are not currently in it.

Finally on the talk front I note some interesting results from Netcall (NET) a software as a service provider in the customer engagement sector or contact centres to you and me. The results seemed to be in line but the main surprise was on the dividend where they announced a 2.2p dividend against the 1p full year dividend expected which unusually they pay jsut annually. This did however include an in line 1p payment plus a special of 1.2p which is part of a three year plan to bring their cash down £10m. Again not the cheapest in the world with a PE of 18 to 19x but it does now sport a 4%+ yield with the special dividend. It also seems to be reasonable quality and is currently trading well so might be worth a closer look.