Daily Stock Market Report (Tue 18 Mar 2025) - HAT, ZTF, YU., TRST, CCC, BYIT, MAB1

18th Mar by Graham Neary

32 comments 6152 reads

Good morning - Tuesday's Agenda is now complete!

1pm: all done for now, thank you.

Companies Reporting

Name (Mkt Cap)	RNS	Summary	Our view (Author)
Computacenter (LON:CCC) (£2.4bn)	Full Year Results	“Solid” in context of a challenging IT market. Dec 2024 order backlog significantly ahead of Dec 2023.	AMBER/GREEN (Roland holds) After a weak H1 24, CCC delivered a record H2 and has strong momentum heading into 2025. 2024 results show a 24% ROCE but uncharacteristic drop in profits. Earnings expectations are said to be positive for 2025, but have already been downgraded several times. Without visibility on updated estimates, I’ve moderated my view slightly to reflect the 20% share price rise since January.
Trustpilot (LON:TRST) (£1.1bn)	Full Year Results	2024: rev +18%. 2025: expecting high teens growth, adj. EBITDA slightly ahead of market expectations.	AMBER/GREEN (Graham) Yet another earnings upgrade is in the works with the company benefiting from operational leverage as revenues scale up. I’m still very excited about this but the growth ramp is not so rapid that I can afford to drop all valuation concerns.
Bytes Technology (LON:BYIT) (£999m)	FY TU	SP +19% New market cap £1.2 billion This IT reseller announces double digit growth in its key metrics, including operating profit growth in the mid to high teens. Gross profit accelerated in H2 and cash conversion exceeded their own 100% target leaving them with £110m+ at year-end (Feb 2025)	AMBER/GREEN (Graham) [no section below] This is a fabulous update with a confident outlook statement. This company enjoys coverage by a plethora of City analysts and I think consensus was for much more modest operating profit growth than “mid to high teens”. In pure value terms it appears fully priced, if we treat it as just another IT distributor. However, given the impressive strength of its trading momentum and the cash-rich balance sheet, investors might want to take a closer look at what it’s offering.
Harworth (LON:HWG) (£541m)	Full Year Results	Official net value per share +8% to 222.3p vs. 165p SP. Outlook: “Well placed to navigate uncertainty”.
Close Brothers (LON:CBG) (£520m)	Interim Results	H1 op loss £103m, adj. op profit £75m. Will review dividends after clarity on FCA/Supreme Court.
Boku (LON:BOKU) (£465m)	Full Year Results	Revenue +24% at constant FX. Expects >20% rev growth in FY25, significantly exceeding exps.
Mortgage Advice Bureau (Holdings) (LON:MAB1) (£441m)	Full Year Results	Revenues…

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shopping365

18th Mar

I think you mean CFO Gary McGrath Zotefoams (LON:ZTF)

ISAallowance

Zotefoams (LON:ZTF) , I find myself asking, do I want exposure to the risk that the expensive trainer market falls out of fashion with the youth, and if so, would I prefer Zotefoams (LON:ZTF) or JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.) as a currently beaten-up entry point?

Graham Neary

haha... thank you ezlifeme (nice username)

jonno

Tough call, but Zotefoams (LON:ZTF) products are focussed more on functionality than fashion and their earnings are forecast to grow significantly quicker than JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.)

Both are cheap on an historical basis, but my preference is for Zotefoams (LON:ZTF) with a new management team and growth strategy. The dependency on Nike is a risk but I don't see sport, especially running going out of fashion, unlike perhaps expensive glitzy trainers.

Yes, need to look at the keyboard more when typing.

Archer

I wonder if this will be the model for all new contracts or just smaller ones like the Crypto platforms to attract more interest in the trading space outside of the major stock exchanges. The Stock Exchanges will undoubtedly have their own requirements/standards that may mean that the upfront charges remain for these platforms. Crypto is more of a gamble on every level and if the contract doesn't gain momentum I would have thought the tech could then be used for another contract by Beeks Financial Cloud (LON:BKS) as they own it. I don't see this as a major gamble in the tech sector they will know what they are doing here. More customers can't be negative for a service platform and given the "popularity" of Crypto I'm surprised this new contract win didn't offset the downside a little. I agree with the Nasdaq comment below, I don't like the fact that it remains "confidential/not discussed much" given the potential.

Thanks for highlighting this. I hold General Accident (LON:GACA) and General Accident (LON:GACB) and agree with you that they have been great assets over the years particularly when compounded. Shame they are closing these down but at least they are doing this the proper way this time, the last planned shutdown of these assets got my blood boiling at the time. More simplification for Aviva (LON:AV.) which I have to complement them on and less cash out here could mean more cash out via the dividend, maybe. I'll probably buy some of their shares as a result.

Pimlico on Thames

Computacenter (LON:CCC) good read across in the market for my holdings in Kainos (LON:KNOS) and Softcat (LON:SCT) up 5.5% and 7.5% respectively.

Interesting comment in Harworth (LON:HWG) report

Data centres

The UK data centre market is in a material growth phase, with more recent interest outside of London and the South East. While different commentators have varying projections of the state of the UK market and potential growth, consensus is clear that the market is set to experience a double-digit CAGR out to 2030, driven by growing adoption of multi-cloud computing and network upgrades required to support the roll out of 5G alongside the need for more data storage and transmission from ecommerce, digital content, social media and the Internet of Things.

Currently, London is the largest data centre market in the EMEA and the second largest globally, with 1.14GW in operation, a 15% increase year-on-year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Data from JLL shows that capacity in the London market is set to double, including 504MW in development and 677MW in planning, driven by growth in multi-tenant data centres, hyperscale data centres and edge computing, coupled with a focus on energy efficiency and eco-friendly solutions. Emerging regional markets and remote campuses sitting outside the established metro areas are also beginning to reshape the data centre landscape as the emergence of AI and cloud computing facilities are becoming increasingly location agnostic, driven by power availability and site deliverability. This is evidenced by our own land sale for data centre use in Leeds and other market transactions across the North West and North East.

carmensfella

There is a free to watch Mello Investment Trust show starting in under two hours time...

Join us on the 18th March for an excellent Trust & Funds show. Annabel Brodie-Smith joins us for a interview followed by a couple of top quality trust presentations.

Mello Trust & Fund webinar starting at 1:30pm on Tuesday 18th March 2025.
hTTps://www.melloevents.com/mi...

The full line up is as follows:

1:30pm Interview with Annabel Brodie-Smith

2:00pm Company Presentation from JPMorgan Claverhouse

2:30pm Company Presentation from Polar Capital Financials Trust

3:00pm Investment Trusts and Funds Panel

These are very popular shows with company presentations, investing interviews, and panel sessions.

You can register for this webinar free of charge here:
hTTps://www.melloevents.com/mi...

rmillaree

JD Sports Fashion (LON:JD.)

one thing that is 100% clear with jd sports that they have been in continuous phase of downgrading future earnings every time they update the market recently.

so with a recent history of dripfeeding bad news on the horizon what makes you think that dripfeeding of future woes is anywhere near complete?

i dont doubt this a decently run company but personally - i would want to be seing a stabalisation ref future prospects before investing here.

as ever with bottom feeding though if the tidr does turn in your favour and you buy before the tide turns you might do well. looking at burberry that shares have done well from lows despite only really stabalising prospects somewhat.

Cuddlesticks

2025 is big year for Zotefoams (LON:ZTF) and Nike performance running shoes with the new Vaporfly 4, Vomero 18 and Streakfly 2 coming out. All of these are based on ZoomX (Zotefoams (LON:ZTF)) foam.

Others (especially Adidas and Asics) have at least caught up. Nike has lost its hegemony on world records and big race wins. An example is the recent Tokyo Marathon results

This change will cascade down to club runners, marathoners and park runners. For Zotefoams (LON:ZTF), Nike based growth might rely on the ZoomX foam being used in a wider range of shoes.

bensummers

Trustpilot engages in shady practices! https://www.financial-spread-b...

timarr

Not to mention Bytes Technology (LON:BYIT) as reported on above today, currently up over 20%.

I think we need to be aware of the threats to these businesses, though. This recent report on Klarna's AI plans spooked the Workday market - https://seekingalpha.com/news/...

Later reports suggested the AI threat was overdone, but as I've been seeing personally, there is huge disruption ahead from AI, albeit it's much more difficult to deploy effectively than is generally appreciated.

I would hope that the new generation of technology will actually provide a boost to the likes of Softcat (LON:SCT) and Bytes Technology (LON:BYIT) but that can't be taken as a given. If companies can custom build their own applications on their own data using AI then there is clearly some risk, even without considering new Ai powered players in the market.

In terms of data centres you might also look at Tritax Big Box REIT (LON:BBOX) who have plans for a huge operation close to Heathrow and other opportunities in the pipeline. Building new datacentres with the capacity, access to power and comms bandwidth needed is not easy to do.

Ben Peresson

hi Graham, many thanks for your analysis on YU GROUP. Could I please ask, how long does it to update Yu Group's stockreport?

intuitive6191

Many thanks for the responses - good to know that others here have found prefs useful over the years..

The choice is slowly dwindling , we lost RSAB recently. I still hold STAB and LLPD - but not clear how long these will survive.

Typo in my original post, should have been 2026 and not 2006!

planetx

Yes thats right

We had this at planet x

Absolute mafia bully boy company,

A total scam

If you pay them then you automatically send a message to a customer asking for a review, given say 99% of orders are seamless you get a 99% rating

If you dont pay them , anyone can leave a review , so the 1% that had a problem will go out of the way to say how crap you are.

Then you get a phonecall from trustpilot pointing out your crap rating .

If you pay them their fee you can both remove bad reviews plus have the system that enables you to ask your 99% of happy customers to click a link to say how great you are .

Its a total disgrace

I was stubborn and said they were nothing short of extortionists and we had a bad trustpilot rating

After i sold planet x new management paid the ransom and trustpilot rating went to top of the industry

The performance was actually worse

Anyway profitable scam artists .

Bouden54

Sounds like a bit of a protection racket and have always been suspicious of their reviews. Wouldn't be surprised if there is a clampdown which could obviously kill the business model.

Abel

I’ve used Computacenter (LON:CCC) services frequently in the past months, as they provide all the IT systems for the company I work for. They even have some staff on site supporting with any IT query. Their tech service is top notch compared with other providers, going straight to the point instead of following a script for resolving issues. A few months ago my laptop started to be buggy and I had a new one sent home with all the setup done the very best day. I do not hold any shares in the company but definitely I’d consider buying if the company performance starts to match their quality service

jmallin1972

Where will the recording be available to watch

MatthewBrazier

20th Mar

I take the contrary view https://mattbrazier.substack.c...

Daily Stock Market Report (Tue 18 Mar 2025) - HAT, ZTF, YU., TRST, CCC, BYIT, MAB1

Companies Reporting

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Graham Neary

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