3460 days ago
Advanced Computer Software Group (ASW) has announced results for its half year ended 31st August 2014 and that it “is confident that full year results, supported by strong contracted revenue visibility and a robust contract pipeline, will be in line with its expectations”. This is another stunning performance from the Queen of tech Vin Murria.
The interim results show an adjusted pre-tax profit of £22.2 million on revenue up 4% organically, to £108.1 million, generating earnings per share of 3.6p, up from 3.4p. After increased capitalised development expenditure (of £1.7 million) and dividends paid (of £2.1 million), as well as £2.3 million of acquisition spending, net debt was reduced by £11.5 million to £37.9 million.
3506 days ago
Advanced Computer Software (ASW) has issued a trading statement stating that it “expects to report first half results in line with the management's expectations” and considers that it has “a very strong platform for long term sustainable growth, both organically and through acquisitions”. Well done Vin Murria, the best CEO I the sector by a mile, who I saw shortly before leaving England and who never lets her investors down..
3611 days ago
Advanced Computer Software (ASW) has announced results for its year ended 28th February 2014 and flagged that “we have started the current year in line with our expectations. With double digit growth in the order book to £209m, a growing recurring revenue stream, and more customers taking our Software as a Service, we have excellent forward visibility and are increasingly confident about another strong year”. I am due to meet up with CEO Vin Murria in a couple of weeks and will report back then on the Nifty Fifty website.
3663 days ago
Direct from the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre a video featuring a UK Investor Show 2014 presentation by Vin Murria the awesome CEO of Advanced Computer Software (ASW)
3691 days ago
We are 34% ahead in six months on this Nifty Fifty share tip but there is more to come. Advanced Computer Software Group (ASW) earlier announced that it has been awarded preferred supplier status by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. It is not this contract per se but what it says for forecasts that matters.
3766 days ago
All three of my tips of the year are based on my macro assumptions which you can find HERE. In this case this is a play on UK GDP growth plus the sexiness of tech – my second tip of the year 2014 is software business Advanced Computer Software (ASW) at a 105p offer price.
3831 days ago
Advanced Computer Software Group (ASW), the provider of healthcare and business management software and IT services, has announced results for its half year ended 31st August 2013, noting that it is “increasingly confident about delivering another good set of full year results in line with the board's expectations.”
3854 days ago
Advanced Computer Software (ASW) has announced that it has signed an agreement with a global London-based business, to provide it with a full outsourced IT support service. The contract is worth a total of £14.5m over five years. CEO Vin Murria froths excitedly about the deal but hang on a sec old girl…
3865 days ago
Steve Moore and I first recommended this stock several years ago at 14p when we ran tips.com ( netting an average gain per tip of 45% during our 12 year tenure). The shares are still a buy at 86.25p
Investment Case:
4045 days ago
Kay Larsen is the PR bird at College Group PR who believes that she has a right to say how and where her client – AIM listed Advanced Computer Software Group (LSE:ASW) is covered. Furthermore she has accused me of hosting pornography on www.TomWinnifrith.com and claims ( falsely) that I accused a Welsh company of being sheep shaggers. Kay is a keen google user and does not like it that her clients (or presumably) her name now comes up next to images she finds innapropriate and now in the same google searches as pornography, sheep shagging etc. Kay does not want me writing about AIM listed Advanced Computer Software (LSE:ASW) at all as she would rather that only serious journalists who she approves of write about her clients in a way that she approves of. I describe the curious post lunch rantings of Kay and her vision of how she gets to dictate who writes about her clients and in what manner here.
But since Kay enjoys seeing on google what words come up when I mention College group PR, herself and Advanced Computer Software, I should make it clear that today I have not watched any live streaming teenage lesbian videos but that there is a lot of computer software that allows you to do that including many streaming feeds with college group scenes in them.
Happy Kay? I have tried to help google by getting all the key tag words from this piece in.
Now back to serious matters at hand. Advanced Computer Software is quite simply the best run tech stock on AIM.
4046 days ago
There is so much I could have covered in this week’s caption contest but somehow the spark of interest is missing. I cannot think of anything at all funny to say and so I was tempted not to run a contest at all but with no prize on offer I offer up the following picture taken, I gather in Wales. In honour of PR prude Kay Larsen of College Group PR who thinks that she has the right to dictate exactly where her clients are covered and how, I offer up this picture.
For what it is worth my entry is:
Sheep One: I just want to talk about pornography
The ram in the middle: I just want to shag some sheep
Sheep Two:
4050 days ago
Some folks think that I am the lackey of bear raider Evil Knievil, writing to order to suit his needs. Au contraire. He does not work for me and vice versa and given how insufferable the old boy can be when he gets it right, I – like many – take a perverse pleasure when one of his short positions sees his financial toes roasted close to the fire. And online retail giant ASOS (LSE:ASC) has roasted Evil badly over the years. He has been short for much of its meteoric rise and he is still short with the shares at 3,334p – he will carry on getting burned.
I write this totally objective comment on ASOS even though it uses as its PR form College Group which I appear to be having a bit of a battle with as of this afternoon. To read about Kay Larsen PR prude at College Group PR, Pornography, Cheryl Cole, sheep shagging and Advanced Computer Software click HERE
Moving on from the prude to the bear. Cawkwell (that is to say Evil Knievil) has always been of the view that ASOS shares trade on too high a PE because at some stage the earnings growth rate will slip. So far it has not happened and I guess it will have cost him several hundreds of thousands of pounds. It will cost him more.
4050 days ago
For 24 hours I have been endeavouring to get hold of a broker note on a stock I first tipped at 14p and which is almost a quid now and which I have written about for four years. I wanted to post an update. I shall do so later today. The PR bird who looks after this account is a Ms. Kay Larsen at College Group PR. I have just had the most bizarre conversation with Kay who I tried to contact earlier but she was at lunch. Now it is 3.30 and she is back at her desk and this is bizarre. Evil thinks that Kay must be thick. I reckon that she is just on another planet. Anyhow…
Who will you be writing this for I was asked? Dunno. Probably ADVFN. Ok. I thought that was easy. But Kay drawled…
I have just done a Google search on you. Ok.
It seems that you wrote an article on my client on February 18th with a pornographic picture attached. Er… what…I checked it out and it was a picture of Ms Cheryl Cole (see above) revealing far less than is revealed on page 3 of the Sun every day. Does College Group boycott the Sun too I wonder? Er that is not pornography I stammered, it is Cheryl Cole, Britain’s most talented chanteuse. Kay disagrees. It is pornography she insisted.
Kay was not deterred. Her Google search led her to assert “And I see that you described a Welsh company as sheep shaggers.” Er not exactly, I tried to explain that IQE is based in a land where folks make jokes about sheep molestation but that I had written a full apology to the entire Welsh nation for making that link and I accept now that no-one in Wales has ever got familiar with a sheep.
Kay was not impressed. “It is not where we want to position our client” she insisted. The client, BTW, is Advanced Computer Software (ASW). Kay wants to position her client so that it is commented on by “serious financial journals” and regards my blog differently. Her “perception is otherwise”. It is all to do with the “way you position your blog.”
Okay so let’s get this straight: Kay will not co-operate with me unless I “reposition my blog” so that it follows her vision of what is “serious” with regard to the images I use and the language I use. Hmmmmm
4086 days ago
Advanced Computer Software (ASW), arguably the best run buy and build software services group in London, has announced a £44 million placing at 80p. Post the completion of that placing Advanced will have (according to its house broker) net cash of £42 million and credit lines available to it of £74 million to make acquisitions. But in the absence of such deals on the table right now, the issue is dilutive so are investors buying a pig in a poke?
According to the house broker Arden Partners, if Advanced’s CEO Vin Murria makes no acquisitions the effect on earnings per share of this placing is to reduce the February 28th 2014 forecast from 4.9p to 4.5p and the 2015 forecast from 5.2p to 4.7p. Arden forecasts earnings of 4.5p this year ( up from 4.2p last). But to assume such numbers is to bet against Murria who, quite simply, has the best track record in buy and build in UK software services. She is a bird worth backing and following.
4156 days ago
AIM-listed healthcare and business management software and services provider, Advanced Computer Software (LSE ASW) has today announced a continuation of its buy-and-build strategy with an agreement to acquire Serco Learning, a leading UK education software provider, for £7.25 million in cash. This follows Advanced’s shares closing at an all-time high of 67.5p on Friday – capitalising the company at just over £251 million. The share price compares to 34p when I recommended the shares in September 2010 on t1ps, the website I founded in 2000 but departed in September. The following reviews today’s announcement from Advanced and the investment proposition at current share price levels…
4167 days ago
I published an pre-results note last week on AIM-listed, UK-focussed healthcare and business management software and services company Advanced Computer Software (LSE: ASW) ahead of the company’s results for the six months ended 31st August announced yesterday. As expected, the results were strong and the share price has moved ahead to hit a high of 66.5p – capitalising the company at £246.3 million and providing not a bad return since I recommended them as a share tip on t1ps, the website I founded in 2000 and wrote for until September, at 34p in September 2010. The following reviews the results and current investment proposition…
4176 days ago
Shares in UK-focussed healthcare and business management software and services company Advanced Computer Software (ASW) were recommended on t1ps.com (the website I founded and edited until September of this year when I left to set up The Nifty Fifty) at 34p in September 2010. They have risen consistently since to currently trade at 62.75p – not far off recent highs of 63.75p. Ahead of results for the six months ended 31st August 2012 expected next Wednesday (28th November), the following previews what we can expect…
