Codemasters Confident of Meeting Full-Year Forecast

Codemasters (CDM) released a robust trading statement this week and management are confident that their full-year results will be in line with expectations.

The video game developer generated revenue of £39.8m for the six-month period versus £39.7m for the same period last year (H1 2019). Digital sales as a proportion of revenue continue to increase, representing 62% of total sales, resulting in an improved gross margin of 89%. Net cash also increased to £24.6 million versus £17 million (H1 2019).

Whilst the shares have had a pretty mediocre last three months, the long-term technical structure remains bullish and we’re more than happy to continue to hold them in our AIM Investor portfolio.

Scientific Digital Imaging Make Good Start to New Financial Year

Tech firm Scientific Digital Imaging (SDI) updated the market with a short but sweet statement following their September AGM.

“The Group has made a good start to the new financial year. Despite the potential for economic headwinds, the Board is comfortable with current trading and in delivering financials in line with market expectations for the year. The Group continues to perform well and we look forward to updating the market further with our half year results in December 2019.”

Having recommended SDI in August, it’s still very early days as we typically have an investment time horizon of 1-3 years. The shares are currently trading just above a major support zone between 48p-49p and we’ll be watching prices closely to see if this key structural level is respected.

Ramsdens Touch £2 Resistance  

Ramsdens share price touched £2 resistance this week following a bullish trading update on Monday.

The foreign exchange and pawnbroking firm stated that trading had been in-line with expectations during the first half to 30^th Sep 2019. They also took the decision to scrap some of their slower-moving jewelry stock to take advantage of a relatively high gold price – resulting in an additional, non-recurring gross profit of approximately £600,000 in its first half results.

CEO Peter Kenyon commented:

“The Group has delivered a good performance in the first half of the year. Once again this reflects the strength of the Group’s diversified income streams which continue to offer resilience in what remains a challenging consumer environment.

The stores acquired from The Money Shop have performed well and the Board continues to appraise acquisition opportunities in this highly fragmented market. The widely publicised recent collapse of one of the Group’s largest competitors has again highlighted the importance of our outstanding and highly-trusted customer proposition.

The Board remains confident that the Group will continue to successfully deliver its strategic objectives and make further progress during the second half of the year.”

Ramsdens report Interim Results on 3^rd December and based on this week’s update, we’re confident that the shares will continue to show strength ahead of this release.