Seven weeks ago I admitted that I got “the horn for the world of sack kraft paper and paper bags” and thought Mondi (MNDI) shares were cheap. It is good to see the shares up over 10% over the last month, including an over 4% increase today due to a sale in Russia.

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced results for its year ended 30th April 2023 and that it has confidence ahead. Is there still good upside from a current around 280p share price then?

Whilst most City analysts are focused on the latest thoughts from the Bank of England, this morning I am thinking more about the latest set of full year numbers from DS Smith (SMDS), a company which I last wrote about in March and regarded then as cheap with a decent dividend yield.  What do I think now?

It is another interesting day in the world’s financial markets, especially as just a few corporate names are coming up with their largest formal reports or updates or reasons to panic. We will get onto that excitement a bit later, but I was pleased to see today’s pre-close update from DS Smith (SMDS), whose shares I am a fan of as last discussed HERE.

I know that the world of corrugated box packaging and the like is not very interesting, but if you want to hold a FTSE 100 company in your pension fund portfolio which is not a commodities name you could do a lot worse than DS Smith (SMDS). I last loved up the stock a couple of months ago when the price was c. 265p a share. As I write this morning it is nearer 320p a share, so I hope you purchased a few back then. But if you didn’t don’t worry, I believe the stock is still cheap.

Hello Share Spanners. Now ain’t the best time to buy shares, unless perhaps you can find a firm in accord with modern trends that makes and supplies stuff that’s essential to other companies. One such idea is DS Smith (SMDS), which is not an outfit I’ve featured before.

I will let other experts write about the company I call Royal Wail, Henry the Eighth called The Royal Mail and apparently today it is known as International Distributions Services plc (IDS), which today seems quite good at strikes and anticipating higher losses. Apparently, “excluding any charges for voluntary redundancy costs…this may increase to around a £450 million loss if customers move volume away for longer periods following the initial disruption".  One for the experts to say the least…  Meanwhile, I am more interested in today’s update from the multinational packaging and paper group Mondi (MNDI). 

A new week and finally some good news from the United States for GSK plc (GSK) as the “FDA approves Boostrix for immunisation during pregnancy for the prevention of whooping cough in newborn infants”. It is not enough alone to start pushing the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology FTSE 100 name up, but it is a bit of good news for the company’s struggling CEO. As I have noted before, Dame Emma has a lot still to prove. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the FTSE 100, I am excited to see the over 8% rise in the shares today of DS Smith (SMDS).

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has issued an AGM update including a trading statement and that Finance Director Adrian Marsh has informed the company of his intention to retire on a successor being in place.

The thing about being an investor is that not everything goes your way. However, like any challenge or issue in life, what really matters is how you react. I have been a fan of DS Smith (SMDS), a leading multinational packaging business, I last talked about at length a few months ago. It has not been the greatest year for many stocks and DS Smith is among them. However I am not surprised that following today’s update in respect of the period since 1 May 2022, the shares are up this morning. Even more importantly, I think it is still a key FTSE 100 position for me.

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced results for its year ended 30^th April 2022, with it emphasising “a strong improvement in profitability and high cash generation… The new financial year has started well, building on the momentum”. This sounds good.

I previously wrote about DS Smith (SMDS) back in late April when I was a fan of the “leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services worldwide”, but the shares have fallen back a bit since. So how do I feel about the company now following the publication of its full-year 2021/22 numbers?

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced year ending 30^th April “trading in line with management expectations… enter the next financial year with confidence”, helping the shares up to 325.6p.

Hello Share Catchers. Like me, you’re probably fed up with the amount of over-packaging that still goes on. Look at those silly Easter eggs we’ve recently scoffed. But we still need some packaging. And D S Smith (SMDS) is a company that’s big in cardboard boxes, cartons and paper, both of which are recycled. Furthermore, it’s on a mission to reduce plastic packaging and carbon footprints. This Footsie member has so far replaced over 170 million items of single-use plastic from its customers’ supply chains with recyclable alternatives.

Another busy Thursday during the global corporate earnings season. Three names are of particular interest to me today…

After the excitement of Wednesday’s market moves comes Thursday…which unsurprisingly after the down and up volatility of the last few days is a bit more boring. We could all probably do with it, although a regular bout of volatility is the markets for you (and I would have it no other way). As for today’s corporate updates, two strike me as being particularly noteworthy, Capita (CPI) and DS Smith (SMDS)…

This has certainly been an interesting first four days of March for global investment markets.  And – in a way – being a bit too busy with meetings and travel over Thursday and Friday to do anything much with investment market choices is no bad thing. 

Interesting to see that for the first time in over 20 years, the technology-focused NASDAQ index was up 1%+ intraday and finished down more than 1% for the second consecutive day. It may or may not happen for a third consecutive day today, but you get the general point about being deeply thoughtful about your investment choices. Frankly you should be always like this, but the last 12 years or so has favoured too many deeply-excited technology investors. On a related point, I have talked quite a few times about ESG matters.

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced results for its half-year ended 31^st October 2021 and that it has “confidence to deliver a significant improvement in profitability during the second half of this year” following an increased pre-tax profit to £175 million in the first half.

There is always so much to write about on a Thursday, especially when two of my top twenty holdings are reporting. I have held DS Smith (SMDS) shares for a while now, referring to it as a ‘strange name but a great company’.

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced for its half-year it is more than offsetting significant input cost increases, helped by continuing strong structural drivers of growth.

Thursday is always a busy day for investors and this week is certainly no different. It’s all good fun! I was pleased to see a short update from one of my top five pension holdings DS Smith (SMDS) – the packaging-focused business I previously wrote on HERE and which has made me good returns over the last 18 months.

It is just over 25 years since I first analytically appraised the multinational packaging business DS Smith (SMDS). It was a very different business back then as the world of paper and plastics in the 1990s was relevant but dull (in other words the perfect space to write an analytical dissertation for my postgraduate Finance and Investment course). Life has rolled on at multiple levels but I have been excited by this name for the last couple of years, last noting in June that I ‘typically loving-up its exposure to e-commerce delivery box-making…along with a capability for sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services worldwide’. It is good to see the new year-to-date high this morning following the publication of its AGM update (even though the share did reach a slightly higher level back in 2018).

DS Smith (SMDS) “is pleased to announce the proposed sale of its De Hoop paper mill in the Netherlands to De Jong Packaging for a cash consideration of €50 million (c. £43 million)”. Good news from this leading provider of sustainable paper-based packaging?

At 425p, shares in fully fibre-based, innovative packaging for consumer goods company DS Smith (SMDS) are well up on our 321.8p offer price November recommendation but is there more to come, particularly following results for its year ended 30^th April 2021 and “accelerated opportunities a post-Covid-19 world offers”?…

I admit I am very boring when talking about everything including shares. It is amazing that my wife is still with me. Back in April, I observed about FTSE 100 name DS Smith (SMDS) I ‘typically loving-up its exposure to e-commerce delivery box-making…along with a capability for sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services worldwide’. The share has historically worked really well for me – especially over the last nine months – but I do admit it has made little further progress since my last write up a couple of months ago. So should I still be excited or start to consider alternative options after today’s publication of its full year numbers to the end of April?

Goodness it has been busy over the last couple of days in the corporate earnings world! Yesterday I really wanted to get an opportunity to make more comments about the condom business of Reckitt (RKT), which I positively wrote up here back in February. Anyhow for various reasons or another – absolutely nothing to do with condoms! – I never got around to it. However, despite the positive share price move since February, I still remain a buyer with an over 7500p target.

First I see that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) shares were nicely firm yesterday.  As I noted here back in mid-February I could see an opportunity to buy the shares…which I did later on that month.  Yesterday’s move was driven by an article – planted in the FT – which noted that “Hedge fund Elliott builds up multibillion-pound stake in GSK…Activist group’s investment comes as UK drugmaker’s performance lags rivals”. 

I have written many times about DS Smith (SMDS), typically loving-up its exposure to e-commerce delivery box-making…along with a capability for ‘sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services worldwide’. I know this is not that exciting an area but the first bit in particular has growing demand all around the world. Even the average company is working out that to be competitive against the Amazons of this world, having such a box option matters. Unfortunately for them DS Smith is a big supplier to Amazon too…

There is a lot happening today, but three names strike me as worthy of comment. First some great rumours on one of my largest holdings DS Smith (SMDS), which I last wrote up HERE earlier in the month…

For me, a combination of earnings updates this week from the mining and banking sectors will give larger cap UK share watchers a bit of a focus.  Markets so far in February have broadly copied the positive take seen last November and December, although at least it is now based on actual Covid-19 vaccine tests and being the other side of Brexit deal details.  Yes – as discussed via a bunch of names such as DS Smith (SMDS), Whitbread (WTB) and Ibstock (IBST) in recent weeks – the scope for interest in cyclically recovering names remains opportunistic.  

Today’s numbers from the paper and packaging name Smurfit Kappa (SKG) were damn impressive in my opinion.  Certainly it is no disaster to say that ‘prices rose rapidly in H2…and continue to see prices increasing in early 2021’. And when you look a bit more deeply, you realise that the rise of e-commerce remains a great growth area as firms such as Amazon are driving a lot more demand.  Smurfit Kappa’s CFO observed that such demand is ‘here to stay’ and even Brexit was not that much of a concern given that the company produces locally rather than relying on significant exports between Ireland/Europe and the UK. 

Recent recommendation packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has announced results for its half-year ended 31^st October 2020 and that there’s “growing momentum into H2”…

An early this month “Pre-close statement” from DS Smith (SMDS) included “corrugated box volumes in and throughout Q2 have returned to growth… The step-change in use of e-commerce is clearly established across our territories with very high demand from customers for e-commerce packaging as we head into the festive season”. The shares responded higher… but the current share price compares to approaching 400p early this year and, with also a dividend expected for the company’s half-year which ended 31^st October 2020, there looks further recovery value here…

Over time packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has been a real friend to me, as well as giving me plenty of geek opportunities to talk about packaging (which is now formally my third favourite geek area to talk about after ball bearings and tyres). Back in July I wrote that ‘if the share is still below three quid, expect me to be supplementing my holding…corrugated board is much sexier than Mr Market is perceiving it’. Well as I write the share price just about is still below three quid and I have built up my shareholding further over the last few months. Judging by today’s update, I am not ruling out doing so again…

I talked a little bit about deals yesterday, noting that ‘the old mantra of “price is what you pay and value is what you get” is still hugely relevant. In terms of price or relative value then the UK market does rather stand out at the moment. Elsewhere, I even used a chart in a presentation recently that showed that UK equity performance was at a fifteen year relative performance low against even Eurozone equities. Kind of embarrassing!…

Don’t worry, I do not need to be reminded about the story of King Canute but I think the sell-off in shares in the packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) this morning post its full year results does not make a huge amount of sense – and my instinct is that Mr Market has provided investors with an opportunity to build or instigate a position...

Hello, Share Moochers. Being a green sort of investor, I’ve rather avoided the packaging company DS Smith (SMDS). Like me, you may get hot under the collar at all the over-packaging we see in supermarkets. Particularly the plastic kind. But I’ve learned that DS Smith is a paper packager, not a plastic one. And with paper and cardboard boxes becoming more popular at the expense of plastic packaging, the company could have a rosier future...

The gist of my article a few days ago on dividend behemoths Imperial Brands (IMB) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) was that if either name cut their dividend by half and the shares rose, this would be super bullish. I know that dividend cuts are naturally disliked by income-seeking investors but in a world where I see respected analysts are calculating that '35% of companies in the FTSE All-Share index have cut their dividend in the past 30 days...that’s an even faster pace than when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008', you have to get with the backdrop.

Let us get the positive couple of comments out of the way first, before we do a little analytical dance on the ongoing doom at retail property company Intu (INTU). I was really pleased with the style and form of the trading update comments from both packing company DS Smith (SMDS) and recycling name Biffa (BIFF) today. I have written about both before - most recently here and here - and if you are thinking there is nothing to buy in the FTSE-350 at this moment in time...then I would suggest you look at both names…

Too many corporate updates of interest out today, but a review of three which particularly talked to me…

Regular readers will know that I am a complete investment geek and therefore will not be surprised that I regard the two hours I spent during the summer discussing corporate whatevers with a representative of corrugated board producer DS Smith (SMDS) as one of my highlights of the year. I last wrote (briefly) about the name HERE and told you to continue buying/accumulating the stock, a view which has been sensibly remunerative even taking into account today's surprise 4% fall in the shares post the interim results publication…

If you are a global larger cap investor like me, this time of year is a bit of a gird your loins moment with too many different companies reporting results at the same time. A busy but exciting time...so let us dive straight in and look at some UK-listed names worthy of observation this morning. First up is the oil behemoth Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB)…

Before the pleasure of confirming that I am still not eating at one of the dining establishments of Restaurant Group (RTN) whilst continuing to recommend avoiding its shares like the plague, a bit of duty calls…

There's nothing like a thirty percent pop in a share price to make you feel like an investing genius...even if all this does is compress your loss on an individual share a little bit.  

I am a fully paid-up member of the investment geek club and my continued love for corrugated board company DS Smith (SMDS) has been well documented. Thursday's full year 2018-19 results correctly led to an approximate 5% bounce in the shares and 'a year of significant delivery' meant more synergies from acquisitions, the sale of the plastics division which helped notably improve the balance sheet, 'volume growth in all regions through FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) and e-commerce focus', positive pricing, record margins and an upgrade in medium-term target plus an organic adjusted operating profit growth of 9% and a 13% hike in the dividend. Phew!...

Lots of numbers and comments out today...

I was running around yesterday talking to a couple of different groups of people about the current market backdrop and broadly concluding that it is patchy but not impossible out there. I even managed (somehow!) not to mention the 'Brexit' word for well over half my chat through...which was certainly a blessed relief for everyone there and me in equal proportions. Anyhow these obligations hindered me from filing any copy and the stock I clearly would have written about would have been Ferguson (FERG)...

I loved up 'the leading provider of corrugated packaging' DS Smith (SMDS) here in early December, observing that it was "boxing up an interesting opportunity for investors looking out over the next year. I would buy anticipating the share having a '4' in front of it at some point in 2019 as a minimum". Today's update is notable for two reasons. The first is that trading is going well. The second is that it has de-risked the balance sheet following the sale of its Plastics division…

Back in the day, I used to be an institutional fund manager and did go on a number of brokerage lunches at around this time of year. The essential underlying aim of these lunches did not change for years: a thank you for business given during the year...and a pitch or ten about stocks that could be bought (or sold) early the next year in order to keep that commission flow going (and from the broker's perspective hopefully building). It seemed to me that the ideas took a very simple form: buy the underperformers and sell the outperformers. Well who does not like a bargain or - indeed - to take profits? So from an akin premise - but with an added slice of cynicism (and no need to elicit your brokerage commission flows!) - what does a 'brokerage lunch list' throw up as interesting in December 2018 looking ahead into 2019?...

Regular readers will know I like a bit of geek chic in my investment choices and the surprising rise in importance of the packaging sector as both part of the structural rise of the e-commerce sector and as a way for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) names to differentiate their offering in a competitive world, may have surprised a few people. It certainly has excited me over recent years and a year ago - as I noted here - DS Smith (SMDS) was riding high. The 2018 35%+ share price fall however is striking…

Another busy week of UK corporate reporting. I could write about Ashtead (AHT) again but frankly I called it a take profits a quarter ago at twenty quid a share and in early trading today it is below this level again...and the CFO has decided to exit. The latter event all looks very orderly but the as good as it gets feeling lingers. I could also write about my old mucker DS Smith (SMDS).

I loved up DS Smith (SMDS)'s trading update just over a month ago and the formal half year numbers see a continuation of my enthusiasm. You cannot quibble with 5% organic growth, a 7% rise in the interim dividend, an 'excellent' bedding down of the new US expansion and it has even thrown a new cheeky deal in to show the continued scope for European expansion. In the world of packaging, paper and plastics I cannot offer you corporate violence and huge fluctuating excitements but I can offer you a decent growth-at-a-reasonable-price company.

Giants of investment analysis like Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett have told us that the stock market is a voting machine in the short-term and a weighing machine in the longer-term...and of course there is more than a hint of truth to such observations.  Hype, hope, spin, right-on trends and related can push a share up or down for a while but gravity always wins in the end in the form of cash flows and reality.  And with such an observation we turn to to the runners and riders for the upcoming quarterly FTSE-100 and FTSE-250 reshuffle. 

A busy corporate update Tuesday and three sets of comments stand out for me.

Fans of The Graduate will recognise the form, if not the precise wording of the title. Life has thankfully moved on from the 1960s and in today’s world of internet delivery and crowded consumer choice, packaging matters from both a practical and differentiating perspective.

Over the years I have heard a lot of rubbish about asset allocation – your choices between equities, bonds, ‘alternative investments’ and cash – being an 80%+ determinant of your return as well as the notion that stock picking is futile and we should all save time and money buying a bunch of cheap-as-chips tracker funds.

Back at the turn of the year I chose DS Smith (SMDS) as my second share tip of the year noting that the corrugated board and packaging company was:

A nice round 300 days ago (here) I unburdened myself on the B&Q, Screwfix and the more exotically named Castorama and Brico Depotowner Kingfisher (KGF) with the observation that: 

Unless you want to stop the conversation dead one tip for a smooth running social gathering event is never to mention corrugated board or packaging. Nevertheless in the ever more consumer convenience world we all live in such products become intimately aligned with ecommerce and retailer brand differentiator trends and that’s why corrugated board and packaging are growing faster than underlying GDP.