Back in January, I believed that my shares in Sage Group (SGE) - the “British multinational-enterprise software company, based in Newcastle upon Tyne” - had hit my 800 pence target, and thus that it was time to take my profits.  A few days later, I did.  But what do I think today, after a fall to around 670 pence?

As predicted on this fine website, AIM-listed Purplebricks Group (PURP)’s interims to October 2021 are suitably disastrous. But since the company isn’t bust (yet) the market has reacted with relief and the shares are marginally up on the day, at 20.3p – though a long way shy of the 50-60p they were at only last autumn, and a country mile off the £5 at peak Neil Woodford-ramp back in 2017. The opening preamble tries to polish the turd, but a peek at the formal accounts shows that it lost £20.2 million in just six months. During a housing boom where anything standing sold within hours and average prices roofed it as mortgages were almost free to a good home. Yikes – just how bad might it have been in a slump?!

This week Gold again went nowhere, closing at $1783 against last week’s….er…..$1783. But beneath the apparent market inactivity I sense there is a change of sentiment going on. The issue for me is that in theory, with interest rate rises on the horizon (making bonds more attractive) and suggestions that inflation may be moderating, Gold should be falling in price yet it is holding up quite nicely.

I despair at the predicament our blessed government has left us in. Having prevailed over Covid with the mammoth achievement of our vaccination programme, we find ourselves caught in a doom-loop of a “pingdemic”, rising cases, children again having been denied their education, public services not happening and empty supermarket shelves. Yet at the same time Covid-hospitalisations and Covid deaths are way, way down and we had “freedom” day which wasn’t so free.

It was Harold Wilson who said that a week is a long time in politics. It seems now that a day is an eternity. One moment Christmas is all on, the next day it is all off. Yesterday, London and much of the surrounding area were again plunged into crisis: it was placed in Tier 4 of a three tier system  to control Covid-19 – effectively it is in Lockdown 3, only days after Lockdown 2 came to an end. Lockdown 2 must have been a great success then?! I have complained before that it is impossible to run a business under such circumstances – see Tom Winnifrith’s Bearcast yesterday – and consequently, as an investor, investing is made impossible.

A busy earnings Wednesday, so let us dive in…

As my thoughts turn towards my tips of the year for 2020, it is only proper and correct to review how my tips for 2019 have worked out. Yes, I know that the year is not quite yet finished...but let's face it, nothing that much is going to change now…

It has been very busy over the last few weeks but I really appreciate it when readers comment on my articles, even if they have a different perspective or conclusion. After all, this is what makes a market – so keep them coming. So playing a little bit of catch-up with some of the comments that have been posted on my articles...

First for the new week, a quick update on one of my stocks of the year Sage (SGE) which confirmed today that it had completed the sale of its Sage Pay unit to Elavon for £232 million or around about fifteen times operating profit. The company noted that 'our vision of becoming a great SaaS company for customers and colleagues alike means we will continue to focus on serving small and medium sized customers with subscription software solutions for Accounting & Financials and People & Payroll', hence why it prefers to sell the payments unit and strike a continuing joint venture with Elavon too...

I am not the biggest fans of the large accountancy and consultancy companies but it was quite striking that a new report from EY observed that there 'were more profit warnings from listed companies in the first nine months of 2019 than in any year since 2008'.  And you guessed it - as one of the deadwood press notes - 'the report cites concerns over the economy and delays or cancellations of contracts as the two main causes for companies to miss their forecasts. Brexit was highlighted as the reason for 22% of profit warnings in the three months to September — up from 10% in the first quarter'. 

Hello, Share Savers. Some of my colleagues use Sage (SGE) for their accounts and to keep their businesses in top shape. But I’ve sometimes had doubts about the share price. Like many British technology giants, it’s faced stiff opposition from competitors.

Whilst one of my tips of the year Sage Group (SGE) goes from strength to strength, the other one - GVC (GVC) - continues to be all over the place as I recounted here a couple of months ago . 

When I last wrote on one of my tips of the year Sage (SGE) I observed that i retained clear hopes 'of a 7 or an 8 in front of the share price in 2019. Buy'. Well blow me down...the shares finished last week in the 740s, following the publication of its latest trading update. 

Being a slave to news flow, despite it only being mid-January it is time already for an update on my two tips of the year as both reported updates earlier today…

On Thursday 29 September 2016 at 10.41 AM Wandisco (WAND) boss Dave Richards resigned. Or so we were told. The RNS prepared by Non Exec chairman Paul Walker (who agreed to take a massive pay hike and go Exec) stated that Richards was "stepping down.". No reason was given. In fact Richards had been fired by Walker, head of the "Sage crew" within the firm who had been battling Richards for a good while, the main issue being costs: Richards ( the founder) wanted restraint, the men from the "big company" had other ideas. Today Richards was reinstated. It gets better still and more farcical.

Noting the disclosure that I own shares in AIM-listed Access Intelligence (ACC), so I am talking my own book, I was interested to peruse the numbers for the year to November 2015 as released yesterday. The headline numbers look great: revenue from continuing operations up 89%, recurring revenue from continuing operations nigh-on doubled and there was plenty of cash. How do things look beneath the surface?

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following details changes to net short positions in November (red in first table means newly disclosed short position(s) opened in the company in addition to the noted change - see in the second table)...