Forget reading the multi-part regulatory news disclosures from insurance behemoth Aviva (AV.) today, just click on the webcast re-run and listen to the first fifteen or twenty minutes presentation by the company’s new CEO Amanda Blanc. It has been a long time since I was so impressed by the initial clarity of expression in a large cap corporate turnaround plan…

Self-styled “leading UK focused retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors for the homeowner market” Safestyle UK (SFE) has updated including on a plan “to restart operations, including manufacturing, installations, surveying and selling activities by the end of May” – and the shares have currently responded to around 25.5p...

A half-year trading update from self-styled “the leading retailer and manufacturer of PVCu replacement windows and doors to the UK homeowner market”, Safestyle UK (SFE) includes “revenues for the period will be c.£64.4m, 6.4% higher than H1 2018 with May and June being c.15% higher than the same months in 2018. FENSA installation statistics for the first half indicate that the market has declined in volume by 8.2% versus H1 2018… The group continues to improve its margins and operational KPIs versus the prior year and has delivered good progress during H1”. Having reached more than 90p again in May, the shares though currently remain around 66p…

Shares in Carclo (CAR) are currently more than 5% higher on the day on the back of “Update and timing of results announcement” news. However, the current 13.5p share price compares to 20.5p when I cautioned earlier this month (and around 140p when I first warned here)…

I was at an event yesterday and found myself repeating that well known maxim that 'half of advertising spending works...I am just not sure which half'. I was reminded of this by the numbers from advertising behemoth WPP (WPP) this morning…

A “Capital Structure, Recovery plan & Trading Update” announcement from Countrywide (CWD) – discounted fundraising ahoy to fund changes due to poor trading?...

Previously writing on Real Good Food (RGD) in October I noted a Trading Statement including “revenue growth, however, is not currently being translated into greater profitability where H1 performance has been disappointing compared to the board's previous expectations, particularly in September”. There’s now a 10:30am Trading Statement. Why am I not confident…

It was only yesterday on this site that I wrote: 'One of the hardest things for less experienced stock market participants to get their heads around is the expectations game. Numbers can be good (or bad) but if the teenage scribbler analyst, ‘professional’ fund managers and ‘the great unwashed’ in the form of other market participants broadly already think something, then confirmation of this event is not going to really change the share price needle. Of course as a consequence companies then start to try to become clever in managing expectations in order to 'beat' anticipated numbers...but that's for another time'. It is clear that Tesco (TSCO) either did not get the message or the animal spirits of those teenage scribbler analysts got the better of them…

On a 3rd October announcement that Lyndon Davies had agreed to join as CEO, Hornby (HRN) non-executive director and Interim Chairman David Adams was “delighted to welcome Lyndon to the board”, adding “Hornby will continue with its turnaround plan”. There’s today a “Trading Statement and Directorate Change” announcement…