Wpp

[Wasron]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/16/wpp-breakup-advertising-sir-martin-sorrell?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This piece in the Guardian thinks a broken up WPP could be worth £17 a share.

[Clitheroekid]

Well I've finally taken the plunge and bought. WPP have been on my watch list for some months, and the drop today was the clincher. I can well see that there will be a period of uncertainty, but I think it's essentially a strong company, and I feel that the departure of Sorrell is probably a good thing.

He is, after all, 73, and although there are plenty of good businessmen of that age I think there was a significant danger that he wasn't willing or able to adjust quickly enough to the massive changes in the way goods and services are sold. This was particularly the case as it was `his company', and although it's entirely natural for him to want to carry on doing things the way he'd always done them so successfully it wasn't necessarily good for the long term future of the company.

But WPP are a very powerful company, and with new leadership I think they're quite capable of adapting to the extent that they need to do so, albeit possibly in a slimmed down version.

As with PFC and other such shares, my primary thinking is that they offer a good trading opportunity, and I'll be quite happy to sell if there's a decent profit on offer. But the `insurance' aspect is that if the SP remains much the same or even falls they're a share that I'm more than happy to add to my long term portfolio just for the yield.

[TahiPanasDua]

Tahi - Manure
Panas - Hot
Dua - Two

Really?

Really!!!!!

It translates as Hot S--t (2). The adjective comes after the noun in Malay.

It comes from a schoolboy insider joke in Anthony Burgess's highly amusing The Malayan Trilogy. In the book he refers to 2 fictional Malayan towns that translate as Hot S--t and P--s. Obviously this is lost on all but those with a minimal Malay lavatory vocabulary. The (2) comes from me locking myself out of my own user name due to crap (tahi?) keyboard skills.

Joi gin!!!
TP2.

[moorfield]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/16/wpp-breakup-advertising-sir-martin-sorrell?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This piece in the Guardian thinks a broken up WPP could be worth £17 a share.

It's interesting to see the broad split of it's divisions there, but for a group of such complexity who knows it's make up a number really - one might get an equally good valuation by getting a chimp to throw at a dartboard ....

[Bouleversee]

An article in The Times today says that Moody's has downgraded WPP, who they say is facing operational weakness after Sorrell's departure. It cut the outlook from stable to negative and maintained the company's credit rating at Baa2, two notches above junk status. It said that Sorrell's exit could cause a departure of big-name clients, e.g. Ford, Mars and HSBC.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs say they see a potential risk of disruption to WPP's operations in the near term.

I forget whether it was Maurois or Maupassant who said "Life is only one damn thing after another".

[kempiejon]

I forget whether it was Maurois or Maupassant who said "Life is only one damn thing after another".

I thought it was Mark Twain, but that looks to be apocryphal from a quick web search. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/09/02/life-one/

[Bouleversee]

It was Andre Maurois: I dare say lots of people have said the same thing, but I read it in one of his books when I was young.

Les discours du Docteur O'Grady - Page 89 - Google Books Result
https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1107486831
Andre Maurois, ‎E. G. Le Grand - 2015 - ‎History
Je venais d'acheter un cinéma pour nos hommes; nos artilleurs travaillaient de mieux en mieux; j'avais des chances de devenir général et Dundas m'apprenait le jazz. Et voilà les politiciens qui font la paix et Clemenceau qui démobilise Aurelle ! Ah! la vie n'est qu'une damnée chose après l'autre.

[monabri]

And I thought it was one of Bennet's characters, "Rudge" (played by Russell Tovey)

https://youtu.be/Qx-w4Z43Cp0

[Bouleversee]

Lovely, Mon. I need something to make me laugh.

[idpickering]

Lovely, Mon. I need something to make me laugh.

Well the 4.6% uptick in the SP as of now might help in that regard Bouleversee. Not that we allegedly care about that hereabouts.

Ian.

[Bouleversee]

Great, Ian, though as you know I don't hold WPP. The 1pm news on BBC4 had an interview with a senior staff member who didn't think Sorrell's leaving would affect business and in fact would liberate managers from his hands-on control. Only time will tell. The reasons for his departure were vaguely discussed: using company money for own purposes and personal misconduct; nothing new there then.

[idpickering]

Great, Ian, though as you know I don't hold WPP. The 1pm news on BBC4 had an interview with a senior staff member who didn't think Sorrell's leaving would affect business and in fact would liberate managers from his hands-on control. Only time will tell. The reasons for his departure were vaguely discussed: using company money for own purposes and personal misconduct; nothing new there then.

Hi Bouleversee, as you know, I only brought them on board my HYP last week, so early days yet. I'm ok with them as they further expand my diversification, without it being 'diworseification' IMHO. A quality outfit, at a knock-down price. I might top up next month too.

Ian.

[miner1000]

As I said in an earlier post, if you believe they have gone ex-growth and can adapt to the digital world they might be a very good HYP share.

For what it is worth, IC has them rated as a sell in this week's edition, but they don't do HYP.

I dont hold and will wait a few months or years to see how they go before I would consider them for my HYP which I live off. I have other potential candidates including RB which I see are down 6% this morning so must be approaching HYP territory.

Miner

[monabri]

I have other potential candidates including RB which I see are down 6% this morning so must be approaching HYP territory.
Miner

crosspost to RB.

viewtopic.php?p=133435#p133435

[Clitheroekid]

As with PFC and other such shares, my primary thinking is that they offer a good trading opportunity, and I'll be quite happy to sell if there's a decent profit on offer.

A 12% profit in two weeks is a decent one by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not finding it as easy to make that selling decision as I'd anticipated, which I suppose is why I'd never make a good trader. Time to delegate the decision by way of another stop loss!

[idpickering]

As with PFC and other such shares, my primary thinking is that they offer a good trading opportunity, and I'll be quite happy to sell if there's a decent profit on offer.

A 12% profit in two weeks is a decent one by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not finding it as easy to make that selling decision as I'd anticipated, which I suppose is why I'd never make a good trader. Time to delegate the decision by way of another stop loss!

I think it's natural for a HYPer to not sell out of any share without a lot of thinking about it, (pickering). I do dither to much for my own good I think, which is why I tend to leave my shares alone, mostly.

Ian.

[kempiejon]

With PFC I'd expect it to keep climbing back up to £7 or £8 perhaps more with some rumbles along the way in the meantime I think they pay a high enough yield - a profit is a profit of course but if the share in question still delivers an income of acceptable level I'm rarely motivated to sell. In fact on a few occasions when I've sold a share because the yield is only middling and the profit was several years of dividends that half of that share I still hold has gone on from strength to strength with further capital and income growth and it's hard to find more shares like that.