Financial Trading Blog

Stock of the day 28/06/2016 – Stagecoach Group PLC




Following its 15% plunge at the end of 2015 Stagecoach had a lot of work to do in 2016. Sadly, it hasn’t proved up to the task, slumping from a starting price of £2.99 to a current, Brexit-inspired, near 5-year low of £2.10 (IT-Finance.com, 27/06/2016).

Stagecoach’s East Coast franchise, taken over in 2015, has become the main issue for the company, as outlined in a March downgrade from HSBC. The broker claimed that the franchise, a joint venture for Stagecoach with Virgin, is already showing signs of weakness, a sentiment reiterated by rail union RMT, which reported rumours that ‘serious losses [were] mounting up’ on the East Coast.

Stagecoach Group PLC Chart June 2016 Spreadex Financial Spread Betting
(Source: IT-Finance.com 28/06/2016)

Matters weren’t helped by the fact that the company itself confirmed an overall weaker rail outlook with its April update. Stagecoach pointed to a bevy of reasons for the slowdown, including the impact of increased terrorism concerns (the main catalyst for its sharp December drop), lower fuel prices causing customers to opt for their own transport and a general downturn in real earnings preventing people for travelling as much.

In terms of its full year figures on Wednesday, analysts are expecting the East Coast to remain the most pressing concern for Stagecoach’s investors, with full year revenue growth slipping to 4.9% for the region. The company did, however, claim it was on track to meet adjusted earnings expectations back in that April update. Investors will also be keen to here Stagecoach’s assessment of the Brexit, something that may well exacerbate the issues the company was already dealing with.

Stagecoach Group PLC has a consensus rating of ‘Hold’ with an average target price of £3.10.


DISCLAIMER


Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. For professional clients, spread betting and CFD trading can also result in losses larger than your initial stake or deposit.

Spreadex Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, provides an execution only service and does not provide advice in any way. Nothing within this update should be deemed to constitute the provision of investment advice, recommendations, any other professional advice in any way, or a record of our trading prices. This update does not constitute or form part of an offer of, or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract therefore. Any persons placing trades based on their interpretation of the comments or information within this update does so entirely at their own risk.

No representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited, is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained within this update by Spreadex Ltd or any of its employees and no liability is accepted by such persons for the accuracy or completeness of any such information or opinions. As such, no reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information and opinions contained within this update.

The information contained within this update is the intellectual property of Spreadex Ltd and is protected by UK and International copyright laws. All rights reserved. Users may however freely download, distribute and reproduce extracts of the contents, subject always to accrediting Spreadex Ltd as the source and providing a hyperlink to machibet77.com.