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Stanley Gibbons crashes out

A second trading statement from Stanley Gibbons revealed the group won't meet current-year financial forecasts.
October 8, 2015

Two trading statements in two weeks. That's rarely a good sign. Stamp and coin dealer Stanley Gibbons (SGI) has admitted it won't achieve market forecasts for the current financial year, thanks to prolonged weaknesses in its Asian business and a particularly poor first-half performance. The revelation came in a second statement which followed an initial update at the end of September when the group said it still hoped to meet analysts' expectations with a stronger second half.

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The company did manage to book several high-value transactions towards the end of the first half. But even including those and the contribution from recent acquisitions, total sales will be flat year on year. What's more, margins and profits will be materially below the same period last year. The second half should be better, but not enough to offset the poor start to the financial year.

Brokerage Peel Hunt has slashed its 2016 forecasts from pre-tax profits of £10m to £5m and EPS to 8.7p (from 17.3p). It has also tweaked down 2017 pre-tax profit forecasts from £11m to £7.5m, giving EPS of 12.9p (from 18.8p). Analysts there have also warned there's still "significant uncertainty over the eventual profit out-turn".