Jsedirect With Simon Brown

Disney results: Last week's big story was about tech, starting with Disney, a stock recommended here back in September at ±$80. Key financials: Linear networks revenue up 9%, Direct-to-consumer up 12%, Parks up 16% Direct-to-consumer still incurred a loss of $400 million Consumer products, content sales licensing, and ESPN performance discussed Overall, not a knockout result but not terrible; I remain a satisfied shareholder Big move in streaming sports! ⚾️

Breaking News: Canal+ Offer for MultiChoice: Canal+, French TV business, offers 105 rand per share for MultiChoice minorities. Synergies between the two businesses. Legal considerations regarding foreign media ownership. MultiChoice closed at 75 rand; market likely to respond positively. Market Updates: Hyprop reports positive festive trading for its tenants. Transaction Capital plans to list WeBuyCars in March; potential value unlock. Evergrande declared bankrupt with over 300 billion dollars in debt. Hong Kong economy expanded 3.2% in 2023. China overtakes Japan as the world's top car exporter. Cristal Challenge Stock Picks: Richemont*: Luxury brand with potential in a recovering economy. [caption id="attachment_41062" align="aligncenter" width="849"] Richemont weekly chart close 31Jan24[/caption] Calgro M3*: Debt under control, potential dividend, well-managed company. [caption id="attachment_41063" align="aligncenter" width="849"] Calgro M3 weekly chart close 31Jan24[/caption] AngloGold Ashanti*: Gold

dd Introduction: JSE Direct Episode 571 for January 25, hosted by Simon Brown. Simon introduces the idea of transitioning the podcast to a live format using Riverside, allowing viewers to see charts and interact during recordings. Market Updates: Richemont*: Stock surged 10% on better-than-expected trading update. Identified as an opportunity last year when it pulled back to R2,500. Trading at R2,653 at the time of the recording. AVI: AVI delivered a strong update, but struggling with I&J. AVI focuses on defending margins, willing to lose volumes for profitability. Potential sale or listing of INJ discussed. Woolies*: Mixed trading update. Struggles in Australia, especially with David Jones, while food segment remains strong. Concerns about the performance of the clothing segment. Clicks: Mostly a strong update, struggles in UDP (wholesale drug distribution). Selling price inflation averaged 7.5%, higher than the previous period. Clicks achieved highest-ever daily sales in late December. Econom

In this episode of JSE Direct, Simon Brown discusses various market topics, including the bleak outlook of the Hang Seng Index due to Chinese GDP results. Positive news for Grindrod with the Maputo Port Development Company's impressive performance. The rise in uranium prices driven by increasing demand for nuclear power plants, he found two US listed ETFs benefiing from this trend. [caption id="attachment_40966" align="aligncenter" width="849"] Spot uranium price[/caption] The approval of 11 Bitcoin ETFs by the SEC. When does the JSE get a crypto ETF? Do elections matter for markets? Upcoming elections in 2024 across 70 countries. Simon explores the question of whether elections truly matter for investors, emphasising historical examples where market reactions were short-term and highlighting the importance of focusing on long-term investment strategies amid political volatility.

Now for the eleventh year in a row, we kick off the new year with a prediction show. Marc Ashton, Keith McLachlan and Simon Brown put their heads on the block with three wild and woolly predictions for the markets for 2024 followed by a call on the Top40 and ZAR for the year ahead. Importantly we start each show with a review of the previous year’s predictions and you’ll find the 2023 predictions show here.  

Position your portfolio for 2024. Top local ETFs for 2023. Simon Shares Transaction Capital (JSE code:TCP) results swung into a massive loss, no surprise. SA Taxi loss making but overall H2 was better then H1 in all three divisions. Purple Group* (JSE code: PPE) results also swung into a loss. But as a discretionary consumer business, why is everybody so surprised? Average client has 1.45 products. This seems low, very low. Philippines not yet regulated, but they not giving up. Project delays. Tigerbrands (JSE code: TBS) show a tough environment and RFG (JSE code: RFG) may offer better value. Local Q3 GDP at -0.2%. Gold at all-time highs. Charts by KoyFin. Get 15% off a two-year subscription * I hold ungeared positions. Simon Brown

Share buybacks and stock compensation, the bad and the ugly Share buybacks are good right? The company uses their free cash to buyback shares which reduces the number of remaining shares such that each share has a higher claim over future profits which adds to their value. Further they're tax efficient in that paying dividends results in dividend tax. BUT; Firstly, in cyclical stocks you need to be buying back at lows, not highs and the companies usually have no free cash at lows, so either they don't buy back or they do so at highs when they have the cash. Horrid value destruction. Secondly, some companies are buying back but also issuing new shares to staff, at times at a rate faster or similar to what they're buying back. This is then effectively an underhand salary to staff. This is especially an issue with large tech stocks, see examples below. Thirdly, new share issues are considered non-cash, but ultimately they are cash as you gave somebody real shares that have future claim on profits. Fourthly, oft

The problem with telcos I have long said that telcos such as MTN (JSE code: MTN) and Vodacom (JSE code: VOD) is that they are essentially utilities and should be priced as such. But actually that statement is wrong. Sure voice (who still calls using voice?) and data are utilities like water and electricity. BUT the telcos have a problem, capex. Yes we're using more and more data but prices keep coming down, I recently bought an effective 80 GB for little over R400. And all that while capex is increasing. They're busy rolling out 5G but as soon as that's done it'll be tine for 6G. It's a never ending tread mill. Simon Shares Brent oil is weak and telling us a story about global growth Clicks (JSE code: CLS) vs. Dis-Chem (JSE code: DCP) results contrats. REITs unloved and cheap, time to buy? Simon Brown

Updating minister Gordhan's portfolio Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has declared his holdings, we reviewed his portfolio last time in April and there are some interesting changes, he is fairly active in buying and selling. Most notable is the total value is up almost R2million? Simon Shares Purple Group* (JSE code: PPE) have introduce a platform fee. Certain behaviours will see the fee waived and I speak to Charles Savage on my MoneywebNOW show Thursday morning. Renergen* (JSE code: REN) results show a loss, LNG output for phase 1 ±40% and helium on stream by year end. Phase 2 has been split into two parts and the conditions of the $750million is not a Nasdaq listing but rather a capital raise with a listing for part two of phase 2. MTBPS was bleak as expected and we could see some tax hikes in February. Gold almost had its highest ever monthly close for October. * I hold ungeared positions.

Living small, an update Back in 2017 Simon and his wife down scaled into a small (relative) apartment and also got rid of one of their cars again. As they now move again Simon updates in their experience of living small. Simon Shares Famous Brands (JSE code: FBR) results. Revenue up and HEPS lower. TigerBrands (JSE code: TBS) loses their CEO and posts a decent trading update. Jamie Dimon said central banks’ forecasts have been “100% dead wrong”. Sasol (JSE code: SOL) trading update, lots of movingp arts, but the market not trusting management? That said stock is cheap and we're seeing some upward movement on price.

hh Renergen* (JSE code: REN), now what? Late September the price started breaking down and end September a Tweeter started posting about them. I'm not going to defend every point raised, that's the job of the company and after an initial poor response, Monday saw a more detailed SENS. Paid research. Ultimately all research is paid for. Sometimes it is paid for by the company and here the issue is disclosure. I think the bigger issue is a complete lack of disclosure in our industry. By FinTwit or the fancy analysts, albeit assume the latter is always talking their book, which is fair. Perhaps the biggest point from this last few weeks is; Know your stock. Like really know it. When I buy a new holding I put together a lis of 3-5 things I like and 3-5 risks. I may be wrong on any of them, but it makes me do the digging and at least have a decent view of both sides of the story. Careful of "new" news. It may be accurate (or it may not), but it also often lacks detail which maters. This was mostly the case with

There are bold traders. here are old traders. There are no bold and old traders.Bold traders What is a bold trader and why do they die out? Wild swings for the fence No position size management Stop loss for losers Enter outside of system and process Simon Shares Famous Brands (JSE code: FBR) trading update, Spur (JSE code: SUR) really has taken the mantel of best QSR/restaurant business on the JSE. Very strong US jobs and upward revisions from previous month. But wage inflation only 0.2%. So market was confused but ended happy. Tuesday also saw US 10-year yields moving lower which excited everybody. But I am sceptical, this is only one data point and I think the FOMC hikes at their 31 Oct/01 Nov FOMC meeting. Water crisis. This is going to hurt and it not going away any tine soon. Which businesses get hurt most? We found a US government bond ETF paying monthly.

US 10-year yields highest since 2007 Bad news all round (unless you buying). Almost 40% of US government debt expires in the next four years and will be re-issued at markedly higher rates, 9x higher in some cases. Money flowing into US bonds for yield. This sees less money entering the stock market Sees a stronger US$ (check DXY strength, all currncies weaker against US$) Hits valuations lower as higher rates makes cash worth less in the future, but so far the market has ignored this fact. Simon Shares The Top40 closed negative for the year on Tuesday. This after being almost +12% in late January and trading at all-time highs. Top40 close 26 September 2023, negative YTD Fed and SARB hold rates steady - but very hawkish. StatsSA "South African hotels recorded an occupancy rate of 47.3% in July 2023, up from 45.8% in June and 45.5% in May.". But still below the ±50% pre-pandemic occupancy levels.

Simon Shares Shoprite* (JSE code: SHP) results "2023 was extraordinary". Chart by Koyfin 15% discount for first 2 years Richemont (JSE code: CFR) getting interesting, let's see if support holds. [caption id="attachment_40005" align="aligncenter" width="849"] Richemont weekly ~ 07Sep23[/caption]Nampak (JSE code: NPK) nil paid letters are trading, code NPKN. Remember either sell them or take up the rights. Calgro M3* (JSE code: CGR) trading statement, HEPS +20% for the first six months ending August. The latest PMIs out of Europe all quite weak, not only declining from the previous month, but lower than the preliminary numbers from the middle of last month Profit from the Longevity Boom with Healthcare ETFs The tax ABCs of buying a property Simon Brown * I hold ungeared positions.  

Simon Shares Bidcorp - excellent AvdTech* - really good, stock at all-time highs Stadio - good student growth Motus - poor HEPS, good dividend Woolies* - not bad, but wow only got R1.1billion for David Jones Sasol - impairments galore Adcock Ingram - capacity utilisation is weak Aspen - good second half KAP - tough out there Super Group - strong numbers * I hold ungeared positions.

dd Spur and Calgro M3, two stocks I have been watching and both have seen their prices break higher. Calgro M3 (JSE code: CGR) builds lower income housing and after a few troube years os back on track. Latest results were for year ending February 2023. PE ±2.5% Cash on hand ±R172million, market cap is ±R440million NAV 951c (including unused land valued at ±30% of NAV) while share price 365c Spur (JSE code: SUR) sells fast casual food and the pandemc hurt. Latest results have some base effect as they are for six months ending June 2023. Forward PE ±5x Dividend yield ±14% Spur remains their key brand. Simon Shares Thungela (JSE code: TGA) results saw HEPS down 67% which is the same as the price of coal over the last year. UBS cuts China's GDP growth forecast for 2023 from 5.2% to 4.8% CoreShares ETFs name change to 10X. Local inflation for July was 4.7%, a really strong number and better then the market expected, this even as administrative prices kicked in during July. Transport was negative fo