image

Authoritative Independent Monthly Share Selections Using Technical & Fundamental Analysis

Latest issue now available

Topps Tiles - Reasonable results

January 2006

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

  • Epic Code:
  • TPT
  • Price:
  • 193p
Given the perilous state of the retail sector, tile specialist Topps Tiles has put out a reasonable set of results for the year ending 1 October. On a 10% increase in turnover to £173m, pretax profit rose 16% to £39.2m and earnings were up 15% to 12.5p (24% tax). Gross margins increased 1.2% to 61.3% thanks to gains from efficiencies in the buying and warehouse functions. However, this excellent performance masked a deterioration in trading towards the end of the period, which has continued into the new financial year, with like-for-like sales falling 4.7% in the first seven weeks. But the year-on-year comparisons were always going to be tough as Topps enjoyed barnstorming double digit growth last time. During the per ...

To access our archive of articles and to receive current issues you need to subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber? Login

Related Articles

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

All material on this website is protected by copyright. You may use Information retrieved from the www.scsw.co.uk website for your own personal non-commercial use which means that you may not sell or copy this information to any third party without prior written consent. ISSN 1358-183X