Russ Mould of AJ Bell and Halma

pavane

For a company that "does not provide financial advise" has anyone else noticed how this particular share is plugged in every other article and presentation? Russ Mould their most prominent customer facing representative pumps it often in seminars. The company is decent and the share has performed extraordinarily well especially in the last 6 months so good "advice" for those who bought but it is now trading at £20 compared to a fair value of £8 and its constant mention is starting to look like their is a conflict of interest.

bowlhead99

In accounting terms for valuation, fair value is the price at which an asset would change hands between a willing buyer and willing seller (for listed shares, you can take the market price assuming an orderly market). The participants in a multi-trillion pound stock market think it is worth £7.5bn so currently have it changing hands at about £20 per share. So, In what sense is the 'fair value' £8?

Do you think Mr Mould has successfully manipulated the value by discussing it as an example of a decent company in his seminars to the extent that institutional investors representing many billions of pounds of capital accidentally price it at £7.5bn instead of £3bn?


When the results came out earlier in the week, Credit Suisse reiterated their 'outperform' rating, increasing their price target to 1990p (price rose to about 1950 that day and is now about £20). Deutsche retained their Buy rating but maintained their price target of 1960p, only later increasing it on Friday to 2075p. Meanwhile UBS kept their sell rating with a target of under a tenner.

As with many companies, there are a range of views on what you should do with the stock when it's at a particular price. I haven't looked at it in enough detail to make a call on its valuation. But I would be interested to know why the 'fair value' is only £8 or £3bn instead of £20 or £7.5bn which is the price at which it genuinely changes hands in reasonable volume. Is the £8 just your view after the research you have done, or the view of a blogger with his own view whom you like? And how is the view more valid than Credit Suisse's or Deutsche's or UBS's? What's the conflict for Mould, and does he agree or disagree there is a conflict? Does he have an undisclosed interest while touting it as a decent purchase (which you admit that it has been, but think him unethical?