Saturday, 18 February 2012

A Brilliant Question Raised by a Reader

Last week, I've received a question(privately) from a reader which I feel I should share it here so that all of us benefited from it. It was a brilliant question!

Dear reader, don't worry, I will not disclose any name here. Please feel free to ask (private or public).

Here is the original message
Vincent, how u view the recent economy, do you think glob crisis still persist this yr or start to grow aldy? a lot of uncertainty and i think will definitely hit spore as spore also one of the largest stakeholder on europe and us bond.


The question basically ask about how is the market now, amid of US housing crisis and European debt crisis. Having a clear vision of what is happening is vital to investment no matter how good you are at stock picking/analysis. Stock analysis and stock picking are all dependent on the market condition. In different market condition, we are going to pick different stock. So, without a clear vision of where you are, your investment is based on luck.

Flow:
1) Vision of current market condition.
2) Stock type to pick. Including the consideration of industry. Stock type means whether they are cyclical/steady_growth/fast_growing/penny_stock/non_growth. I classified them based on these 5 categories.
3) Stock analysis (company evaluation) on the company type you have already chosen.
4) Entry and Exit point.

(I feel I can write a book if I were to cover everything, so, ask me should you have any question and I will discuss bit by bit)

Ok, enough emphasis on the importance of VISION, let's look at the current market condition.
Let me start with the impact caused by recent major event (US housing crisis and EU debt crisis).
Referring to the STI graph I retrieved from shareinvestor.com below, US housing crisis has caused STI to plunge from July 2007 to Jan 2009. (why I quote the time instead of price? ask me, if you are interested) On the second part, you can observed that despite of the long-discussed EU debt crisis, the market is basically sideways! until recently a series of rating downgrade and the potential default of Greece/Portugal/Italy/etc. The latest news that caused the rally is due to excellent US fundamental data.
(The unemployment rate in the United States fell to 8.3 percent in January of 2012, the lowest since February 2009 - retrieved from <http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate>)


So, after all the stories, where are we now? If I say we are good now because US is producing positive market sentiment, companies profit achieve record hight, does that make you feel more comfortable? But looking at the possibility of Greece/EU country potential default, what would you think?

Economic is basically optimistic except it involved a risk in European debt.
If we are in uncertainty, let's look at more data.


Figure above shows 2 major events - Asia crisis 1998 and US crisis 2008 (start off at July 2007). What you can tell from there? Few things we can conclude here.
1) Every disastrous event provide great buying opportunity.
2) Over the long run, price is going upward.

So, back to the question again, where are we now? From the chart above, it seems that we are almost at record hight. Is that possible to go higher and higher? If you ask me, I will certainly say yes, economy will do better and better in Asia, especially now. Economic is switching from the West to the East since year 2000. Chart below shows USD is depreciating against SGD This suggests that money is flowing from the West to the Asia country. Or, at least, from US to Singapore. As DBS director concluded in an investment seminar "now is just the beginning of economic growth in Asia." But that is a long term VISION, talking about 30-40 years time frame. It is not a surprise to see some noises in the short term. EU default may be the case, which is a good news to me, because it provides great entry opportunity. I can assure you that if EU were to default, the impact is less significant compared to US housing crisis. In other words, we will not see a similar dip as in Jan 2009.


To conclude, current market is doing good, and it is in the middle of the next boom. Economists estimated that by the year 2013, many companies will record high earning profit, more and more good news will be published by the press. This is very likely to happen, but in the contrary, when that happen, we need to be cautious and be ready to sell. I can foresee that I will dump some portions of my stock by the year 2014. Blogging is cool! We can check back this post by the year 2014.
Let's see U_U

Friday, 10 February 2012

ANNOUNCEMENT

Publication schedule changed from weekly to monthly. 
The publishing date would be the last week of the month.
In plain English, I will come out a report, monthly.


Following are the Stock Picking Criteria:
1) value investing 
2) small cap company (targeting stock price < S$1.50 at the moment)
3) decent dividend 
4) *will only consider cyclical and steady growth company (type will be specified in the report). 


Note: 
* Holding period of cyclical company, preferably 2 to 4 years. 
* Holding period of steady growth company, preferably holding it forever.
(unless otherwise specific)


Publication Format:
1) Stock of the Month
2) Company Background
3) Core Business/Revenue
4) Company Update
5) Market Cap
6) Industry
7) Company Type
8) Current Trading Price (as of posting date)
9) Intrinsic Value
10) Share Price Chart (5 years)
11) Insider Trade
12) Financial Data
13) Conclusion
14) Entry and Exit Strategy 




Thanks for your feedback and comment
Best Regards,
Vincent Thong

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Stock of the Week: Armstrong (A14) listed in SGX (Singapore stock market)

Company Background: (extracted from company website)
  • Basically this company manufactures assembly components for automotive, data storage and consumer electronics. For example of data storage, it produces majority of the parts that made up of a finished product - hard disc (see figure below under hard disc category) 
Revenue comes from:


1) Automotive 

2) Hard Disc

3) Consumer Electronics 


Company Update:  (extracted from latest annual report)
  • The Group will ease itself into the Indian market in 2011 via its joint venture with a local Indian partner. The Indian market is a market with huge potential, but as it is a relatively new market to the Group, it will take time to develop the skill set required to manage the risk and resources.
  • In 2011, the scorching growth of the Chinese automotive market is slated to cool with the PRC Government withdrawing its subsidies for vehicles. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers expects the industry to grow 10 to 15 percent in 2011. Armstrong already has its factories covering the northern, central and southern part of China. Moving forward, the plan is increasing its presence in the western cities of China. We are planning to start two more plants in the next two to three years.
Industry: Automotive and Consumer Electronics
Company Type: Cyclical
Current Price: S$0.30
Intrinsic Value: S$0.58
Market Cap (M): 155.348
Share Price Performance (5 years chart):

Insider trade: 
Announce DateDate of Effective ChangeBuyer / Seller NameType aS / W / U bBought / (Sold) ('000)Price ($)Closing Price ($) dAfter TradeNote
No. of Shares ('000) c% Held c
24 Nov 201124 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS1,2450.24-0.2450.240--
23 Nov 201123 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS1,4230.240.240--
22 Nov 201122 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS9000.235-0.240.235--
21 Nov 201121 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS7190.235-0.240.240--
18 Nov 201118 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS3850.23-0.2350.235--
17 Nov 201117 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS6260.23-0.2350.235--
16 Nov 201116 Nov 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS3000.230.230--
23 Aug 201123 Aug 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS2000.2350.240--
19 Aug 201119 Aug 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS3000.24330.245--
23 Jun 201123 Jun 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS3000.320.320--
22 Jun 201122 Jun 2011ARMSTRONG INDUSTRIAL CORP LTDCOYS2000.3150.315--

Financial Data:
Armstrong (A14)










 units in SGD '000
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
Revenue
225,449
173,683
182,415
182,994
141,922
127,932
113,255
94,026
83,482
64,954
Profit Attributable To Shareholders
24,903
14,059
13,131
17,556
10,237
8,132
5,898
4,208
1,411
-2,415
Historical EPS (cents)
4.97
2.81
2.62
3.49
2.04
1.6
1.19
0.91
0.42
-0.91
Gross Dividend Per Share (cents)
4
1.6
1
1.6
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.2
0.1
-











No. Of Ordinary Shares Issued ('000)
501,815
500,058
500,058
501,567
498,968
506,297
510,930
466,940
463,600
266,330
Reserves
55,152
48,845
39,799
33,406
21,292
13,204
9,168
4,799
1,413
11,005
Shareholders' Equity
100,794
93,768
84,722
79,240
68,041
63,834
60,261
51,493
47,773
37,638











NAV Per Share ($)
0.2009
0.1875
0.1694
0.1579
0.1364
0.1261
0.1175
0.1101
0.1027
0.1402
Price Earnings Ratio (PER) (Price/EPS)
5.95
10.54
11.29
8.44
14.48
18.23
25.13
35.23
105.06
n.a.
Return On Equity (ROE) [%]
24.707
14.993
15.499
22.155
15.045
12.739
9.787
8.172
2.954
n.a.
Debt To Equity Ratio
0.317
0.232
0.223
0.206
0.544
0.488
0.616
0.807
0.726
1.112

Conclusion:
1) Market price is lower than its intrinsic value! undervalued.
2) Business model is easy to understand, but we must be careful with this company because of cyclical nature.
3) From the market capital, this number tells us that this is a small cap company, which is considered risky.
4) From the chart, we can see that this company starts attracting investor, and now is in early stage!
5) The next bull cycle for this stock is arising. At least, I believe it is. A bull market is going to last for about 3 years at least. Now is just the beginning. I am buying it.


Entry and Exit Strategy:

  • Entry right now before it is too late. Current Price is stood at $0.30
  • This is cyclical stock, if the price soar too high, we got to dump it. 
  • The best way to check when to sell is to notice your friends around you. Start selling it bit by bit when everyone around you is buying/talking about stock market.
  • Expected holding period = 1 to 3 years.- within 2 years, this stock should soar 2 or 3 times, i.e. $0.60, if it didn't, then something is wrong. Need to re-evaluate by then.
  • There is no 100% guarantee on any kind of investment. You must make your decision based on your own judgement. But for me, the odds are in favour. Investment is all about high probability game. I will certainly buy this stock, maybe 5-10% of my asset allocation.
  • This kind of stock should not take your asset more than 30% (my suggestion). Majority of my portfolio are steady, stable, high dividend, blue chip stock. I will just allocate ~30% of my portfolio expose to high risk stocks, which may have 5-10 stocks, this is just one of them.