Thursday, March 04, 2004
I'm an idiot.
Tuesday's full year results announcement from my largest shareholding, Ben Bailey came in at 7 a.m., the market opened and shares started trading at 8 a.m. and I slept through all of it. Market expectations were in advance of 80p profit per share and Ben Bailey disappointed slightly at 79p. There was no negative comment in the chairman's statement but by the time I'd raised myself from my slumber the shares had fallen heavily to below my target price of six times earnings. The shares currently languish at 455p and it is back to square one, I will have to wait for 474p now. Sloth costs. I could have sold at 8:01 a.m. on Tuesday for 491p which would have sealed an excellent profit since buying at 178p in January 2003. On the brighter side, the dividend has been raised substantially to 12 pence per share from 7.5 pence. I'll be eligible for this dividend should I still be holding on April 16th, in which case the dividend will be paid on 14th May, regardless of whether I am holding or not. I aren't going to let this dividend payment affect my sell decision, the market is extremely good at discounting dividend payments, you can expect Ben Bailey to drop once it goes 'ex-dividend' on April 17th by an amount comparable with the dividend. With luck, I will receive my dividend and get to sell at the target price and not miss any other opportunities while the cash is tied up in Ben Bailey. The final results can be found here.
This has been an expensive lesson but it has given me a new rule of investment:
get out of bed at 6:30 a.m. on the day of a scheduled announcement from any company whose shares you are holding or following
Fortunately, the rest of the portfolio has made good progress this week.
The Artful Dodger
Tuesday's full year results announcement from my largest shareholding, Ben Bailey came in at 7 a.m., the market opened and shares started trading at 8 a.m. and I slept through all of it. Market expectations were in advance of 80p profit per share and Ben Bailey disappointed slightly at 79p. There was no negative comment in the chairman's statement but by the time I'd raised myself from my slumber the shares had fallen heavily to below my target price of six times earnings. The shares currently languish at 455p and it is back to square one, I will have to wait for 474p now. Sloth costs. I could have sold at 8:01 a.m. on Tuesday for 491p which would have sealed an excellent profit since buying at 178p in January 2003. On the brighter side, the dividend has been raised substantially to 12 pence per share from 7.5 pence. I'll be eligible for this dividend should I still be holding on April 16th, in which case the dividend will be paid on 14th May, regardless of whether I am holding or not. I aren't going to let this dividend payment affect my sell decision, the market is extremely good at discounting dividend payments, you can expect Ben Bailey to drop once it goes 'ex-dividend' on April 17th by an amount comparable with the dividend. With luck, I will receive my dividend and get to sell at the target price and not miss any other opportunities while the cash is tied up in Ben Bailey. The final results can be found here.
This has been an expensive lesson but it has given me a new rule of investment:
get out of bed at 6:30 a.m. on the day of a scheduled announcement from any company whose shares you are holding or following
Fortunately, the rest of the portfolio has made good progress this week.
The Artful Dodger
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