Companies: ATM    CASH    CHR    REG   

Supply chain software supplier Chelford continues to ingratiate itself with Charles Stanley’s research team, most recently with a strong first half trading update.

The company confirmed that steady demand, particularly from the food sector, has enabled it to keep pace with ambitious market forecasts. Both the group’s divisions are inferred to have made substantial improvements during the period.

‘The impact of this market-beating revenue growth is a rapid increase in earnings,’ analyst Ian Mitchell suggests. ‘The company is trading on 12.5 times prospective earnings, which we continue to believe is too low for a company taking market share and displaying such high growth in earnings.’ Mitchell retains his strong buy evaluation of the stock.

Another AIM firm benefiting from a strong buy rating at present is cash machine business Cardpoint. Currently in the midst of an £87 million bid for ATM rival Moneybox, Cardpoint is well regarded by analyst Robert Corden, who reasons that the deal will create the UK’s second largest operator of cash machines. ‘The bid,’ he contests, ‘could be the trigger for the next move upwards.’

Bar operators continue to endure poor ratings, however, with JD Wetherspoon and Regent Inns receiving reduce and sell recommendations respectively. Regarding the latter, Charles Stanley’s James Dawson propounds that ‘the group still has a considerable degree of work to undertake to turnaround performance [at its Jongleurs comedy bars] especially given the backdrop of weakening consumer confidence.’