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Edison Investment Research today published a report on Invesco Asia Trust (IAT.L, LSE:IAT, LON:IAT) entitled "Look To The Long Term". In summary, the report says:

"Invesco Asia Trust (IAT) has an actively managed portfolio of Asian equities (including Australia but excluding Japan), which is co-managed by Stuart Parks and Ian Hargreaves. Their stock-picking approach uses a blend of fundamental bottom-up and top-down analysis with the aim of achieving absolute long-term capital growth. An underweight to Australia has contributed to short-term NAV underperformance over the past year of 0.4% vs the benchmark index, the MSCI AC Asia-Pacific ex-Japan. However, over the past five years, IAT has beaten its benchmark by 13.5%. "

Defence contractor Chemring (LON:CHG) has fallen nearly 5% at the time of writing, having released its interims (http://is.gd/Qracjf) earlier today. Turnover is down 10.8%, and the company has posted a loss. The order book is down, re-affirming the problems that are being faced in the Defence industry. New senior management have been appointed during the period, and the company notes “important progress made in performance recovery programme”. This is a situation that has interested me as a potential turnaround play from awhile back. I was very curious to see how it would work out. The answer so far is: not...

Edison Investment Research today published a report on Quarto Inc (QRT.L, LSE:QRT, LON:QRT) entitled "On Track". In summary, the report says:

"Quarto remains on track to meet our full-year forecasts. The focus on creating quality, highly-illustrated content is a clear differentiator, with distribution diversified beyond traditional bookselling channels and greater longevity in the value of titles. We would expect the share price rating differential with other publishers to narrow once the group’s plans for debt reduction start to be realised. "

Edison Investment Research today published a report on Majestic Wine (MJW.L, LSE:MJW, LON:MJW) entitled "Glass Half Full". In summary, the report says:

"Majestic’s headline profit growth was muted, mostly due to a managed decline in wholesale. However, we believe this masks significant growth drivers in the medium to long term, which, given clear attention to cost control, should result in strong bottom-line momentum. "

Edison Investment Research today published a report on Share (SHRE.L, LSE:SHRE, LON:SHRE) entitled "Good Start To Year Continues/new CEO". In summary, the report says:

"Share’s AGM trading update indicates that the good start to the year has continued. Its Q1 revenues were up on last year and its market share was 7.2% vs 6.1% last year. The year to date commentary (ie including most of Q2) shows that trading is ahead of management expectations. As expected, Richard Stone (COO and FD) will be appointed as CEO, taking the role on 1 January 2014 as the current CEO takes over as chairman. We leave our forecasts unchanged. "

Edison Investment Research today published a report on BioAlliance Pharma entitled "Stand And De-Liva". In summary, the report says:

"BioAlliance develops drugs for orphan oncology indications and to treat infections. Most of its products are widely used medicines in new formulations for use in novel indications. Its lead oncology product, Livatag, is in Phase III for liver cancer with safety and recruitment data due over the next 18 months. It has two FDA-approved drugs, Oravig (oral thrush) and Sitavig (cold sores). Oravig’s US adoption and a Sitavig deal are key catalysts in the next 12 months. We value BioAlliance at €109m, with further upside if products are developed in related indications."

Good morning! Preliminary results from Solid State (LON:SSP) have been issued for the year ended 31 Mar 2013. This share has been on my watch list for a while, and I last mentioned them on 2 May 2013, concluding that it looked potentially interesting. Solid State shares have more than 10-bagged in the last 4 years, and the company continues to trade well. At 225p per share the market cap is £15.6m. As you can see from the Stockopedia excerpt from the StockReport on the right, Solid State scores highly on forecast PE Ratio, and on Dividend Yield, with strong green...

Edison Investment Research today published a report on STV (STVG.L, LSE:STVG, LON:STVG) entitled "Leveraging Scottish Content". In summary, the report says:

"STV taps into two key trends: an advertising market increasingly focused on television and digital, and a strong local identity that connects with communities and differentiates it from national brands. With the 2014 referendum looming, interest in Scottish affairs will be high. STV’s Channel 3 licences should be formally renewed this autumn, digital and production revenues are growing and debt (a historic concern) is falling rapidly. Management’s confidence is reflected by an intention to resume dividends. On a 2013e P/E of only 4.5x, there looks to be plenty of upside."

Last week I looked at the mainly non-fiction and illustrated publisher, Quarto (see also here). This week, Quercus Publishing (OFEX:QUPP) caught my eye in a screener mostly based around looking for companies which exhibit both high medium-run returns on capital with a low price to tangible book value. Both of those screening metrics are blunt instruments for a delicate craft, but the list often throws up a few companies worthy of interest, and Quercus was one of them. Quercus is a publisher too, but not exactly in the same vein as Quarto - Quercus do the more blockbuster stuff mostly,...

Good morning. 1pm (LON:OPM) announces a £1.5m equity investment from Henderson, 1 billion new shares, at 0.015p a share. There's clearly a need to consolidate the shares, this is 21st century Britain, not Weimar Germany! It's a good deal though for this small asset financing lender, which is operating in a lucrative niche largely abandoned by the major Banks. They also announce that results for the year ended 31 May 2013 will show good organic growth, with profits ahead of market expectations, at £750k. It looks an interesting situation, although below my usual £10m market cap cut-off.     There are not many...

Edison Investment Research today published a report on Carador Income Fund (CIFU.L, LSE:CIFU, LON:CIFU) entitled "US Corporate Loans Via CLOs". In summary, the report says:

"Carador Income Fund (CIFU), managed by GSO Capital Partners (of the Blackstone Group), has underlying investment exposure to a highly diversified portfolio of US corporate senior secured loans through direct investments in collateralised loan obligations (CLOs). The portfolio is split (c 50:50) between US CLO income notes and mezzanine debt. Income notes are still producing high cash income returns, but these have reduced with the increase in loan refinancing and re-pricing at lower spreads. The reduction in income note cash flow has been reflected in the market value of these investments. Meanwhile, mezzanine debt investments have increased in value as..."

Back in late 2011 some of Britain’s biggest housebuilders were displaying signs of being bargain bucket shares with only the glimmer of potential to turnaround their fortunes in the near term. Since then, many of those value plays have seen their prices soar, justifying the bargain hunting credentials behind screening tools such as Benjamin Graham’s NCAV strategy. Eighteen months ago, this strategy was flagging the likes of Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV), Bovis Homes (LON:BVS) and Bellway (LON:BWY) as potentially attractive. But while systematic bargain investors have could have cashed in on their surging price momentum, it’s fair to...

Leading on from last time, when I caught up with Quarto Inc (LON:QRT) , the small-cap illustrated and non-fiction publishers, today I'm looking more at the figures. My previous efforts were somewhat diverted by a rather interesting set of boardroom antics and the voting out of the long-standing CEO and founder, Laurence Orbach. So while much of the top structure of the company has changed in the period since I last looked at the company, one thing has been fairly constant - the share price. That's hovered at around 150p since more or less the end of 2010. My...

Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) announced this week that its CEO, Stephen Hester, would be stepping down later this year. The market reacted badly and RBS suddenly found its market value down by about £2 billion in just a few hours. Is this a rational reaction from investors? There is no doubt that Hester’s departure will cause many other changes within the Royal Bank of Scotland in the months and years ahead, but what will those changes be?  Whether they will be for better or worse is far from clear. It’s true that the announcement has highlighted tensions between the government and...

Growth and momentum strategies proved to be the big winners among Stockopedia’s GuruModel Screens during the second quarter of 2013, with the majority outpacing the FTSE 100 in a period that delivered a long anticipated correction in equity prices. With our quarterly rebalancing due this weekend, we’ve reviewed what worked and what didn’t during the rollercoaster that was Q2.  After a slow start to the quarter, the FTSE saw a sharp rise of 8.9% between 22 April and 22 May, taking it to a high of 6,840 points. A retrenchment saw those gains wiped out by mid-June and the blue chip...

Edison Investment Research today published a report on Resverlogix entitled "Pure Play On ASSURE". In summary, the report says:

"Resverlogix’s spin-out of Zenith Epigenetics puts the investment case firmly on the outcome of the ASSURE Phase IIb study in mid-2013 of RVX-208 for atherosclerosis. While the stock gained c 20% between the 8 April spin-out announcement and mid-May, the share price has retreated c 35% since the Zenith deal completed on 3 June. The C$1.22 sell-off can partly be attributed to Zenith and the US$10m cash transfer to Zenith, but investors also appear to be adopting a more sober tone ahead of the ASSURE read-out. Positive results could therefore lead to a significant re-rating and lucrative licensing or M&A..."

Edison Investment Research today published a report on Epigenomics entitled "Going Head-to-head With Exact". In summary, the report says:

" Acceptance of its PMA application and notification of priority review status puts Epigenomics’ bood-based Epi proColon on track for approval in Q413. Meanwhile, rival Exact Sciences has just filed a PMA application for its stool-based Cologuard test. The disparity in the market’s enterprise valuations of the two companies ($27m vs $750m) suggests that investors believe Exact’s test will dominate the market. However, Edison contends that Epi proColon still has a place in this market, and in this scenario, Epigenomics’ low valuation offers investors a geared upside. "

Edison Investment Research today published a report on oncolytics biotech inc entitled "Promising Melanoma And Lung Cancer Data". In summary, the report says:

"Oncolytics has announced promising preliminary Phase II melanoma and lung cancer data. However, in view of the rapidly evolving treatment landscape in this poorly treated indication, the company has pragmatically decided to re-evaluate Reolysin in combination with the new and increasingly targeted immunotherapies before conducting the next melanoma clinical trial. By contrast, Oncolytics will be conducting further trials in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (SCCLC) following the recent positive data. Oncolytics has two ongoing Phase II trials in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and SCCLC and lung adenocarcinoma."

Good morning! Just a couple of bits of admin; 1) In case you haven't already seen it, Stockopedia have created a special landing page for my reports, here. So if you wish to, you can bookmark this page to get straight to my most recent reports & search the archive by company ticker. 2) Stockopedia have also set up an automatic, free 11 a.m. weekday email service, which sends you an excerpt and a link to that day's report from me. So why not add your email to the list to ensure you never miss a report? 3) I love reader comments, especially...

Edison Investment Research today published a report on wilex entitled "Density And Destiny". In summary, the report says:

"The subgroup analysis of the Rencarex Renal cancer therapy Phase III trial, ARISER, shows unequivocal evidence of a strong subgroup response. Patents with high Carbonic Anhydrase IX scores (the antigen bound by Rencarex) had significantly better disease-free survival resulting in a 50% reduction in hazard ratio. This means half the patients that could have progressed might have been cured. The effect seems to be related to immune system activity. Wilex is exploring a confirmatory Phase III to start in mid-2014. About 300 patients will be followed for two years to get a disease-free survival hazard ratio. Edison assumes that a..."