nice of colin to prop up the shareprice!, page-15

Quote:
'The 'vibe' in whirlpool is a lot better and adsl sales are growing very nicely.'

After my current service provider forced me to migrate to a more expensive plan I checked out possible alternative ISPs and chose to go back to PEO solely because one of their plans was as good in terms of value as any of the ones offered by the ISPs Colin Marland patronisingly referred to as 'vanilla ISPs'. I didn't go as far as switching to PEO for my telephone service as well but the monthly line rental was on par with Telstra's cheapest rate. I know PEO is more interested in signing up businesses which bring in far more money than broadband subscribers (the recent ‘Message to shareholders’ reveals that ADSL revenue fell by 9% as a result of the market moving towards free or subsidised connections’) but it shows that PEO is competitive in every area and should continue to grow strongly.

I believe it’s likely that the share price has bottomed with Colin Marland buying more shares perhaps because he knows the last disappointing result was an anomaly and significantly better results are likely ahead (more likely than him propping up the share price of the company to temporarily disguise it doing poorly since the figures would soon speak for themselves anyhow just as they have in the past).

The recent ‘Message to shareholders’ also says that ‘a significant cost reduction program was completed in December, the benefits of which will be reflected in the results of the second half of this financial year’. How costs were cut and how much the cuts could be without sacking staff is not outlined. Another promising sign is the strong cash collections of $60 million over the recent half financial year pointing to continued strong growth and perhaps that the $115 million figure forecast could prove conservative.

Funny though how when you have invested more than you should have in a company and are sitting on what for you are large paper losses you tend to seize on any information that has a hint of being positive to tell yourself that things will come good!