Ann: Trading Update, page-16

Have caught up with some of the comments here after results announcements, and from my perspective, this seemed like an easy buy given both the ‘24 performance and, more importantly, the continued strong outlook. No identifiable reason why the company won’t continue to grow (self sustainably/debt free) for many years into the future.
EPS of 28c per share gave a PE ratio of 30.8 at start of day yesterday. 30.8 for high quality, long life contracts/relationships, with strong outlook seems light to me, and any company which can display an impressive track record of growth with high quality, heavy recurring earnings streams deserves to trade at higher multiples than that. My guess is a PE of 35 is more appropriate, though we see plenty of examples in the 40+ range.
As for yesterday’s trading, I don’t remember the last time this company didn’t get initially sold off and then come back with a vengeance. Shorts were close to 4% shares on issue on the 15th at around 6 million shares. I can’t see how you can maintain that position given the outlook given by the company yeaterday plus PE where it was.
My opinions only.