Personally, I'm glad they're keeping the money and not issuing...

Personally, I'm glad they're keeping the money and not issuing dividends. A few grand in divvies per year makes little difference to me, but the war-chest of cash WEB has by not paying them makes a big difference to its ability to keep pumping. I think what we lose in dividends is more than made up for by the capital gain.

These latest results are great! It's a tribute to management for steering the company to this point after the COVID near-collapse that many people think is ancient history.

I put the market response down to a few things. One is that short sellers are getting out of WEB and have been for some time now. Remember when WEB was the most-shorted stock on the ASX, around 15%? The shorters are closing their positions, selling their borrowed shares and pushing the price down in the process. This acts as a counter-weight to buyers who, I think, would be prepared to pay more but happy to accept a lower price if it's offered.

Another reason is the ever-present threat of recession – a term I use loosely because it doesn't mean much any more. The better term would be "people reducing their discretionary spending".

Then there's the "good news is bad news" phenomenon. Some investors think that if a result is great, there's less chance of the next one being as good. Well, WEB has disproved that several times now. They also buy for the inverse reason when the price has taken a hammering, but at the moment there are sellers thinking that WEB can't keep this level of success up. I don't agree.

I always think WEB must look like a good acquisition to the big global players, and am hoping that this will be the catalyst for the next big move of the share price. It's not just their customer base in the OTA and WebBeds segments that would be attractive to the likes of Expedia, Booking.com, and HotelBeds. It's the great technology that WEB has acquired or built.

I know the share price has been subdued lately, but I am very hopeful for this company. The management is real quality. The sectors WEB is in – and getting into, such as Software as a Service – are doing well and set to go higher, according to travel stats. The company itself is doing exceptionally well, and not just in its figures.