I have sat on Dusk results for a couple of days and I find it...

I have sat on Dusk results for a couple of days and I find it fascinating to watch the views put forward.
The thing that I don't understand though is, the majority of people on here thought it would be a worse result than what was announced. Dusk announced a better result than forecasts, but the strange thing is, despite offering something that was better, the forum has turned even more negative than before the announcement. Personally I thought Dusk share price would have the same reaction as Adairs did today - the price rose despite a 10% loss in revenue ( no doubt caused by a forecast miss like Dusk). Alas, I am reminded of the saying 'the market stays irrational longer than you can stay solvent'.

8 million on a 60 million market cap is awesome. Anyone who bought around now (between 0.85-1.28) is sitting on above 10% return for the half year. There is no other retail on the asx (that I am aware of) that has offered up the same return for half yearly results.

I disagree with looking at trends at a superficial level as a determination factor in decision making. It may be how some people in the finance world extrapolate it, but to be fair, there is a lot more that makes up a trend than simply looking at the numbers given. For example, if we were to apply 'trends' to all retail, we may as well short the Australian economy because retail would be going bust after 5 years (its all trending down). What we see is numbers for this year - its not connected to numbers last year, nor numbers next year. Each year is unique and each year has different weights to pressures. An investor has to look under the bonnet of the numbers, rather than look for a pattern which may not be there (which as Taleb would say 'Fools by randomness')

The things I liked:
Maintained GM % - decent achievement
Refreshing the brand - retail should be doing this constantly and I felt this might of slowed recently for Dusk.
Focusing on marketing, e-commerce, rewards members and being better at the basics. This has been lacking and was a key weakness when I evaluated it.
Beat the forecast
Realised there are team members who achieve great sales and they will be using them to achieve more.
Maintaining discipline on the cost of running stores (5 closures moving to 5 new openings)

Things I didn't like:
Paused growth. Maybe this was necessary though to correct the foundations. Its disappointing as a shareholder though.
Delivered a Dividend. I think this should of been used to grow the company.
I felt the delivery of information from Kate was abrupt and there was mixed messages from the CEO. I think they could of done a bit more. Kate sounded tired, and as one poster highlighted, they could of been more compassionate towards long term shareholders.

Just on the comments regarding running out of cash. I think management/board would be acutely aware of this aspect if it was an issue. So if they have recommended a dividend, I am doubtful that is a risk they are considering at the moment. Everything is possible I guess, but when the board has their money in the stock, I am sure they want to protect it rather than give a very small dividend.

Nothing has fundamentally changed to this business. There has been lower foot traffic which is reflecting in the sales, which suggests to me they need to target those who do spend at the store (which they are). It sounds as if the CEO has identified that they need to be more 'efficient' which implies to me being better at the basics. I am still bullish on this - I think its an appropriate strategy.

Questions may be asked, what would make me bearish: I think I would be bearish if I saw they were using debt, and if they gave a good crack at getting better sales (sounds like they are in the process) which didn't work out. This would suggest to me that the customer is off Dusk. There are a couple other red flags for me which I will keep to myself as an investor, but these haven't happened yet.

Just as I said before the announcement, I think the market has been too pessimistic and now that this has come to fruition, now I feel the market has taken it further still. If they stopped growing and just provided a 15 c EPS return each year (assuming they achieve 15 c EPS by end of FY), I would be happy taking that 10% dividend. Plenty of growth options to be had though if the decided to do it tomorrow (ie Wholesale).

In my opinion, we aren't hurting yet - 8 million on 60 market cap with macro stabilising.