BOWLING

Welcome to this month’s “Bowls” update.

NOTE: I continue with the decision to identify the 20 “best” bowls I can find each month for now (this week there are actually 25 as I just felt they were all worth including). This makes life easier for me and for you, I believe. It gives me a firm objective and it gives you less to focus on, as usual all comments welcome.

MELLO LONDON

First of all, a mention for Mello London, an event I believe as many Private investors as possible should support and attend.

I’ve booked my ticket and am really looking forward to it.

SPECIAL OFFER - Details and tickets HERE

If you use the discount code “PSML25” you should get 25% off the ticket price.

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Onto the report…

INTRODUCTION

I am now flagging this introduction as for “new readers” only, those who have read previous articles or are familiar with my view on “Bowls” can now skip this section.

I have been looking for and often investing in bowls for over 5 years or so now. They’re a concept I picked up from Richard Crow (Cockney Rebel), a UK investor who I remain in regular contact with – Richard runs his own Substack here, it’s usually published every weekend and it’s an excellent read for anyone interested in the UK stock market.

For me a bowl is a basic charting pattern which often occurs when a stock has fallen and could be bottoming. It usually has 3 main characteristics I look for…

• The rate the stock was declining slowed, indicating “Sellers almost done?”

• The stock put in no lower lows, indicating “More Buyers than Sellers?”

• The stock starts gradually rising, indicating “Buyers paying up?”

Hard to explain, even with a diagram, but here’s one anyway…

Bowls are a charting pattern and like most charting patterns, are often in the Eye of the Beholder - As can be seen by comparing my list with Richard’s frequent posts, although we do often identify the same ones.

Bowls are often “recovery” plays so to accompany any good looking bowl I also like to see at least one of the following, preferably both…

• Management changes, a new CEO in the last year or two, it takes them a while to get going!  Not so significant but also worth checking for a new COO and/or CFO too.

• Management buying, decent sized purchases within the past 12 months by, preferably, two or three Board members, with no selling, except perhaps for partials to cover option taxation.

Bowls (recovery play opportunities) seem to be best reflected in 3 year line charts.  This kind of makes sense, most companies don’t decline overnight and likewise, most of them take a year or two, sometimes longer, to recover, or show signs of recovery.

For these reasons, a bowl can be spotted over a period of a few months or over a period of 18 months or even more.

Anyway, I usually use 3 year line charts when scrolling through “Companies In My Universe” to look for bowls as I’ve found over time, it’s what works best for me.

COMPANIES IN MY UNIVERSE

I don’t look at all UK companies for bowls, I limit my criteria to those with a Market Cap >£50m and <£2bn.  I also avoid those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups.

Just my personal choice, and this leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

THIS MONTHS BOWLS

In alphabetical order…

SUMMARY

With so many other reports this weekend, I just don’t have time to go into detail on the bowls this month. The full list is in the header (in alphabetic order), which you can use to put into your charting package of choice.

You can find the other reports in a nice list here.

Stand-outs to me are:

• BTG - Quite like this short-term bowl even though they do tend to be less reliable than the longer-term bowls.

• DOCS - Quite interesting even though it’s had a little wobble last week, covered in more detail my Recovery Plays Post a couple of days ago.

• ECEL - A nice recovery bowl from those lows around 100p.

• LIO - Quite similar to DOCS only longer in the making.

• MSLH - I like this and should do well in a UK build recovery.

• VTY - Still quite shallow, would perhaps like to see a little bit more of a curve up, perhaps wait and see if it makes next months list?

What stands out to you?

Remember I may hold all, some, or none of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research. Look out for that change in management and management buying shares! And do point out stuff I’ve missed, this is for all of us!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

And don’t forget that Mello London SPECIAL OFFER - Details and tickets HERE (discount code “PSML25”) - It’s well worth supporting and attending, and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Jon

UPGRADES

Welcome to this month’s “Upgrades” update.

It works for me in this format, but I welcome suggestions for any improvements which may make it better for everyone else, so let me know in the comments below…

MELLO LONDON

First of all, a mention for Mello London, an event I believe as many Private investors as possible should support and attend.

I’ve booked my ticket and am really looking forward to it.

SPECIAL OFFER - Details and tickets HERE

If you use the discount code “PSML25” you should get 25% off the ticket price.

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Onto the report…

INTRODUCTION

Broker upgrades, to Earnings Per Share (EPS), are something I check for pretty much every morning.

Upgrades typically come in the day, or a few days, after an “ahead” or favourable statement by a company. Quite often, thanks to Research Tree, I get to have an idea of the effect these statements will have on EPS forecasts on the day. However, not all companies provide us Private Investors with such information, so it’s usually a case of waiting to see the impact reflected in the Stockopedia forecasts. I always consider it useful to watch out for those updated forecasts on Stockopedia.

I have a simple Stockopedia screen that identifies all companies that have had a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month. It looks like this…

Companies in my universe (as with “Bowls”), included in the above screen, are those with a Market Cap greater than £50m and less than £2bn. I exclude those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups – Just my personal choice which leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

From this screen I extract data so I can quickly identify…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green), it’s good to see both years upgraded is it not!

• The relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month, Dark Green highlights those where that performance is less than the Y1 EPS upgrade (percentage)

• The forecast growth from the Y1 EPS forecast to the Y2 EPS forecast, Dark Green highlights those where there is growth, it’s good to see growth is it not!

• The forecast PER’s for Y1 and Y2

• The Y2 PEG, which is Not Applicable (n/a) if there is no growth forecast (from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS), Red if it’s greater than 1 (no real value*), Amber if between 0.75 and 1 (some value*), Dark Green if between 0.25 and 0.75 (THE SWEET SPOT FOR VALUE*), Amber if less than 0.25 (could be great value but probably indicates something is not quite right*)

* Observations based on my interpretation of PEG, which you may or may not agree with, and which is of course not applicable to all shares.

So, it would be nice to identify, would it not…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where the relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month has not yet caught up with the new forecasts (Dark Green)

• Companies where growth is forecast from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS (Dark Green)

• Companies with a Y2 PEG in the “SWEET SPOT”, between 0.25 and 0.75 (Dark Green)

Well, that’s what this spreadsheet gives me…

IMPORTANT NOTE – Some of the above EPS have been manually converted from their reporting currency to Sterling, so please check these where appropriate.

GREEN

No companies are shaded green this month, as none meet all criteria.

AMBER

Three companies are shaded Amber, they meet all criteria except one.

Griffin Mining (GFM) - Fails on a PEG of just 0.19. I can’t add any value here as it’s not a sector I cover.

Clarkson (CKN) - World-leading provider of integrated shipping services; Brokerage, financial, advisory, and market research solutions. Not only upgrades here to all time highs on the EPS front, the stock is also making all time highs on the chart. The company is seeing a tailwind due to events in the Middle East and the effect on global shipping business, resulting in complexity and price increases. Valuation wise, a PER of c.17x for FY 12/27 on a yield a little over 2%, looks priced about right at best to me, given that these elevated tailwinds will inevitably normalise.

4imprint (FOUR) - Leading international distributor of promotional products and customisable merchandise: Primarily North America (95%+ of revenue). Had a big wobble due to tariffs, as it mostly sells into North America, but the company seems to have now mostly overcome this headwind. Valuation wise, a PER of c.17x for FY 12/27 on a yield of 4% (with potential for a special), I would say it looks like a decent price for a quality company, assuming US corporate marketing spend remains stable.

SUMMARY

I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research.

Do please give feedback and comments below, it helps us all!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

And don’t forget that Mello London SPECIAL OFFER - Details and tickets HERE (discount code “PSML25”) - It’s well worth supporting and attending, and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Jon

Introduction

This screen will be run 4 times a year, in February, May, August and November, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Recovery Plays Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q03 - Recovery Plays”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

Identify potential recovery plays where stocks have fallen over 80% from their 5 years highs and are now showing signs of recovery (50-100% off the 5 year low). Also, ensure they are forecast to make a profit next year and that there has been less than 25% dilution over the period.

Screen Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• The 5 year low % change versus the 5 year high - Is at least -80%

• The % change from the 5 year low - Is between 50% and 100%

• The forecast EPS - Is greater than 0

• The increase in the number of shares in issue (versus 5 years ago) - Is less than 25%

Optional Settings

(None)

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• N/A

Actual Settings

Results

The Top 5 are WPP, DOCS, ATG, NFG and TMG (where I have not already covered them in the last 6 months - To find the recent commentary for those excluded just use the search function whilst on this Substack).

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for ATG…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

WPP (WPP) - Global advertising, marketing services and PR: Creating global campaigns for leading corporate brands. Up over 50% in the past 6 months, forecasts are for EPS of 52.6p in FY 12/26, increasing by 4% to 54.6p in FY 12/27 (PER 7.3x falling to 7x), and there’s a well covered yield of 4% or so. However, the balance sheet is in bad shape here, NTAV is negative to the tune of £5bn+ (which is more than the market cap), and leverage is running around 2.2x. There were bid rumours in the press towards the end of last year but it’s not enough to want me to look further here at present.

Dr. Martens (DOCS) - Iconic British brand: Renowned for its footwear, clothing, accessories, and distinctive cultural heritage. Has lost over 80% of its value since floating in 2021. Revenues are forecast to not be too dissimilar to back then, and there are also less shares in issue now. A new CEO was appointed in January 2025 and he has a lot to do to improve margins and reduce those high inventories. Not screaming bargain here to me but if it can get close to previous margin levels it’s well capable of 10p EPS and more, versus the 5.1p and 6.2p currently forecast for FY 3/27 and FY 3/28.

Auction Technology (ATG) - Online marketplaces (auctions) for art, antiques, and more: Connects auction houses with global online buyers. Floated in early 2021 around 800p, rose to around 1,500p within 6 months before falling to grace to trade below 300p last year. Rejected numerous bids in recent times, the highest, from memory, from FitzWalter for 400p in January 2026. Forecasts are for EPS of 29.4p in FY 9/26, increasing by 18% to 34.7p in FY 9/27. For growth that good on a PER of 12.7x just over a year out, looks worth a further a look to me.

Next 15 (NFG) - Helps brands online: PR, advertising, market research, product launches, and brand protection. The forward PER around 7.1x on a yield of almost 4.8% (just 16 months out) makes this look reasonably attractive. However, there is something notable here. The balance sheet is weak, NTAV is negative (-£83m), there’s net debt, and due to an ongoing legal arbitration case there’s material uncertainty in the going concern section. Tricky to consider getting involved at present.

The Mission Group (TMG) - A collective of digital marketing and creative agencies: Primary focus sports, entertainment, and commercial brands. After making a loss last year the forecasts are for EPS of 5.5p in FY 12/26, increasing by 27% to 7p in FY 12/27 (PER 3.8x falling to 3x). There’s a relatively new CEO here and his job is to sort out the “collective” agencies, integrate them or sell them off (which is in progress). I believe Brave Bison made or considered a bid for part or the whole of the business last year. Looks cheap and perhaps worth keeping an eye on for progress and/or researching the company and the new CEO in more detail.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

Breakouts for this month!

This screen is run 12 times a year at the beginning of each month, thus providing a monthly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Breakout Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, in fact, in this situation, there are two of them, they’re titled…

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m

The reason for two screens in this situation is simply to make the process easy for you to switch between 12 month and 3 month breakouts. In a more bullish environment the 12 month breakout is perhaps more appropriate, to identify the strongest stocks. In a more bearish environment the 3 month breakout would perhaps be more appropriate, to identify stocks which may be leading a recovery.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 12 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m), or

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 3 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m)

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” - Price is higher than the high of the 12 month range prior to this month

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m” - Price is higher than the high of the 3 month range prior to this month

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Forecast to make a profit next year

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Brokers have upgraded next years earnings forecasts in the past 3 months

Settings Used

I have decided to go with consistency again this month and stick with the “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” filter.

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

Actual Settings

Results

I have picked the Top 5 with a market cap below £500m this month, they are RST, AVG, CLIG, CRPR and CTG (where I have not already covered them in the last 6 months - To find the recent commentary for those excluded just use the search function whilst on this Substack).

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last four Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for CFX…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

Restore (RST) - Document scanning and storage, commercial relocation services, and technology recycling services (UK only). Good recurring revenue and margins, and contracts are inflation linked. Based on the quality of the company, the current forecasts, the well covered yield of 2.7-3%, and a forward PER of 11.2x falling to 10x, looks too cheap. Harwood 10%+.

Avingtrans (AVG) - Designs, manufactures critical components, modules, systems and services to the energy, medical and industrial sectors. Not cheap on a forward PER of 23.7x falling to 20x, but the earnings growth this year and forecasts provide support. I would prefer to see a pullback or at least an in line or ahead update to become more interested after the recent rise, up 50% YTD. Harwood 5%.

City of London Investments (CLIG) - Specialist asset management company: Mostly emerging markets and closed-end fund investment strategies. Up 30% YTD but the forward PER still looks undemanding 12-13x on an impressive 6.7% yield (on 1.2x cover).

James Cropper (CRPR) - Advanced materials, sustainable luxury packaging, specialty papers: Supplying the automotive, aerospace, energy, and retail sectors. Up 60% YTD but the forward PER (11.4x falling to 9x) looks undemanding based on forecast earnings growth. No dividend.

Christie Group (CTG) - Buys, sells, finances, and insures commercial properties - Hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare/education and retail. Up 30% YTD, the forward PER, although forecast to fall next year (after refocusing the business), does not look too demanding. I have held here before but sold out on a move up as I wanted to reduce my illiquid positions (it can be tough to buy and sell here). The founding family (the Gwyn’s) still own more than 35% of the company, Lord Lee of Trafford owns 6%.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

If you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

This screen will be run 4 times a year, in February, May, August and November, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Snowballers Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q04 - Snowballers”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

Identify stocks where this year’s earnings were greater than last year, and where they are forecast to grow exponentially next year and the year after.

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• EPS (this year) - Is greater than 0

• EPS percentage change this year - Is greater than 0

• Forecast EPS growth next year - Is greater than the EPS growth this year

• Forecast EPS growth the year after next - Is greater than the Forecast EPS growth next year

Optional Settings

• PEG is less than 1

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• PEG less than 1 - Checked and set to 0

Actual Settings

Results

The Top 2 are PRU and JMAT (where I have not already covered them in the last 6 months - To find the recent commentary for those excluded just use the search function whilst on this Substack).

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 2 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for PRU…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

Prudential (PRU) - Life, health insurance, and asset management: Primarily focused on markets across Asia and Africa. I can add little value here due to the sector. Looking at the numbers specific to this screen, earnings were up 12.7% this year, are forecast to rise 16.8% next year, and by slightly more than that the year after. The yield, at 2%, is nothing to shout about, but the valuation looks undemanding.

Johnson Matthey (JMAT) - Sustainable technologies company: Specialises in catalytic converters, platinum recycling/refining, and clean energy solutions. Again, I can add little value here due to the sector. Looking at the numbers specific to this screen, earnings were up 16.1% this year, are forecast to rise 19.7% next year, and by 26% the year after. There’s also a reasonably well covered c.4% yield. On a forward PER of 11x, falling to c.9x the year after, looks way too cheap if it meets forecasts.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

This screen will be run 4 times a year, in January, April, July and October, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Hidden Value Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q02 - Hidden Value”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

Identify stocks where the Market capitalisation is at least a 25% discount to the Net Tangible Asset Value (NTAV), ex-leases & goodwill.

Screen Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• The Net Tangible Asset Value (NTAV), ex-leases & goodwill - Is greater than zero

• The Market capitalisation - Is at least 25% less than the NTAV

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) - Is greater than 0 (check the company if forecast to make a profit next year)

• The Dividend yield (for this year) - Is greater than 0 (check the company paid a dividend this year - you could change this to next year should you wish)

• The Dividend cover (for this year) - If greater than 1.5x (a brief quality check on the yield - if you change the yield to next year, it would make sense to also change this to next year too)

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• Sectors: To the default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in - I have also excluded the following sectors (as suggested in the last “Hidden Value” update)…

Many stocks in certain other sectors often trade at a big discount to NTAV, and they are not sectors where I typically invest either. They are “Banks”, “REITs”, “Real Estate Investment and Services”, “Closed End Investments” and “Investment Banking and Brokerage Services”, so they are now also on the exclusion list for the “Hidden Value” updates, from now on. This is my NEW default from now on for this screen.

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) - Checked and set to 0

• The Dividend yield (for this year) - Unchecked

• The Dividend cover (for this year) - Unchecked

Actual Settings

Results

Note: I have overlooked BTRW, TW., BWY, VTY and MARS, as they were all covered in the last report here and I have decided to only revisit stocks after 6 months. Also overlooked is YNGN as there are two classes of the share, YNGA being the other.

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for MAB…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) - 1,700+ managed bars and restaurants; Brands include Harvester, Toby Carvery, All Bar One (UK only). Trades at a 40% or so discount to NTAV and has done so for some time. On that basis, on a PER of 9x or so, it looks good value and is worth looking into. However, it is worth noting that the balance sheet is complicated and the net debt is a little high. Perhaps, and rightly so, it does not and is not forecast to pay a dividend.

BP Marsh & Partners (BPM) - Specialist early-stage investment company in the insurance and financial services sector (UK and international). The founder Brian Peter Marsh still owns 39% of the company here, but no longer holds a senior management position. I am pretty sure the NAV here is based on the company’s own valuation, so either insight or trust is required to believe that c.34% discount.

Vanquis Banking (VANQ) - UK specialist lender: Credit cards, personal loans, vehicle finance - For consumers and SMEs. Over 50% discount to NAV, the FY 12/26 PER is 17x, falling to 5.5x in FY 12/27. Worth a look if you believe the forecasts.

Gleeson (GLE) - Affordable UK housebuilder (North England & Midlands). Last year it confirmed that it had no cladding issues or liabilities, currently trades at almost half its NAV. Looks good value as a recovery play on a well covered c.3% yield. Harwood hold 10%.

Camellia (CAM) - Global agriculture: Primarily producing tea, macadamia nuts, and avocados, also provides engineering and logistics services. A strange company that never seems to make any real profits, but is forecast to do so this year, FY 12/26, returning to a loss the year after. Has a load of net cash, trades at a 50% discount to NAV, and there’s a c.5% yield too.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

This screen will be run 4 times a year, in January, April, July and October, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Seeking Income Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q01 - Seeking Income”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

Identify high yielding stocks (greater than 5%) where the yield is forecast to grow next year and the year after, and where the cover for each year is greater than 1.5x.

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• The Dividend yield (for this year) - Was 5% or more

• The Dividend yield (for next year) - Is forecast to be greater than this year

• The Dividend yield (for the year after next) - Is forecast to be greater than next year

• The Dividend cover (for this year) - Was 1.5x or more

• The Dividend cover (for next year) - Is forecast to be 1.5x or more

• The Dividend cover (for the year after next) - Is forecast to be 1.5x or more

Optional Settings

• Net Tangible Asset Value (NTAV), ex-leases & goodwill - Is greater than 0 (a brief balance sheet sanity check)

• Net debt - Is less than 0 (check the company is hopefully not funding dividends from debt)

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• None set

Actual Settings

Results

The screen returned 23 stocks. And, this month I have decided to take 5 of the bottom 7, the ones with the lowest market cap that I have not covered this year.

ECEL - Was covered in May 2026 - Snowballers here, and also featured in UK Stock Upgrades - April 2025 here.

ARBB - Is a banking group where I can add little value, so have also excluded this one.

I will focus on LIO, BRK, SRAD, MBH, and NWF.

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five (of nine) Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for SRAD…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) - Fund manager: For retail investors, pension funds, insurance companies and local government authorities. Been suffering net outflows for a long time, mostly due to poorly performing funds. Recently though, has reported new inflows, so there are now signs of improvement. Valuation wise, the forward PER is 9.4x, there’s been buybacks, and there’s a 5.7% yield (on 1.9x cover) that is also forecast to increase. If you have underlying faith in the fund performance and continued inflows, looks well worth a further look. Traded at 2,000p+ less than 5 years ago.

Brooks Macdonald (BRK) - UK-focused wealth management and personalised financial planning: For individuals, families, businesses, charities, and IFAs. Steady modest net inflows are reflected in single-digit revenue and earnings growth forecasts. On a PER of 9-10x and a 6.5% yield on 1.6x cover, looks reasonably sound for income with some potential for growth too.

Stelrad (SRAD) - Manufactures and distributes standard and premium radiators, towel warmers, and more: UK, Europe and Turkey. Has held up quite well in recent tough macro. Valuation wise, the forward PER is 9-10x, and the 5.5%+ yield is on 1.7-1.8x cover. On forecast earnings growth of c.10% per annum, looks good value, as I am assuming this is based on no improvement in macro, and there’s that decent sized yield while waiting for it, and the revenue and earnings upgrades that will hopefully follow. I quite like it!

Note: Richard Staveley is a recent buyer here, and I think I can see why.

Michelmersh Brick (MBH) - Leading UK manufacturer of high-quality bricks and pavers: For the residential and commercial construction markets. The wait for earnings to be greater than the 8.2p actual in FY 12/24 is currently the 8.9p forecast for FY 12/28. The PER of 10x or so reflects this. The 5.9% yield for FY 12/26 is on 1.6x cover. Seems like a decent progressive yield whilst waiting for a recovery and a potential re-rating in better macro.

NWF Group (NWF) - Specialist distributor, three divisions, Fuels, Food, Feeds: Supplier for the UK agricultural and industrial sectors. The PER is tracking just ahead of the yield here, 7.5x and 7x for FY 5/26 and FY 5/27, and 6.4% and 6.6%, respectively. Based on the forecast growth profile, actually looks decent value considering that yield. Shares have almost halved from the 2023 highs but personally, I would be looking at a higher margin business if I was seeking a steady yield of 5%+.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

BOWLING

Welcome to this month’s “Bowls” update.

NOTE: I continue with the decision to identify the 20 “best” bowls I can find each month for now. This makes life easier for me and for you, I believe. It gives me a firm objective and it gives you less to focus on, as usual all comments welcome.

INTRODUCTION

I am now flagging this introduction as for “new readers” only, those who have read previous articles or are familiar with my view on “Bowls” can now skip this section.

I have been looking for and often investing in bowls for over 5 years or so now. They’re a concept I picked up from Richard Crow (Cockney Rebel), a UK investor who I remain in regular contact with – Richard runs his own Substack here, it’s usually published every weekend and it’s an excellent read for anyone interested in the UK stock market.

For me a bowl is a basic charting pattern which often occurs when a stock has fallen and could be bottoming. It usually has 3 main characteristics I look for…

• The rate the stock was declining slowed, indicating “Sellers almost done?”

• The stock put in no lower lows, indicating “More Buyers than Sellers?”

• The stock starts gradually rising, indicating “Buyers paying up?”

Hard to explain, even with a diagram, but here’s one anyway…

Bowls are a charting pattern and like most charting patterns, are often in the Eye of the Beholder - As can be seen by comparing my list with Richard’s frequent posts, although we do often identify the same ones.

Bowls are often “recovery” plays so to accompany any good looking bowl I also like to see at least one of the following, preferably both…

• Management changes, a new CEO in the last year or two, it takes them a while to get going!  Not so significant but also worth checking for a new COO and/or CFO too.

• Management buying, decent sized purchases within the past 12 months by, preferably, two or three Board members, with no selling, except perhaps for partials to cover option taxation.

Bowls (recovery play opportunities) seem to be best reflected in 3 year line charts.  This kind of makes sense, most companies don’t decline overnight and likewise, most of them take a year or two, sometimes longer, to recover, or show signs of recovery.

For these reasons, a bowl can be spotted over a period of a few months or over a period of 18 months or even more.

Anyway, I usually use 3 year line charts when scrolling through “Companies In My Universe” to look for bowls as I’ve found over time, it’s what works best for me.

COMPANIES IN MY UNIVERSE

I don’t look at all UK companies for bowls, I limit my criteria to those with a Market Cap >£50m and <£2bn.  I also avoid those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups.

Just my personal choice, and this leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

THIS MONTHS BOWLS

In alphabetical order…

SUMMARY

With so many other reports this weekend, I just don’t have time to go into detail on the bowls this month. The full list is in the header (in alphabetic order), which you can use to put into your charting package of choice.

Stand-outs to me are:

ECEL - Nice short-term response.

GENL - Another nice short-term response.

LIO - As good as it gets for a medium-term bowl!

MSLH - Liking this short-term response.

MUL - A nice longer-term bowl, but really illiquid, 2 major shareholders own more than 90% of the company.

PMI - Another nice short-term response.

PZC - A medium-term bowl already starting to play out well.

SDG - Liking this, also already playing out.

VCP - Shallow medium-term bowl, all about the debt here!

Remember I may hold all, some, or none of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research. Look out for that change in management and management buying shares! And do point out stuff I’ve missed, this is for all of us!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul three mornings a week over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

Jon

Introduction

Breakouts for this month!

This screen is run 12 times a year at the beginning of each month, thus providing a monthly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Breakout Screen

Screen Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, in fact, in this situation, there are two of them, they’re titled…

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m

The reason for two screens in this situation is simply to make the process easy for you to switch between 12 month and 3 month breakouts. In a more bullish environment the 12 month breakout is perhaps more appropriate, to identify the strongest stocks. In a more bearish environment the 3 month breakout would perhaps be more appropriate, to identify stocks which may be leading a recovery.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 12 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m), or

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 3 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m)

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” - Price is higher than the high of the 12 month range prior to this month

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m” - Price is higher than the high of the 3 month range prior to this month

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Forecast to make a profit next year

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Brokers have upgraded next years earnings forecasts in the past 3 months

Settings Used

I have decided to go with consistency again this month and stick with the “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” filter.

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

Actual Settings

Results

The screen returned 42 stocks. And, this month I have decided to take 5 of the bottom 6, the ones with the lowest market cap that I have not covered this year.

I covered TPX last month, in UK Stock Upgrades - June 2026 here.

I will focus on IOF, CFX, MWE, WRKS, and DIAL.

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five (of seven) Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for CFX…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

Iofina (IOF) - Specialist producer of iodine and specialty chemical products (second largest iodine producer in the US). Up almost 100% this year, the forward PER of 17.4x (for FY 12/26) looks quite racey, but that is forecast to fall to just 10.3x in FY 12/27 (and if you look out to FY 12/28, <7x). This looks quite interesting! The second largest producer of iodine in the US, demand mostly medical driven, but is new stronger demand now incoming, from zinc-iodine batteries, for example? I don’t know much about iodine or the industry it supports but from a pure numbers perspective, this actually looks worth a punt, although I don’t think I could ever commit in size, due to my limited knowledge of the niche.

Note: iodine spot prices are also driving earnings, and the new capacity due to come on-line soon is also a tailwind for those forward earnings forecasts.

Colefax (CFX) - Interior design group: Luxury fabrics, wallpapers, and traditional home furnishings, and an interior decorating business. Up 50% this year (with revenue and earnings helped by a USD FX tailwind) but still looks reasonable value to me on a forward PER of 10x. Although there is little in the form of a regular dividend here, in the last 3 years, via tenders and buybacks, the company has reduced the share count by 25%+. I am a little concerned that FY 4/27 earnings are forecast to fall by 10%+, with FY 4/28 set to recover, but not to be greater than the 137p forecast for FY 4/26. This could of course change if that net cash is put to use again, as it currently stands at over 30% of the market cap.

MTI Wireless Edge (MWE) - Israel-based technology group: Mainly communication and radio frequency solutions (antennas) across multiple sectors (mostly defense). Up over 50% year-to-date, on a c.3.5% yield, the mid-teen PER now looks to me to be up with events. Earnings are forecast to grow just 10% from 5.8c in FY 12/25 (actual) to 6.4c in FY 12/28 (forecast), USD. Perhaps the market is factoring in increased business due to the current geo-political climate?

The Works (WRKS) - Leading UK&I discount retailer (500+ stores): Books, arts, crafts, toys, and stationery for value-conscious customers. Doesn’t look expensive on a forward PER of 7-8x. Margins, as expected, are not great, but the new CEO Gavin Peck is targeting 6%+ (in the medium-term). Not sure WRKS will ever command a double-digit rating again but if it does, and meets those margin targets, it looks like there is upside here, even after doubling year-to-date.

Diales (DIAL) - Global consultancy: Provides legal project dispute resolution and advisory services to the construction industry. On a forward PER of 16x and a 4.7% yield, looks fairly priced to me given the earnings growth forecasts. I wonder if the market is perhaps pricing in a tick-up in business as many disputes arise from the conflict in the Middle East?

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

If you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

UPGRADES

Welcome to this month’s “Upgrades” update.

It works for me in this format, but I welcome suggestions for any improvements which may make it better for everyone else, so let me know in the comments below…

INTRODUCTION

Broker upgrades, to Earnings Per Share (EPS), are something I check for pretty much every morning.

Upgrades typically come in the day, or a few days, after an “ahead” or favourable statement by a company. Quite often, thanks to Research Tree, I get to have an idea of the effect these statements will have on EPS forecasts on the day. However, not all companies provide us Private Investors with such information, so it’s usually a case of waiting to see the impact reflected in the Stockopedia forecasts. I always consider it useful to watch out for those updated forecasts on Stockopedia.

I have a simple Stockopedia screen that identifies all companies that have had a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month. It looks like this…

Companies in my universe (as with “Bowls”), included in the above screen, are those with a Market Cap greater than £50m and less than £2bn. I exclude those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups – Just my personal choice which leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

From this screen I extract data so I can quickly identify…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green), it’s good to see both years upgraded is it not!

• The relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month, Dark Green highlights those where that performance is less than the Y1 EPS upgrade (percentage)

• The forecast growth from the Y1 EPS forecast to the Y2 EPS forecast, Dark Green highlights those where there is growth, it’s good to see growth is it not!

• The forecast PER’s for Y1 and Y2

• The Y2 PEG, which is Not Applicable (n/a) if there is no growth forecast (from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS), Red if it’s greater than 1 (no real value*), Amber if between 0.75 and 1 (some value*), Dark Green if between 0.25 and 0.75 (THE SWEET SPOT FOR VALUE*), Amber if less than 0.25 (could be great value but probably indicates something is not quite right*)

* Observations based on my interpretation of PEG, which you may or may not agree with, and which is of course not applicable to all shares.

So, it would be nice to identify, would it not…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where the relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month has not yet caught up with the new forecasts (Dark Green)

• Companies where growth is forecast from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS (Dark Green)

• Companies with a Y2 PEG in the “SWEET SPOT”, between 0.25 and 0.75 (Dark Green)

Well, that’s what this spreadsheet gives me…

IMPORTANT NOTE – Some of the above EPS have been manually converted from their reporting currency to Sterling, so please check these where appropriate.

GREEN

This month three companies are shaded Green (they meet all criteria).

Boohoo (DEBS) - Clothing retailer: Brands include Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, Karen Millen and Debenhams. Looked down and out but is now up 2x from those lows of last year. Decent upgrades this year have meant that the valuation has now become more reasonable too. On the forecast revenues, Boohoo is more than capable of doubling the earnings currently forecast, I see 2p for FY 2/29 on Sharescope. If that goes to 4p by say FY 2/31 (assuming all goes to plan), is a PER of 12x perhaps reasonable? I get to 48p in 5 years time - Considering the execution risk, on these quick numbers, just not enough to get me interested.

Intercede (IGP) - Cybersecurity software (MyID): Identity and credential management in high-security environments, e.g. Defence, US government, aerospace. I quite like this company, considered a world leader in its niche. The MyID platform is deeply embedded in the US Department of Defense and major aerospace companies like Boeing, on mostly long term sticky contracts. However, it is quite reliant on the US government and the defense sector for those long-term recurring revenues (of 60%+). Forecast growth for this year is only about 10% but if it can hit those FY28 forecasts and maintain the 25% growth forecast for that year, that FY28 PER of 14x, with 30%+ of the market cap in cash, looks cheap.

Ibstock (IBST) - UK-manufacturer of clay bricks and concrete products: Walling, flooring, fencing, lintels, rail and other infrastructure. Recovering from what looks like trough earnings, the forecast growth is high, as is the PER, but the PEG is still low, 0.35. Could do very well when UK housebuilding improves, but it it doesn’t soon, could also be in for another profit warning. Looks like a bit of a coin-flip on UK housebuilding improvement, with a 2.5% or so yield whilst waiting.

AMBER

Four companies are shaded Amber (they meet all of the criteria except one).

Optima Health (OPT) - Marlow spin-off: Provider of workplace healthcare, wellbeing, mental health and medical services for UK companies. Fails on a PEG of 3.47. With earnings forecast to almost double this coming year, they are forecast to grow just 4% the following year. On a low-teen PER, this is the reason for that high PEG. Worth a look though because if earnings were to grow more than 4% next year (after 92% this coming year), say by 20% or so, then that would make this an attractive entry point. I note Lord Ashcroft holds 28%, Harwood hold 9%, and Slater Investments 8%.

Motorpoint (MOTR) - UK's leading independent retailer of nearly new, low-mileage used cars, via stores and online. Fails due to no earnings upgrade for Year 2. I covered MOTR a couple of months ago, in May 2026 - Recovery Plays here. The upgrade, although only 7% for this year, does now slightly change things though. The PER for this coming year is now forecast to come in at 14x, falling to 11x the year after. Now, if those targets are met, based on forecast earnings growth of 30%+ per annum, this could well look like a decent entry point now. Just a small increase in margins goes a long way here!

Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) - Premium UK pubs and hotels: Mostly managed, some tenancies, focused on higher-quality food and drink. Fails on a PEG of 1.89. Although there’s buybacks and a decent 3% well covered yield, the low-teen PER looks quite reasonable based on the forecast earnings growth profile. Decent for income and perhaps some growth?

ACG Metals (ACG) - Mining (acquiring, developing, producing): Focus on copper (gold and silver) and other critical metals. Fails on a PEG of just 0.12. This is probably related to the fact it is a maiden year for profits this coming year and execution risk (the only mine currently producing is, I believe, located in Turkey). For those who know the industry better, this may well be worth a further look on a lowly single-digit PER, with maiden earnings this year forecast to grow 45% the year after. I note Gervais Williams (at Premier Miton) is a shareholder.

SUMMARY

I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research.

Do please give feedback and comments below, it helps us all!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

Jon

Introduction

This is the “Great Expectations” screen which is run 4 times a year, in March, June, September and December, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Great Expectations Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q06 - Great Expectations”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

Identify stocks with a high PER, this year, next year, and the year after next greater than 15, indicating that forecast growth expectations are quite high, and where the PEG, this year and next is greater than 1.5, indicating that forecast growth is considerably less than the valuation demands - Beats are expected (needed) to justify the valuation or the company is maybe bid material. Potential high growth plays, may be bid for, or are overbought!

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• This years PE Ratio (PER) - Is greater than 15 - Growth expectations are quite high

• Next years PE Ratio (PER) - Is greater than 15 - Growth expectations are quite high

• The PE Ratio (PER) for the year after next - Is greater than 15 - Growth expectations are quite high

• The PEG (for this year, based on the forecast growth from this year to next year) - Is greater than 1.5 - Growth expectations are considerably greater than the valuation multiple

• The PEG (for next year, based on the forecast growth from next year to the year after next) - Is greater than 1.5 - Growth expectations are considerably greater than the valuation multiple

Optional Settings

• Operating Margin % - Is greater than 20 - A very basic quality check

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• No change to defaults

Actual Settings

Results

The screen returned 31 stocks. And, this quarter I have decided to take the bottom 5, the ones with the lowest market cap, as I have never written here before about any of them.

I will focus on CHRT, TAM, PRV, CER, and AOM.

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five (of eigth) Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for CHRT…

Note: As well as the five daily analysis table entries, the main article coverage last month, which can be accessed by clicking the link within the app.

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

Cohort (CHRT) - Independent defense and security technology group: Communications and electronic warfare systems, sonar, intelligence, sensors. A good quality company but looks priced about right to me based on current forecasts. Has a heavy reliance on the UK MOD, c.50% of revenue, generally relies on long-term, multi-year defense contracts, <20% of revenue is recurring, but typically has good visibility.

Tatton Asset Management (TAM) - Owner-managed UK investment management and support services provider for IFAs. I quite like this business, where the founder and CEO Paul Hogarth is the largest shareholder with 15%. It’s a capital light business on great margins that benefits from operational gearing. The ambition here is to increase AUM/I by 24% from £24.2bn in FY 3/26 to £30bn in FY 3/29. On a forward PER of almost 19x and a 3.9% yield (on 1.4x cover) though, after earnings growth of 20%+ in the last two years, this now looks set to almost halve. Wouldn’t bet against it but for now, without any upgrades in forecasts, looks priced about right.

Porvair (PRV) - High-tech filters and environmental technology: Aerospace and industrial (planes, nuclear plants), and medical/labs. Looks like a decent quality company to me, but with forecast earnings growth of less than 6% per annum over the next few years, seems fully priced on a forward PER of 19.4x and a less than 1% yield.

Cerillion (CER) - Owner-managed back-office billing and CRM software solutions and equipment for global telecommunications companies. No doubt, a quality business, a sticky customer base, 40%+ operating margins, c.50% recurring revenue, and the founder (and current CEO) Louis Hall owns 20%. However, based on current forecasts, a forward PER of 18.8x on a less than 2% yield, looks fully priced to me.

ActiveOps (AOM) - Owner-managed SaaS provider: Improves operations and productivity for big companies, like banks and insurance firms. The forward PER is almost 100x here (for FY 3/26, results are due this Thursday), falling to 72x in FY 3/27 based on forecast growth of 38% in earnings next year. As a note, earnings are also forecast to grow by a similar amount in FY 3/28, which sees that PER drop to 51x. There is a lot of optimism built into the current share price even though earnings are forecast to grow at a quite a clip - I suspect in-line updates will not be enough here for some time to come.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

Welcome to the “Bargain Basement” screen which is run 4 times a year, in March, June, September and December, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article, which contains the target dates for each screen.

The Bargain Basement Screen

Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q05 - Bargain Basement”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Objective

Identify stocks with a low PEG (between 0.25 and 0.75) and low forecast PEG (between 0.25 and 0.75), indicating that forecast (2 year) growth is greater than the current valuation demands. Potential bargains, value plays.

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• The PEG (for this year, based on the forecast growth from this year to next year) - Is greater than 0.25 - A PEG < 0.25 could be great value but often indicates something is not quite right, and is less than 0.75 - I generally consider a PEG between 0.25 and 0.75 to be the “sweet spot” for value

• The PEG (for next year, based on the forecast growth from next year to the year after next) - Is greater than 0.25 - A PEG < 0.25 could be great value but often indicates something is not quite right, and is less than 0.75 - I generally consider a PEG between 0.25 and 0.75 to be the “sweet spot” for value

Optional Settings

• The Dividend yield (for next year) - Is greater than 2 - Check the company is forecast to pay a reasonable sized dividend next year

• The Dividend cover (for next year) - Is greater than 1.5x - A brief quality check on the yield

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• No change to defaults

Actual Settings

Results

The screen returned 36 stocks. And, this quarter I have decided to sort them by the PER, from low to high.

I will focus on the Top 5 - ASAI, CARD, RWS, SFOR, and MIDW.

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five (of nine) Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for CARD…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

ASA International (ASAI) - Microfinance lender: Provides loans to low-income entrepreneurs (predominantly women) in developing countries, e.g. Africa, Asia. Always cheap, currently on a forward PER of 4.7x on a 4%+ yield, but there’s plenty of reason for the low rating. There’s macro and FX risk related to developing market exposure, micro-loan credit risk (although historic defaults have been low to date), has a “hyperinflation” accounting policy (!), the co-founder and vice-Chair Dirk Brouwer is the largest shareholder 30%, and there is little to no institutional holding. Will probably always be lowly rated due to the risk profile, and it’s not an investment for me. That said though, investors willing to take on the risk and buying below 50p in 2023 have made 3x their money to date.

Card Factory (CARD) - Leading UK retailer of greeting cards, gifts, and celebration products, and via Funky Pigeon on-line. Looks like such a bargain to me but has done for quite a while. Either the market has missed the fact this is trading on a forward PER of 5.2x, an 8% yield (on 2.4x cover) and is doing buybacks, or it doesn’t believe the numbers. If CARD delivers on its forecasts it should be 100p+ easy, not 67p. High street footfall a concern? Are people still buying and sending physical cards, are stamp prices now too high? Can Funky Pigeon compete with Moonpig?

As a note, this stock also featured in a couple of my “bowls” screens this year, the last time was in March here.

RWS Holdings (RWS) - Translation and interpretation services for business: Content, IP, patents, legal, and AI training services. This is a tough one, from a valuation perspective, if the numbers are met, it’s cheap, the forward PER is 5.5x and the 10% yield is on 1.8x cover. Forecasts are for earnings growth of 8%+ this year and 12%+ the year after. The main concerns here is AI disruption and what the impact will be on the translation side of the business. Two other worthy notes is the dependency on a large contract with Google and the recent acquisition of a loss-making “complimentary” business for £16.5m. The founder/interim NEC Andrew Brode owns 24%.

As a note, this stock also featured in my January and April Seeking Income screens this year, here and here.

S4 Capital (SFOR) - Martin Sorrell’s digital advertising and marketing services company: Focused on technology-led solutions for global brands. Cheap for sure, the forward PER is 5.3x, the yield is higher than that (on 3.1x cover) and the PEG is around 0.5. The share price peaked at 800p+ less than 5 years ago, so this is a case of whether or not you believe in Sorrell and the recovery story. I am undecided and I also do not like the fact that Sorrell has a “golden share” (which Paul kindly reminded me of in May, thanks Paul) meaning he basically has complete control of the company.

As a note, this stock also featured in a couple of my “bowls” screens this year, the last time was in February here.

Midwich (MIDW) - Professional audio-visual, lighting, and communications: Live events, video conferencing, security cameras, control centers, digital signage. Never been a big fan of this one, margins are not great, and debt is high. Cheap on a forward PER of 5.5x and a 4.6% yield (on 4x cover) - Could be a great entry point if it does not need to raise cash, could be going lower if it does!

As a note, this stock also featured in my March Bowls screen this year here.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

BOWLING

Welcome to this month’s “Bowls” update.

NOTE: I continue with the decision to identify the 20 “best” bowls I can find each month for now. This makes life easier for me and for you, I believe. It gives me a firm objective and it gives you less to focus on, as usual all comments welcome.

INTRODUCTION

I am now flagging this introduction as for “new readers” only, those who have read previous articles or are familiar with my view on “Bowls” can now skip this section.

I have been looking for and often investing in bowls for over 5 years or so now. They’re a concept I picked up from Richard Crow (Cockney Rebel), a UK investor who I remain in regular contact with – Richard runs his own Substack here, it’s usually published every weekend and it’s an excellent read for anyone interested in the UK stock market.

For me a bowl is a basic charting pattern which often occurs when a stock has fallen and could be bottoming. It usually has 3 main characteristics I look for…

• The rate the stock was declining slowed, indicating “Sellers almost done?”

• The stock put in no lower lows, indicating “More Buyers than Sellers?”

• The stock starts gradually rising, indicating “Buyers paying up?”

Hard to explain, even with a diagram, but here’s one anyway…

Bowls are a charting pattern and like most charting patterns, are often in the Eye of the Beholder - As can be seen by comparing my list with Richard’s frequent posts, although we do often identify the same ones.

Bowls are often “recovery” plays so to accompany any good looking bowl I also like to see at least one of the following, preferably both…

• Management changes, a new CEO in the last year or two, it takes them a while to get going!  Not so significant but also worth checking for a new COO and/or CFO too.

• Management buying, decent sized purchases within the past 12 months by, preferably, two or three Board members, with no selling, except perhaps for partials to cover option taxation.

Bowls (recovery play opportunities) seem to be best reflected in 3 year line charts.  This kind of makes sense, most companies don’t decline overnight and likewise, most of them take a year or two, sometimes longer, to recover, or show signs of recovery.

For these reasons, a bowl can be spotted over a period of a few months or over a period of 18 months or even more.

Anyway, I usually use 3 year line charts when scrolling through “Companies In My Universe” to look for bowls as I’ve found over time, it’s what works best for me.

COMPANIES IN MY UNIVERSE

I don’t look at all UK companies for bowls, I limit my criteria to those with a Market Cap >£50m and <£2bn.  I also avoid those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups.

Just my personal choice, and this leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

THIS MONTHS BOWLS

In alphabetical order…

SUMMARY

Accesso (ACSO) - Technology solutions for theme-parks and other attractions: Including virtual queuing, ticketing, point-of-sale solutions, guest management. A deep bowl that’s formed this year and was reinforced in the past week on increased interest by Constellation. There are 20% less shares in issue from when this was trading at c.3x the current share price on similar revenues 5 years ago. Lee Cowie became the new CEO in May 2026. A non-exec bought £525k at 350p in November 2025. I covered ACSO in more detail in UK Stock Upgrades - March 2025 here.

Asos (ASC) - Global online fashion retailer targeting young adults with a wide range of clothing and accessories. A nice short term bowl already turned upwards, massive potential if this becomes fashionable again, after many a false dawn. Aaron Izzard became the new CFO in July 2025. The Chair has bought more than £5m this year, from 233p to 381p.

Auction Technology (ATG) - Operator of world-leading marketplaces for curated online auctions of art, antiques, and industrial equipment. A deep bowl in motion with the shares already up 50% or so from the low. A lot left to go for to previous highs in 2021 after floating that year, 23% dilution since. Some bid speculation here too. Duncan Painter became CEO in May 2026 (bought almost £1m at 418p the same month), Sarah Highfield became CFO in May 2025 (no buys I can see).

Dr Martens (DOCS) - Iconic British footwear brand renowned for its high-quality boots, shoes, and distinctive cultural heritage. A decent looking short-medium term bowl that’s turning. Plenty to go for to those 500p highs seen after the 2021 IPO on slightly less share in issue now, and higher forecast revenues. Ije Nwokorie became CEO in January 2025. A non-exec bought £155k at 78p in December 2025.

Foresight (FGEN) - I know nothing about this and should have excluded it and included something else, but just left it too late to go back (I actually thought it was FSG until I came to do the narrative!). Anyway, a deep bowl in motion with the shares up 20% or so from the low.

Hays (HAS) - Global specialist recruitment firm providing professional staffing services across various industries and technical sectors. A short-term bowl that is turning nicely. An unloved sector, the shares were 150p 5 years ago, on similar forecast revenues and similar shares in issue. Mark Dearnley became CEO in May 2026 (and bought £147k at c.30p, on top of £147k at c.38p when he was interim CEO in March 2026).

hVIVO (HVO) - Specialist contract research organisation providing human challenge clinical trials for global biopharmaceutical and biotech companies. A medium term bowl and although not the smoothest, now looking rather interesting. Up 40% YTD and still plenty to go for to the highs of a couple of years ago, on no dilution since. Has recently reported quite a few Human Challenge Trial contract wins. Directors bought c.£230k at c.6p in December 2025.

Intercede (IGP) - Cybersecurity software company specialising in identity and credential management for government and enterprise security systems. A shorter-term quick recovery bowl with the shares already up 50% or so from the low.

IG Design (IGR) - Global designer and manufacturer of celebrations, craft, stationery, and creative play products for retailers. A medium term bowl that’s turning nicely. Gerald Kuehr became CEO Designate in May 2026 (and bought £860k at 69p soon after), he will take up the role on a permanent basis in July 2026. I covered IGR in more detail in May 2026 - Recovery Plays here.

Kooth (KOO) - Digital mental health platform providing accessible online counseling and support services for children and adults. A bit of a scruffy medium term bowl but I quite like it and it’s holding up well, with the shares already up 50% or so from the low. Kate Newhouse became CEO in June 2025. I covered KOO in more detail in UK Stock Upgrades - May 2025 here.

Liontrust (LIO) - Specialist independent fund management group providing active investment solutions across global equities and fixed income. A really smooth short-medium term bowl, looks really good. Could do very well when outflows reverse.

Mulberry (MUL) - Iconic British luxury brand renowned for high-quality leather goods, clothing, and high-fashion accessories for men. A medium-long term bowl here but it is so illiquid with c.93% in the hands of two majority shareholders. Andrea Baldo became CEO in September 2024, Billie O’Connor became CFO in February 2025.

PZ Cussons (PZC) - International consumer goods company specialising in personal care, hygiene, and beauty brands for global markets. Not the cleanest of medium term bowls but I quite like the shape of it. Traded at 250p 5 years ago on similar revenue forecasts and shares in issue. Jan Bramall became CFO in March 2026. Directors have bought c.£80k at 80p - 90p in 2026. As a note, Lord Lee (a former director of the company) believes the brands are worth way more than the market cap here.

RWS Holdings (RWS) - Leading global provider of technology-led language, content, and intellectual property services for international business clients. A nice shorter term bowl, within a medium term bowl, which now looks to be finally breaking out. 35% more shares in issues since the 500p highs of 5 years ago on revenues that are forecast to be similar. Benjamin Faes became CEO in January 2025, Stephen Lamb became CFO in March 2026. I covered RWS in more detail in January 2026 - Seeking Income here.

Sanderson Design (SDG) - Luxury interior design group specialising in high-end fabrics, wallpapers, and traditional home furnishings for global. A medium term bowl with the shares already up 50% or so from the low. Was double the current share price 5 years ago on similar forecast revenues to back then and little dilution. I covered SDG in more detail in March 2026 - Bargain Basement here.

Synthomer (SYNT) - Global specialty chemical company supplying high-performance aqueous polymers for various industrial and consumer applications. A 5 bagger+ from the lows this year with 40 bags still to go for to the highs of 5 years ago on very little dilution since then on revenues forecast to be similar. An interim CFO is currently in place.

Team Internet (TIG) - Global internet solutions company providing domain name registry services and digital advertising technology platforms. A short term bowl at the end of a downward journey, could be signalling the bottom? 4 bagger potential to the highs of a couple of years ago but revenue forecasts are around half of what they were back then, slightly less share in issue.

Tracsis (TRCS) - Provider of software and hardware solutions for the transport industry, focusing on rail and traffic. This smooth medium term bowl is looking interesting. A potential 2 bagger to those highs of 2 years ago, on slightly better forecast revenues and no dilution since. David Frost became CEO in August 2025.

Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) - Leading European low-cost airline providing affordable travel options and extensive flight connections across many destinations. A short term bowl (after a profit warning earlier this year). Such a tough one to value (for me anyway), but scope for big gains here (4 bagger) if the good times return again. Veronika Špaňárová became CFO in February 2026, the previous CFO Ian Malin transitioned to CCO.

YouGov (YOU) - Global provider of data and insights, helping organisations understand public opinion and consumer behaviour trends. A really smooth short-medium term bowl, looks really good. Little dilution from the 1500p highs 5 years ago, on revenues forecast to be 2x bigger. Co-founder Stephan Shakespeare (who previously served as CEO until 2023) became Interim CEO in March 2026, James Davies became CFO in February 2026. Directors have bought £200k+ at 155p - 212p in 2026.

AND FINALLY

Remember I may hold all, some, or none of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research. Look out for that change in management and management buying shares! And do point out stuff I’ve missed, this is for all of us!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul three mornings a week over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

Jon

UPGRADES

Welcome to this month’s “Upgrades” update.

It works for me in this format, but I welcome suggestions for any improvements which may make it better for everyone else, so let me know in the comments below…

INTRODUCTION

Broker upgrades, to Earnings Per Share (EPS), are something I check for pretty much every morning.

Upgrades typically come in the day, or a few days, after an “ahead” or favourable statement by a company. Quite often, thanks to Research Tree, I get to have an idea of the effect these statements will have on EPS forecasts on the day. However, not all companies provide us Private Investors with such information, so it’s usually a case of waiting to see the impact reflected in the Stockopedia forecasts. I always consider it useful to watch out for those updated forecasts on Stockopedia.

I have a simple Stockopedia screen that identifies all companies that have had a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month. It looks like this…

Companies in my universe (as with “Bowls”), included in the above screen, are those with a Market Cap greater than £50m and less than £2bn. I exclude those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups – Just my personal choice which leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

From this screen I extract data so I can quickly identify…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green), it’s good to see both years upgraded is it not!

• The relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month, Dark Green highlights those where that performance is less than the Y1 EPS upgrade (percentage)

• The forecast growth from the Y1 EPS forecast to the Y2 EPS forecast, Dark Green highlights those where there is growth, it’s good to see growth is it not!

• The forecast PER’s for Y1 and Y2

• The Y2 PEG, which is Not Applicable (n/a) if there is no growth forecast (from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS), Red if it’s greater than 1 (no real value*), Amber if between 0.75 and 1 (some value*), Dark Green if between 0.25 and 0.75 (THE SWEET SPOT FOR VALUE*), Amber if less than 0.25 (could be great value but probably indicates something is not quite right*)

* Observations based on my interpretation of PEG, which you may or may not agree with, and which is of course not applicable to all shares.

So, it would be nice to identify, would it not…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where the relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month has not yet caught up with the new forecasts (Dark Green)

• Companies where growth is forecast from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS (Dark Green)

• Companies with a Y2 PEG in the “SWEET SPOT”, between 0.25 and 0.75 (Dark Green)

Well, that’s what this spreadsheet gives me…

IMPORTANT NOTE – Some of the above EPS have been manually converted from their reporting currency to Sterling, so please check these where appropriate.

OBSERVATION - TBTG and MTL look like data errors so I have ignored them.

GREEN

This month two companies are shaded Green (they meet all criteria).

• Princes (PRN) - Food and drink manufacturer/distributor: Canned fish (tuna, salmon), tinned tomatoes, pasta, drinks, and more. This recent float (from the end of last year) looks quite interesting. It’s on a single-digit PER, forecast growth looks OK and it’s got a load of cash (30%+ of the market cap) for acquisitions. Note: will soon lose its CEO, he’s off to ULTP, and it is a recent float, so it’s maybe worth seeing at least a couple of sets of full accounts.

• Playtech (PTEC) - Software and services for the online gambling industry (B2B): Customers include DraftKings, Caesars, and MGM. Not cheap on a high-teens PER at present, but if it meets forecasts (for 20%+ per annum earnings growth), this could look like a well timed entry point in the future. Some gambling sector related risk, perhaps reduced slightly as its B2B software and services?

AMBER

Three companies are shaded Amber (they meet all of the criteria except one).

• Kodal Minerals (KOD) - Mining: Mineral assets exploration and development, mainly in West Africa, and mainly lithium and gold. I can add very little here, seems like a loss making mining company that is apparently now going to start making profits. Maybe some readers can add some value here?

• Devolver Digital (DEVO) - Indie games developer: E.g. Talos Principle, Death’s Door, Astroneer. This stock came up on my February 2026 Recovery Plays screen here, where I noted that the founder and previous CEO Harry Miller returned in January 2024 (to become CEO again) and he still holds 22% of the stock. That now seems to be paying off, after years of losses the company is now forecast to be profitable this year again, and in the years ahead. There’s a decent back catalogue here and that forward PER of 12.7x looks quite undemanding, especially if you strip out the net cash (20%+ of the market cap).

• Tpximpact Holdings (TPX) - Digital transformation: Primarily UK government and local authorities, moving from paper/manual to digital/online. Does well when the government is spending, and not so well when it isn’t, reliant on contract wins and not much in the way of recurring revenues. It’s not expensive on a forward PER of 12x but it’s just too “lumpy” and over-reliant on government spending for me, even though government spending is unlikely to ease up in this area any time soon (at least it shouldn’t).

SUMMARY

I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research.

Do please give feedback and comments below, it helps us all!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

Jon

Introduction

Breakouts for this month!

This screen is run 12 times a year at the beginning of each month, thus providing a monthly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article.

The Breakout Screen

Screen Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, in fact, in this situation, there are two of them, they’re titled…

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m

The reason for two screens in this situation is simply to make the process easy for you to switch between 12 month and 3 month breakouts. In a more bullish environment the 12 month breakout is perhaps more appropriate, to identify the strongest stocks. In a more bearish environment the 3 month breakout would perhaps be more appropriate, to identify stocks which may be leading a recovery.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Screen Frequency

Every month, on the first Saturday of the month, 12 times a year.

Screen Objective

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 12 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m), or

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 3 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m)

PURPOSE - Identify potential momentum plays - Could continue higher.

Screen Settings

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” - Price is higher than the high of the 12 month range prior to this month

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m” - Price is higher than the high of the 3 month range prior to this month

Optional Settings

(To potentially return less results)

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Forecast to make a profit next year

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Brokers have upgraded next years earnings forecasts in the past 3 months

June 2026 - Breakouts

I have decided to go with consistency again this month and stick with the “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” filter. It should show stocks that are holding up particularly well in this environment.

The baseline returns 83 stocks.

This month again, I have not changed the market cap upper limit so that those of you who wish to look into the larger caps on the list can do so. The market cap lower limit default (£10m) has not been changed either.

Again this month, I checked the “Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0” and for a change I have also checked “Forecast EPS upgrade % (in the last 3 months)”.

The above settings reduced the list from 83 stocks to 32.

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: £10m upwards.

• Sectors: Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal”

• ISIN Country of Register: Exclude “JP” and “FR”

Base Settings

• Price > High between 13m and 1m (ago)

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

Actual Settings

Results

“Our View”

The Top 5, with a market cap less than £2,000m (which is where I typically invest) are WOSG, UPR, BMY, BOWL, and MCON (where I have not already covered them this year).

For KLR, ZIG and GLV see March 2026 Breakouts here.

For RPI, MTRO, FTC and XPP see May 2026 Breakouts here.

For VLX and LUCE see April 2026 Breakouts here.

IDOX is in bid discussions.

For AVG see UK Stock Upgrades - January 2026 here.

For ENSI see UK Stock Upgrades - May 2026 here.

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five (of eight) Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for WOSG…

Note: As well as the five daily analysis table entries, the two main articles for WOSG in February this year and September last year, which can be accessed by clicking on the link within the app.

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

My Commentary

Watches Of Switzerland (WOSG) - Luxury watch and jewellery retailer: Via a showroom network, mainly across the UK and USA. I quite like this, it’s on an undemanding forward PER of around 15x and it trades at half the price of its 2022 highs. Not only that, revenues are forecast to be 50% higher than back then and there are less shares in issue now. Any return of demand in the luxury watch sector could see a decent tailwind kick in here.

Uniphar (UPR) - International healthcare services provider: Specialises in wholesale, hospital services, and retail pharmacy across Europe. I don’t know very much about this company at all and a quick look at the basic numbers doesn’t make me want to look much further. I am being asked to pay a mid to high teen PER for a company that is forecast to grow earnings by less than 10% per annum over the next 3 years. There is only a tiny yield (<1%) and margins are nothing to write home about either. Perhaps there’s a big “moat” here or some USP but on the numbers alone, it seems priced about right at best.

Bloomsbury Publishing (BMY) - Independent global publisher: Academic, educational, general fiction (Harry Potter and Sarah J. Maas) and non-fiction. Sarah J. Maas is gaining teenage and young adult fans every day, numerous new Harry Potter fans are born every day, and there’s the academic and educational side of the business too. I like the business much more than when it was mostly reliant on Harry Potter. This is a decent breakout with the shares up 35% YTD, however, after a quick look at the earnings forecasts and the current valuation, on a mid-teen PER, it looks priced about right to me for now.

Hollywood Bowl (BOWL) - Tenpin bowling centers: The largest in the UK (Hollywood Bowl) and Canada (Splitsville). Lots to like here and I actually covered the H1 results on the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack this week, here is a link. In summary, doing well, an ambitious self-funded roll-out plan, PER of 13x or so (now), a 5% yield, and a proven management team, looks too cheap.

Mincon (MCON) - Irish-based founder-led engineering group: Specialises in high-quality rock drilling tools and equipment. Recovering well from the lows of last year but it’s not cheap on a forward PER of 18x (FY 12/26). However, if it meets forecasts, as margins improve, that valuation would drop to 13x in a couple of years. I don’t really have a view either way here as it’s up against a lot of macro, with headwinds it struggles, with tailwinds it probably beats expectations.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

If you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

This is the second “Snowballers” screen of 2026.

This is run 4 times a year, in February, May, August and November, thus providing a quarterly view.

You can view the full list of screens and schedule for 2026 here.

The Snowballers Screen

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q04 - Snowballers”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Frequency

Every quarter, on the third or fourth Sunday of February, May, August and November, 4 times a year. Apologies, this one is slightly late this month.

Objective

Identify stocks where this year’s earnings were greater than last year, and where they are forecast to grow exponentially next year and the year after.

Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• EPS (this year) - Is greater than 0

• EPS percentage change this year - Is greater than 0

• Forecast EPS growth next year - Is greater than the EPS growth this year

• Forecast EPS growth the year after next - Is greater than the Forecast EPS growth next year

Optional Settings

• PEG - Is less than 1

Snowballers - This month…

The default settings returned 37 stocks, so I decided to tick the optional setting “PEG - Is less than 1” this month, which conveniently returned exactly 5 stocks.

Actual Settings

Results

“Our View”

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 18 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five (of thirteen) Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for MAB1…

Note: As well as the five daily analysis table entries, the main article coverage for during the period (by yours truly), which can be accessed by clicking the link within the app.

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

TBC Bank Group (TBCG) - A banking group: Provides retail, corporate, and digital banking services across Georgia and Uzbekistan. This banking group always looks cheap, typically on a PER of 6 or so, on a 6% or so yield, and a PEG below 0.5. I’ve been watching this stock since the early 2020’s, just because it’s always shown up on one or two of my GARP/value screens, and I’ve always avoided it because of the location and associated risks. That situation has not changed today even though I’ve missed out on a bagger. And, in fact I could miss out on a bagger again if these forecasts hold up and sentiment towards the region improves, but at the end of the day, it’s just not a risk I wish to take.

Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB1) - Leading UK mortgage-broker: Provides new mortgages, refinancing and general financial services through a franchise network. I really like this business and even though it’s not ideal macro at present for new mortgages, the refinancing business is doing a decent job at picking up the slack. On a single-digit PER, a 5% yield and mid-high teen forecast earnings growth, I view this as a real GAvRP share, the v being for very.

Cab Payments (CABP) - Global business-to-business cross-border payments and FX services, focused on emerging and frontier markets. This is a special (strange) situation. Since the beginning of February this year, there’s been a bun-fight going on here. It’s between Helios (a private equity firm and the largest shareholder, at 45%), StoneX (a Nasdaq-listed financial services company), and the Board. Basically the Board supports the higher offer from StoneX (110p (up from 95p originally), which they’ve recently withdrawn), but it keeps being blocked by Helios, who are trying to buy the company for themselves for around 85p. The story is something like that, and I am not sure I have seen such a situation before. Anyway, it’s just not something I wish to get involved in.

Eurocell (ECEL) - The UK’s leading manufacturer and distributor of PVC windows, doors, roofing, and other building products. On a PER of 6x or less and high-teen earnings growth, forecast for this year and next, this looks wrongly priced, especially if you take into account the 6%+ yield on >2x cover! It just seems the market is overly pessimistic here. There’s been reasonable sized management buys in the past 6 months (above the current share price), and I reckon ECEL would still look cheap even on a mild warning that saw forecasts cut by 25% or so.

CT Automotive (CTA) - Designer and manufacturer of interior components (cup-holders, arm-rests, interior lights, etc.) for global automotive brands. Just not sure what to say about this one. I spotted this as being crazy cheap around 12 months ago, bought some, but ran out of patience at the end of January, as the market failed to agree with me and then the CFO walked the plank. Since then (of course!) there’s been some positive news flow, a well received Investor Meet Company presentation, and seemingly, a change in sentiment towards the company. Paul actually covered CTA in detail on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack on 20 May here, and this was followed up with a reader’s article here on 25 May (both are well worth a read if you are interested in the company). My view is that, if the forecasts are to be believed, this is worth well over 100p, PER <4x, forecast earnings growth well over 2x that! I have yet to make my own mind up, as I thought this once before and the market failed to agree with me - Once bitten and all that!

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

This is the second “Recovery Plays” screen of 2026.

This is run 4 times a year, in February, May, August and November, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article.

The Recovery Plays Screen

Screen Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q03 - Recovery Plays”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Screen Frequency

Every quarter, on the first or second Sunday of February, May, August and November, 4 times a year. This one is slightly late as I had a few other things on, so apologies for that.

Screen Objective

Identify potential recovery plays where stocks have fallen over 80% from their 5 years highs and are now showing signs of recovery (50-100% off the 5 year low). Also, ensure they are forecast to make a profit next year and that there has been less than 25% dilution over the period.

Screen Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• The 5 year low % change versus the 5 year high - Is at least -80%

• The % change from the 5 year low - Is between 50% and 100%

• The forecast EPS - Is greater than 0

• The increase in the number of shares in issue (versus 5 years ago) - Is less than 25%

Optional Settings

(None)

May 2026 - Recovery Plays

The default settings return 12 stocks this month, so I decided to make no changes.

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• No change to defaults

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• N/A

Actual Settings

Results

“Our View”

The Top 5 are OTB, W7L, MOTR, IGR, and EAH (where I have not already covered them this year).

For EVPL, BIG, and DEVO see the February 2026 Recovery Plays here.

TET and EVOK have been overlooked as there is a bid in progress there.

As a note, the last share on the list, SDG, was covered in the March 2026 Bargain Basement here, so that would basically mean all on the above list are covered.

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 15 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for OTB…

Note: As well as the five daily analysis table entries, the three main articles coverage for OTB over the period (two by yours truly), which can be accessed by clicking on the link within the app.

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

On The Beach (OTB) - UK-based online travel retailer specialising in beach-holiday packages and flights. Even taking into consideration all of the current macro events, on a medium-term view at least - Just looks too cheap on a single-digit PER <8x, there’s also a 2.5%+ yield.

Warpaint London (W7L) - Affordable branded cosmetics and beauty products, owns the W7 brand. A swift fall from grace here, from those 2024 highs of 600p+. Although growth has slowed considerably recently, the single-digit PER for this founder-managed company looks like an attractive entry price for recovery, especially considering it is not much higher than the 7%+ yield on 1.5x cover.

Motorpoint (MOTR) - Leading independent UK-retailer specialising in nearly new, low-mileage used cars. Many have been waiting years to see an improvement in sentiment and the margins here, where even a slight improvement in the latter could do wonders for earnings. It just seems impossible to predict when (or even if) the turnaround will come here, and on a PER of c16x for FY 3/2027 quite a lot of optimism seems priced in.

IG Design (IGR) - Manufactures and distributes gift packaging, stationery, craft, and creative products. Got into trouble previously (with its American business, now sold) and is now trying to get back to “normal” with the previous (current) business. Already recovered quite well this year, up over 35% YTD, and the PER for FY 3/2027 is a reasonable 14.6x. This may or may not be up with events as it currently has a massive cash pile (around the same size as the market cap)! I may be more interested once I see what this looks like when I see the FY 3/2026 actuals, as I am not sure if there are any more deferred payments due on the American business sale.

ECO Animal Health (EAH) - Specialises in developing and marketing high-quality medicines for livestock productivity. Quite an interesting company though it’s not one I know much about, most likely a tough market to crack, but once cracked, could do very well. The forward PERs, all greater than 25x, and lack of sector knowledge rule it out for me.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

Introduction

Breakouts for this month!

This screen is run 12 times a year at the beginning of each month, thus providing a monthly view. Sorry it’s a little late this month - Just so much going on!

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article.

The Breakout Screen

Screen Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, in fact, in this situation, there are two of them, they’re titled…

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m

• Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m

The reason for two screens in this situation is simply to make the process easy for you to switch between 12 month and 3 month breakouts. In a more bullish environment the 12 month breakout is perhaps more appropriate, to identify the strongest stocks. In a more bearish environment the 3 month breakout would perhaps be more appropriate, to identify stocks which may be leading a recovery.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Screen Frequency

Every month, on the first Saturday of the month, 12 times a year.

Screen Objective

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 12 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m), or

• Identify stocks that have broken above the high of the 3 month range prior to this month and are still holding that high now (Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m)

PURPOSE - Identify potential momentum plays - Could continue higher.

Screen Settings

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” - Price is higher than the high of the 12 month range prior to this month

• For “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 3m” - Price is higher than the high of the 3 month range prior to this month

Optional Settings

(To potentially return less results)

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Forecast to make a profit next year

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Brokers have upgraded next years earnings forecasts in the past 3 months

May 2026 - Breakouts

I have decided to go with consistency again this month and stick with the “Briefed Up - M01 - Breakouts - 12m” filter. It should show stocks that are holding up particularly well in this environment.

The baseline returns 52 stocks, 24 more than the 28 last month.

This month again, I have not changed the market cap upper limit so that those of you who wish to look into the larger caps on the list can do so. The market cap lower limit default (£10m) has not been changed either.

Again this month, I checked the “Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0” setting - I have a feeling that this will actually become the new default as I rarely want to invest in companies forecast to make a loss next year.

The above settings reduced the list from 52 stocks to 39 (which is 11 more than last month).

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: £10m upwards.

• Sectors: Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal”

• ISIN Country of Register: Exclude “JP” and “FR”

Base Settings

• Price > High between 13m and 1m (ago)

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) is greater than 0 - Checked and set to 0

• Forecast EPS (for next year) upgrade percentage (in the past 3 months) is greater than 0 - Unchecked

Actual Settings

Results

“Our View”

The Top 5, with a market cap less than £2,000m (which is where I typically invest) are RPI, MTRO, POLR, FTC, and XPP (where I have not already covered them this year).

For OXIG see January 2026 Breakouts here.

For SAGA see February 2026 Breakouts here.

For KLR, CKN, and MPE see March 2026 Breakouts here.

For VLX and CMCX see April 2026 Breakouts here.

AMS has also been overlooked as there is a bid in progress there.

As usual, Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the 5 stocks I am covering this month, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 15 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for RPI…

Note: As well as the five daily analysis table entries, the main article coverage for RPI in April last year, which can be accessed by clicking on the link within the app.

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

• Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

My Commentary

Raspberry Pi (RPI) - Designs & produces low-cost, high-performance mini-computers for programming and more. Quite the popular stock, and product, at present. On Sharescope the EPS forecast for FY 12/2025 is 12.8c, and 12.2c for FY 12/2026. I also notice that the EPS forecast for FY 12/2027 is 14c. That’s a PER of >60x for 100% revenue growth and c.40% earnings growth over the (3 year) period. The product looks interesting and I am quite tempted to buy one just to see what it’s all about. But, at present, based on my usual valuation process, which perhaps does not really apply here, it could not be a conviction buy for me.

Metro Bank (MTRO) - UK-based retail bank focused on customer service and high-street presence. This looks great value, as the PER falls from 11.4x to a single-digit in FY 12/2027, on earnings that are forecast to grow at 40%+ per annum over the next 3 years. Not a sector I typically invest in but for those that do, it looks worth a deeper dive. Note that due to the recent strong performance of the share price, MTRO is now trading close to NTAV (last reported I can see is 163p/share).

Polar Capital (POLR) - Specialist fund manager mainly focused on technology and healthcare sectors. I like POLR, it’s been reporting net inflows since the turn of the year, the PER is c.12x, and there’s a 6.5%+ reasonably well covered yield too. Up 30% YTD but still looks decent value to me, for potential capital growth and for income too.

Filtronic (FTC) - RF/microwave equipment for aerospace, defense, and high-speed satellite communications. Plenty of hype here and one where you either buy into the story (SpaceX/Starlink, defense tailwinds, etc.) or you don’t. FY 5/2028 earnings are forecast at 5.3p, which is less than the 6p reported in FY 5/2025, on revenue that is forecast to grow just 4% over the same period. So, on a PER that is not forecast to be below 50x over the next few years, do you buy the story or not?

Xp Power (XPP) - Designs and manufactures critical power components for healthcare and industry. Almost doubled this year already, now on a FY 12/2026 PER of 36x (no dividend). However, it is worth looking at the forecasts beyond this, as that PER drops to 19x in FY 12/2028 based on earnings growth of 300%+, from 22.5p (in FY 12/2025) to 92.7p, as operational gearing kicks in.

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

If you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon

UPGRADES

Welcome to this month’s “Upgrades” update.

It works for me in this format, but I welcome suggestions for any improvements which may make it better for everyone else, so let me know in the comments below…

MELLO LONDON

First of all, a mention for Mello London, an event I believe as many Private investors as possible should support and attend.

I’ve booked my ticket and am really looking forward to it. Mello Birmingham last month was great, especially meeting up with a number of readers from here.

SPECIAL OFFER - Details and tickets HERE

If you use the discount code “PS25” you should get 25% off the ticket price.

I look forward to seeing many of you there!

Onto the report…

INTRODUCTION

Broker upgrades, to Earnings Per Share (EPS), are something I check for pretty much every morning.

Upgrades typically come in the day, or a few days, after an “ahead” or favourable statement by a company. Quite often, thanks to Research Tree, I get to have an idea of the effect these statements will have on EPS forecasts on the day. However, not all companies provide us Private Investors with such information, so it’s usually a case of waiting to see the impact reflected in the Stockopedia forecasts. I always consider it useful to watch out for those updated forecasts on Stockopedia.

I have a simple Stockopedia screen that identifies all companies that have had a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month. It looks like this…

Companies in my universe (as with “Bowls”), included in the above screen, are those with a Market Cap greater than £50m and less than £2bn. I exclude those in the “Residential & Commercial REITs”, “Collective Instruments” or “Holding Companies” Industry groups – Just my personal choice which leaves me with around 500 “Companies In My Universe”.

From this screen I extract data so I can quickly identify…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green), it’s good to see both years upgraded is it not!

• The relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month, Dark Green highlights those where that performance is less than the Y1 EPS upgrade (percentage)

• The forecast growth from the Y1 EPS forecast to the Y2 EPS forecast, Dark Green highlights those where there is growth, it’s good to see growth is it not!

• The forecast PER’s for Y1 and Y2

• The Y2 PEG, which is Not Applicable (n/a) if there is no growth forecast (from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS), Red if it’s greater than 1 (no real value*), Amber if between 0.75 and 1 (some value*), Dark Green if between 0.25 and 0.75 (THE SWEET SPOT FOR VALUE*), Amber if less than 0.25 (could be great value but probably indicates something is not quite right*)

* Observations based on my interpretation of PEG, which you may or may not agree with, and which is of course not applicable to all shares.

So, it would be nice to identify, would it not…

• Companies with a Y1 EPS upgrade greater than 5% in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where Y2 EPS has also been upgraded in the past month (Dark Green)

• Companies where the relative performance (strength) of the Share Price in the past month has not yet caught up with the new forecasts (Dark Green)

• Companies where growth is forecast from Y1 EPS to Y2 EPS (Dark Green)

• Companies with a Y2 PEG in the “SWEET SPOT”, between 0.25 and 0.75 (Dark Green)

Well, that’s what this spreadsheet gives me…

IMPORTANT NOTE – Some of the above EPS have been manually converted from their reporting currency to Sterling, so please check these where appropriate.

OBSERVATION - SOM has no Y2 EPS forecasts in the market at present (on Stockopedia).

GREEN

This month two companies are shaded Green (they meet all criteria).

• EnSilica (ENSI) - Designs & supplies custom mixed-signal ASICs, for radar, satellite, automotive. Has had a troubled past and even if you trust those recently upgraded forecasts it’s still not cheap on a forward PER of 73x falling to 42x - No room for error.

• Norcros (NXR) - Leading supplier of sustainable bathroom and kitchen fittings & products. Had previous issues, South African exposure (which is now less than 10% of profits) and the pension (which is now sorted). Up over 30% in 2024 and again in 2025, but still actually looks decent value if you believe those forecasts - It’s on a single-digit PER and offers a well covered yield of c.4% too.

AMBER

Two companies are shaded Amber (they meet all of the criteria except one).

Both fail on the PEG being greater than the preferred range of 0.25 - 0.75.

• PPHE Hotel (PPH) - Hotels & resorts operator, brands include Park Plaza & art’otel. Quite a complex group, with a sale/bid process in progress. Looking at the base numbers, a PER of 12-13x on a c.2.5% yield, seems about right to me.

• Gym (GYM) - Provides low cost, 24/7, no contract gyms in the UK. Even after decent upgrades for FY 12/2026 and FY 12/2027, still looks overvalued to me. Forecast revenue and earnings growth just seems rather pedestrian for a company valued on a PER >30x, which is clearly reflected in that PEG of 2+.

SUMMARY

I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article.

No investment advice intended, for information only, Do Your Own Research.

Do please give feedback and comments below, it helps us all!

NOTE: As most of you know, I now write for Paul over on his Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack. So if you want morning news coverage and more detailed analysis every day on UK stocks, there’s a FREE one week trial and Friday’s are also FREE, so you can check it out to see if you like what’s on offer.

And don’t forget that Mello London SPECIAL OFFER - Details and tickets HERE (discount code “PS25”) - It’s well worth supporting and attending, and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

Jon

Introduction

This is the second “Hidden Value” screen of 2026.

This screen will be run 4 times a year, in January, April, July and October, thus providing a quarterly view.

If you have not yet seen the full list of screens or the 2026 schedule, here is a link to that original article.

The Hidden Value Screen

Screen Overview

This screen is available in the Sharescope Filter Library, it’s titled “Briefed Up - Q02 - Hidden Value”.

For those of you needing any orientation with filters, this Sharescope article is very useful, as it also includes details on how to access the library and these filters.

Do remember, for additional help and support, all Sharescope subscribers can book free training sessions here.

Screen Frequency

Every quarter, on the third Sunday of January, April, July and October, 4 times a year.

Screen Objective

• Identify stocks where the Market capitalisation is at least a 25% discount to the Net Tangible Asset Value (NTAV), ex-leases & goodwill.

PURPOSE - Identify potential (hidden) value plays and stocks with a potential “safety net” where the share price should find a degree of support from the balance sheet strength.

Screen Parameters

Stock Universe Settings

• Market Cap: Default - £10m to No limit - To exclude small illiquid stocks

• Sectors: Default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in

• ISIN Country of Register: Default - Exclude “JP” and “FR” - To exclude these specific foreign registered stocks

Note: My default stock list is always “LSE shares (excluding Investment Trusts (ITs))”.

Base Settings

• The Net Tangible Asset Value (NTAV), ex-leases & goodwill - Is greater than zero

• The Market capitalisation - Is at least 25% less than the NTAV

Optional Settings

(To potentially return less results)

• Forecast EPS (for next year) - Is greater than 0 (check the company if forecast to make a profit next year)

• The Dividend yield (for this year) - Is greater than 0 (check the company paid a dividend this year - you could change this to next year should you wish)

• The Dividend cover (for this year) - If greater than 1.5x (a brief quality check on the yield - if you change the yield to next year, it would make sense to also change this to next year too)

April 2026 - Hidden Value

My (NEW) default settings (SEE BELOW) return 22 stocks this month, so I decided not to change the (NEW) defaults, other than the usual, I have also checked that the company will make a profit next year too (Forecast EPS is greater than 0).

Settings Used

Stock Universe Settings

• Sectors: To the default - Exclude “Tobacco”, “Industrial Metals and Mining”, “Precious Metals and Mining”, and “Oil, Gas and Coal” - To exclude sectors I don’t typically invest in - I have also excluded the following sectors (as suggested in the last “Hidden Value” update)…

Many stocks in certain other sectors often trade at a big discount to NTAV, and they are not sectors where I typically invest either. They are “Banks”, “REITs”, “Real Estate Investment and Services”, “Closed End Investments” and “Investment Banking and Brokerage Services”, so they are now also on the exclusion list for the “Hidden Value” updates, from now on. This is my NEW default from now on for this screen.

Base Settings

• No change to defaults

Optional Settings

• Forecast EPS (for next year) - Checked and set to 0

• The Dividend yield (for this year) - Unchecked

• The Dividend cover (for this year) - Unchecked

Actual Settings

Results

Note: I have overlooked MAB as it was covered in the last report here and I have decided to only revisit stocks after 6 months. Also overlooked is YNGN as there are two classes of the share, YNGA being the other.

“Our View”

Paul has kindly allowed me to provide the current view from the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack database for the Top 5 stocks from the results, so here they are…

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack can click here to access details and commentary for the vast majority of all of the stocks from the above results. The full history for most UK stocks is available via the the new Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App, which covers over 15 months of updates in some cases.

For example, here are the last five Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App entries for BTRW…

Note: As well as the daily analysis table entries, the three main articles coverage in February this year (by Dave) and two from last year (both by me), which can be accessed by clicking on the link within the app.

Members of the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack get:

• Access to the complete history, and current view, of over 800 UK stocks via the Small/Mid Caps Value Report Search App

• Main section articles on over 250 of those UK stocks

• Morning RNS announcement analysis, out before the market open

• Daily analysis of up to 30 stocks a day, even more on very busy news days

  Exclusive interviews

• Up to 5 podcasts a week. and a weekly update video

• Access to an active and growing community of UK investors, where participation is encouraged

• A team (which includes me) with almost 100 years of joint investing experience, focused on delivering the best coverage of the UK stock market

In Focus

We’ve almost got a full-house of housebuilders…

BTRW - The UK’s largest residential property developer operates under 3 brands, Barratt Homes, David Wilson, and Redrow (merged in 2024). Trading at a 38% discount to NTAV, has net cash, and, at this price, is paying a reasonably well covered 6.3% dividend yield. Looks way too cheap (on a PER of just 10x) assuming we see a cyclical recovery at some stage. Also worth noting is that the company is currently committed to an annual buyback of £100m (c.2% of the current market cap).

TW - Taylor Wimpey claims to have a clear purpose, “to build great homes and create thriving communities”. It currently trades at a 26% discount to NTAV and has over 10% of its market cap in net cash. As well as buybacks, there’s an 8% yield on offer too, whilst waiting for a recovery in the housing market - The 12x PER seems undemanding.

BWY - Bellway has been “building 5-star homes since 1946, homes that are built to last, designed to lower costs, reduce heat loss, and improve living quality”. It’s good value, trading at a 32% discount to NTAV, on a PER of 11x and pays a well covered 3.4% yield. A £150m (c.6% of the current market cap) is in progress.

VTY - Vistry is a leading UK provider of affordable and private housing, mostly operating under a capital-light “Partnerships” model. There’s been some rumours here regarding liquidity and insurance availability and that seems to have contributed in some way to the massive 48% discount to NTAV. On such a discount and a PER of 6x a lot of fear seems to be built in here, and although perhaps a little more risky than others in the sector, still looks very good value.

MARS - Marston’s is a leading UK pub operator with an estate of approximately 1,300 pubs. This is a complicated one as there is a lot of debt (at >4x EBITDA), and that is reflected in the valuation, the PER is 6.3x. The company has stated though that once debt is below 4x, it will start to pay a dividend, this forecast yield is for 4.3% in FY 9/2027. Looks decent value and trading at more than half its NTAV, this an opportunity for those who know the underlying value better, or perhaps it could be bid for and broken up, if the valuations are to be believed?

Summary

The Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack

If you are not already a subscriber to the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack and are interested in a 1 week FREE trial, click here to access all of the features mentioned above.

Sharescope

If you are not already a subscriber to the excellent Sharescope software we use every day over at the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack, click here for the Small/Mid Caps with Paul Scott Substack deal and get:

• A discount to the annual subscription fee

• Access to this screen and all my other screens - Copy, amend and run them with your own parameters, as and when you want, across any markets you want to

• FREE direct, in-house telephone, email, and chat support, 8am to 5:30pm

• FREE one-to-one training with a Sharescope expert, as many sessions as you need

• A 30-day money-back guarantee, for annual subscriptions and new subscribers only

Thank You

As always, if you have any suggestions for improvement, or any feedback at all, do please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one!

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is vital that you check all figures in this article for yourself, as they may be inaccurate or may have changed since publication.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: No investment advice intended, for information only, I may hold all, some, none, of the stocks mentioned in this article - Do Your Own Research!

Jon