The High Street baker to fast food company Greggs issued a first half trading update this morning which showed continued growth, although June’s warmer weather hampered sales, whilst other H1 costs also took a toll. As a result, management have advised that they now expect that full year profits could be modestly below the levels achieved in 2024 but investors have been quick to mark down the stock in response. Are fears building that the company is now approaching market saturation? The Greggs share price was down almost 13% in early trade.
The software, security and AI specialists issued a pre-AGM trading statement this morning, noting that year to date performance had been impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment, leading to some deferrals of transactions. For the first half, the Board now expects Gross Profit to be at a similar level to last year and Operating Profit marginally lower, followed by more normalised growth in both metrics in the second half. Management add that there’s a strong sales pipeline and customer engagement remains robust but the stock has been hit hard. The Bytes share price was down 22% shortly after the open.
The battle for the precision instrument maker Spectris continues, with another private equity bid being announced by management today. This latest offer reflects a 6% further improvement on the previous proposal and is at almost a 100% premium to the price the stock was trading at before the initial deal was tabled. The Spectris share price is up more than 4% to sit at £40, fully pricing in the bid.
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RECOMMENDED CASH ACQUISITION - - Spectris (SXS)
