SKE half yearly, page-59

I’m not one for conspiracy theories but I can’t help but think think someone is holding the share price back. Programmed is Perth based, and it would only take a couple of brokers out of Perth to hold back a stock with a market cap the size of SKE. It’s a funny coincidence that the gap between PRG & SKE has remained at about $60-70m since the takeover offer was made, every time the SKE share price pulls away it gets a speeding ticket from someone to pull it back to within striking range.

The lack of second half guidance shouldn’t be a surprise to long term shareholders; SKE hasn’t given hard numbers for its guidance updates for several years. I’m with most here in that it’s hard to see them maintaining last the FY 2nd half dividend level but given how they’ve performed in the 1st half vs their peers I’m not prepared to call doom and gloom on them just yet. Deutsche & Credit Suisse have both been rating on SKE for a while and their outlooks ~15c look realistic to me.