i will hold spk for long haul, so current sp weakness not worry me, at least the dividend yield is good.
Printable View
One of the benefits of being old is that I no longer have to save for my old age. Spk dividend is usually paid in first week of October - right next to my birthday so I usually buy myself a birthday present. But I still like to pull a few Shekels at intervals on the way by dealing.
Not at all. 25000 shares on monday -sold on tuesday for 275 - now 265.5. If I buy back now Iwill have 25000 shares and 25000 centsmultiplied by 9.5
or $2375 less about $300 for two fees and one third for tax. I can hang about for one of the daily spikes and go again - or I can sit and wait for something near the bottom.Problem is watching the market this close interferes with everything else.
Just equaled 52wk low.
[QUOTmaster98;573636]seems spk near the end of world:D[/QUOTE]
Yeah dem sheeple sure do spook easy:scared:
Pre-market dealing seems to suggest more of the same today?
Jumped back in this morning on a reduced profit of $1,700 which is 2/3 of what I could have made yesrerday, but that's the way it goes. Hope it rockets today and can sell again but will have to wait and see - I have a bunch of chickens and a felled tree that are feeling sorely neglected.
Mine are back on at 275cps - just an insurance to allow me to go and do other things. I will be guided by the afternoon hump - if there is one.
Came in off the hill for smoko and it was at 272.5 so dropped them at 272, still await confirmation, but will then make an offer at 268cps. Chainsaw was going well too.
Gee Craic you make money on trading SPK on the way up and the way down?
Spark New Zealand announces on-market share buyback
Spark New Zealand has announced today that it plans to undertake an on-market
share buyback of up to 40 million ordinary shares for an aggregate purchase
price of up to NZ$100 million during the remainder of the 2015 calendar year.
The ordinary shares will be acquired on the NZX Main Board, the stock
exchange on which Spark New Zealand is listed in New Zealand.
Following recent divestments, including Telecom Rentals Limited and its 60%
stake in Telecom Cook Islands, Spark New Zealand's balance sheet is now
under-levered. The purpose of the on-market share buyback is to return
gearing to a more appropriate level for the Company.
Good news for holders blockhead, less supply gotta be good aye:cool:
It will be really interesting how the market responds to this.
It should be good news, interestingly, by way of simple arithmetic one could deduct that if SPK are prepared to buy 40m shares at a cost of no more than $100m then they are expecting to pay no more than $2.50 per share.
That puzzles me ?
The announcement says a purchase of up to 40 million shares so they obviously have a price range in mind. At the end of the day it all equals less supply and more demand plus being happy with the financial health of any company which does a large buyback due to being under levered.
I know share buy backs are very common place but the concern is that companies with cash are unwilling to invest in growth opportunities. Is this buy back confirmation that they have no ideas to grow their business?
What are SPK doing with lightbox? My thoughts after downloading the free trial is that the content is light compared to Netflix and unless they give this a good shot in the arm, it's going nowhere.
Spark have been growing their business hard out since moving from being just a phone company, lightbox is only a teaser for them, perhaps maintaining their A grade S&P rating is more important to them at this point in time? in order to keep keen overseas investment interest.
Spark weakness comes though perception
An Aussie broker's view on our major telco.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...ugh-perception
Spark digital (formally Gen-i) is enduring some very serious competition from Datacom. It will be interesting to see how this is playing out for that business unit in the next annual result.
Spark are in the middle of transforming themselves and upcoming results will prove they are doing the business so perception will take care of itself in due course as will the share price aye. PS-My biggest holding and my favourite stock on the NZX for a variety of reasons.
So true. And the funny thing is that some people that have been made redundant earlier are now being sought after as contractors for almost the same job as they were doing earlier :( Unfortunately, they can only get a few of them back they have already found employment after being let go. Just goes to show that maybe, yes maybe, that management still doesn't know what their people do or how their software applications are tied up to one another :)
Telecom's management style is all wrapped up this in image;
http://lowres.cartoonstock.com/busin...100817_low.jpg
I take it Zaphod, RGR and Puggy are all Spark investors? Or are they just Trolls, agents provocateurs like Troyvdh wasting everyone's time? Maybe it's time Sharetrader did a little weeding out and excluded said trolls/agents provocateurs. There's plenty of room for them on the Daily Standard, a much bigger audience and all sympathetic frothing at the mouth left wingers. Or maybe they are in the other troll category of people who have wives/girlfriends/boyfriends/mistresses/lovers/friends/relatives working at 2 Degrees, Vodafone etc etc. It's amazing what a long tail of hangers on Telecom/Spark has developed over the years...
Yes, I'm an investor.
I raised the question regarding Spark Digitial's performance, given how the market has become dominated by Datacom. It's an interesting question and there's absolutely nothing time wasting about that discussion point.
The redundancies in the Spark Digital could have been handled better, and Datacom did take advantage of the situation by recruiting affected employees and by leveraging on the negative PR to their advantage. How will that affect the long term performance of SD?
If you have something worthwhile to contribute to the topic at hand, you're still welcome to post.
Well, Major von Tempsky, I happen to be one and a long investor of SPK :) If you have been reading this thread instead on shouting on the ugliness of Politics on the other non investing thread, you would have read what little or senseless contributions I said too about this stock. FYI, my last bundle that I bought was at $2.70 and I think I paid too much for that :) Are you Major major or just a Sergeant Major too, if I may ask :D
Ex-Investor, Ex-Employee. I clocked eight years working for Telecom watching re-orgs and CEOs come and go where the majority of people given the axe were the ones who were good at their jobs and got on with it but weren't well connected, leaving those of us left over having the carry the extra workload while getting shafted year after year with no pay-rises and only token bonuses. When my time came I took my payout, sold out the shares and moved onto pastures new (not Datacom FYI).
I'd say that qualifies me to speak on Telecom, unless you disagree?
Thanks for your historical look-back Puggy. You are probably still connected to some of your ex-colleagues. What is your assessment of the present management and CEO and can they carry this company forward profitably?
As for the Major, I don't think that he is a real Major, he sounds more like a crusty old colonel from the Shirtcliffe/Gattung era;)
As you are probably well aware ..a year in the IT industry is probably akin to 8 years in any other industry...You were well acquainted with Tel...this is a new era and new company..SPK is not TEL. All well and good reminiscing over the "good ole days" but that's all it is...looking back. However I know where you are at..my partner is ex IBM. Hah..getting shafted ...what does that mean? you were only making 90,000 a year? :p
Hard to say really, as BIRMANBOY below you points out, there's been a fair number of people come and go since my time there, but nothing I've read or heard makes me believe that they've done anything other than some repeated restructures to try and right-size the business, which although sorely overdue, has resulted in throwing out a number of babies along with the bathwater...
I sold my shares when I left since I figured if I didn't like the place enough to work there then its not somewhere I should park my money. Nothing in the last couple of years has made me consider re-investing.
Just a touch more than that. I think at one point it was stated that almost 50% of the staff were making more than 100k p/a on one of our annual reports.
Hah...my heart is bleeding for you and your meagre salary....:ohmy:...if only someone would insult me in like manner.. SPK has done well for me as an investment, and since that is my point of reference, that has to be my point of judgement. Since 2009 when I first started buying it has not only continuously given me a very healthy dividend (currently 10.06 % gross), but also share price growth as well as the CNU spinoff ..which alone probably contributed 10,000 plus at no cost all in all. So regardless of all the noise that investments make....bottom line is how does it perform financially with the capital you put into it. Since it was up to 3.50 odd not so long ago, I see the current SP as a new opportunity to climb on...Time to take the dog for a new walkies Puggy.:p
Interest rates drop and Spk goes back 2.6%, sometimes I just don't get it
methink Spark is thinking the right timing to start buy-back programme.
Good.
My earlier point was - Why carry, nurture, feed an historical grudge long after it ceases to have any current relevance....And associated with that, I'd much rather see interesting, informative and useful comments from current actual investors.....
SPK just started the buy-back programme yesterday.
https://nzx.com/companies/SPK/announcements/265732
Didn't they get a fantastic price for Yellow in 2007. Amazing
Who was in charge of SPK at the time --- deserves a medal
I have a question or number of questions for SPK holders. If you are not trading SPK and planning to hold for the next few years at least, what do you see as the initiatives they have in place that will continue to deliver existing profits? Does anyone see SPK growing profits over this period and what do you see the catalysts for that being?
Hi Nasi, more people are downloading more data and internet content. More movies online,lightbox, Netflix etc. That seems to be a growing market.
When you invest in this type of company..you are investing in their capacity and ability to look for and find the appropriate products that will deliver market position and consequently profits. Specifically which products or services is unknown to most of us outside that industry. SPK has always had a big presence and always kept moving forward (and continually made money). That's what you are investing in..its ability to stay in the leaders pack.
Who knows, but I see SPK are in the same situation the TLS was in a couple of years ago. TLS was right out of favour as an old style telephone company, then the market re-rated it as something more than that.
I looked today buy-back announcement on oz market, specify the max buyback price allowed is nz$2.9915, and max number is 38mil, so if the sp push back to nz$3.0, then buy-back will have to stop?
I sure am glad I don't have shares in spark. I made 4 attempts to contact to transfer my business accounts to them, first time was unanswered call, 2nd time was an email, 3rd time was to the Hamilton business centre where my details were passed to the person covering my area, 4th time was a complaint email after 4 days saying no one had bothered to contact me so why would I bother..... 13 days later I got a reply saying someone will be in touch and they are urgently clearing the back log, needless to say I said not to bother ringing as I had wasted enough time already.
If this is the best they can do with a new customer enquiry I would hate to imagine what they are like with an account enquiry or issue.
Interesting thing I heard during my time there. Take a guess what Spark's most profitable product is... I'll bet you're wrong...
The answer is. Dial-Up. They were billing a bunch of old people $10 a month for a service that cost them cents to run, talking about 99.9% profit margin.
Yes they'll try and roll out new products, but they're not as profitable as their old ones.
Sparks price is artificially inflated by the buyback that is going on. Anyone know the figures for total purchase to date and amount yet to be bought? I am fully cashed up for now and will wait till this party is over to buy back - hopefully at a much more realistic price.
Dividend plays could be a risky place to be in the medium term. I think more so overseas but perhaps with an economy coming off the boil, not an ideal stock here either.
My rationale for this is that US bond yields are increasing and could be in the 3% range by the end of the year. This is going to put pressure on yield stocks in the US and all other stocks for that matter. Those low growth yield stocks who have been paying 3-4% for the last few years are now at risk of a sell off which will in fact lift the yield of these stocks possibly by a % or 2. The cost of that being a fall in their share price.
Now lets look at NZ prospects for overseas investors. In SPK's case, we have a nice dividend yield of around 6% but a falling NZD and still relatively high interest rates. It looks quite unattractive compared to perhaps this time last year. The sell off for SPK can probably be attributed to a number of things but I certainly think overseas investors selling is one of those reasons.
So with SPK, MEL, FBU etc. being nice dividend stocks for overseas investors, I would say that there are many other attractive destinations right now rather than NZ.
On the other hand, a reduction in NZ interest rates means that there could be an influx of new domestic money into NZX and this could support SPK.
I'm not interested in owning SPK in the short term. I'm not convinced they can continue to deliver profits at existing levels and the problem with that is that even though they may be able to maintain dividend for the next few years, if this gets cut, then you will end up with lower dividend and lower SP.
CallPlus to axe Global Mode to settle legal action say TV companies
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/69656543/callplus-to-axe-global-mode-to-settle-legal-action-say-tv-companies
Boy oh boy..look at all the negative comments... it seems SKY TV has copped the most flack...Netflix kept away from this court action..a smart move methinks
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...e-legal-action
Read the comments and learn't about Hola
With the fast changing world of technological progress, creating laws to protect antiquated systems is like cutting a head off a hydra..eh?
Hola is insecure and not recommended Hoop, I would suggest people use Zenmate browser plugin instead of Hola
http://holaunblockerdangers.com/hola-unblocker-scandal/
http://lifehacker.com/hola-better-in...its-1707496872
Agree with Clip. There are numerous security concerns with Hola and having your "spare bandwidth" sold to another company for their uses to use could leave you open to some severe legal liabilities.
SPK (Lightbox) has been criticised for being party to the legal action, but there is an argument to be made for protecting what they have paid for. Many question the entire regionalised rights management system, but that is IMO a separate issue.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11471721
I have more feelings the SPK could be safe-haven for porting my cash regarding the future internet growth.
Perception rules (as we discussed last week)
And Citi have Spark on their 'also felt at risk' (of an earnings downgrade) list
http://www.smh.com.au/business/marke...29-gi0avj.html
Rights holders do need to legally protect their investment. Not following this course of action could have weakened their position in any subsequent court action in the future.
Given how nebulous the law is with regards to geoblocking, we desperately need a test case to be brought before the courts, but I am glad SPK aren't going to be funding it.
I might have thought that a bit of money would leave Europe for the safe haven of the S&P500. Still, you never know.
hi Guys
Yeah I learn't about Hola and I agree sharing bandwidth opens up a lot of security problems and it is definately something I will stay clear of.....but this type of global interconnectivity is the way the internet world is moving..towards a networked world where everyone will be able to connect to the internet of things..obviously there will be teething issues...
If this type of global interconnectivity thing grabs hold then these local rights to stream selective media will within a few years become unworkable..Making geo-unblocking illegal while the world is heading towards a total networked system seems totally stupid. Something that Luddites would do..eh?..I think Netflix and other innovative type companies are slowly working towards an interconnected world..They are the disruptors..so they don't need to enter the fight to stop geo-blocking.
I'm still at a loss why Spark would ever want to take a non-innovative system approach, spend millions into creating another internet streaming media resource from the ground up (suffering the experience curve cost effects as all newbies do), buying up rights, and enter into an overcrowded industry going head to head against some very well organised very powerful experienced competitors + entering into a market that is very vunerable to distruptive technology..
Spark's actions comes across to me as something a disruptee company would do.. The trick is to not become mired in the protection of the system being disrupted
FY15 financial guidance remains unchanged:cool:
With the COMCOM uncertainty gone the dividend yield of SPK looks good. The ongoing share buyback seems beneficial to holders too.
Is SPK a solid yield buy?
Because technically it seems to be trading above the SMA50, RSI crossed upwards with higher lows too, OBV ticking upwards the same, ultimate oscillator crossed over, Williams %R crossed over... Looks like the candlestick is creeping up to the PSAR dot too. Doesn't look too bad for Spark.
More certain than power companies right now IMO :D
Think you are right, have been toying with the idea of dropping SPK in favour of AIR, couldn't hang up on the old Telecom so AIR has departed on time without me.
Seems to be six of one and half a dozen of the other between those two at the moment, both would seem to offer good divs, lower $ might suit AIR a little more perhaps.
Gee robboo24 that was an interesting spiel about whether SPK is a good yield buy thought it was as simple as dividing share price and dividend and coming up with about 6% net?!
I just up graded my old adsl to ultra fast fibre with Spark. My download speed is 2.29 Mpbs and the upload is 8.03Mpbs, is upgrade or downgrade ? What a joke. Has anyone has the same problem like me ?
I just have regular adsl. However recently Chorus had to fix a fault on my line which was affecting the broadband connection. I had been on a cheap plan a few years ago and the Chorus techie said that my connection had been deliberately throttled to about 3mbs. He removed the throttle and it is now at 7.5 mbs. It is brilliant. I can watch SKY GO and Skype at the same time without any stuttering.
Jim best to ring support services
Of interest you could post your problem on this forum..This is the Geekzone Spark new fibre forum thread
or here to enter the main Spark threads...
For others with different providers http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp
Often the IP technicians answer your posts
A very informative and interesting site...especially if you are thinking of swapping providers..
Not spark, but might help. Had the same problem with vodafone, technician came around Saturday, he said most modems, wireless boxes come with the same frequency. With the advent of netflix etc too many people on same frequency is causing problems. He reset frequency and download went from 2 to 49.
Yes, you're right on the money with this one. Interference is one of the primary cause of customer complaints to ISPs and corporate helpdesks about internet performance, and is what I was alluding to earlier. Wi-Fi interference typically impedes downlink performance disproportionately, and with so many fibre customers connected to via Wi-Fi, this issue is very common.
I’ve seen SPK take an unfair beating on many occasions due to failures with customer equipment, or misunderstandings of how performance should be measures (GYI speedtest.net isn’t necessarily a good indicator of internet connectivity performance).
Spark NZ is 1 year old today. Whether it has grown into a good year old baby from a matured/decayed zombie will be known on the 21st August. What's your bet on it?
The competition continues as Spark broadband is now available in JB Hi-Fi and Noel Leeming stores.
Just over a week until the results are in. The SP trembling nervously. One wonders if there has been a little leakage from the boardroom.