Sunday, 21 March 2021

Week 293 Review - Banked lots of profit to buy more bacteria shares

Although it was a fairly quiet week for the markets, it was a very busy week for me as I cashed in some profits and bought more bacteria shares in a bit of a buying frenzy while they are so cheap. The net effect was the deficit between cost and value widened by £877 to £17,356, but the portfolio value increased by £2,302 to £118,554 as profits were re-invested.

The only poor performers this week were both due to placings. APAX:Apax Global Alpha has been riding high, up by 47%. However the biggest shareholder sold all 32 million shares in a placing at a discounted price, which caused an immediate drop to that price, before recovering a bit by the end of the week. They ended up 13% down, but I don't think it will last long as many will see it as a good buying opportunity.

The other placing was TLOU:Tlou Energy which did a raise at a hefty discount in order to fund construction of the electricity transmission lines. This is excellent news, and shows they are serious about producing electricity and getting it on to the grid. I'm very tempted to take advantage of the 11% drop in price to buy some more as the project is being de-risked at quite a pace.

WRES:W Resources climbed 6% for no obvious reason. I get a bit worried when junk shares go up unexpectedly, as I tend to think it's down to shorts closing in time to get out before the company goes bust.

DDDD:4D Pharma had a good week, climbing 10%. Unfortunately my buying opportunity was after the price had gone up. Nasdaq listing should kick in next week, after which anything could happen.

Share of the Week is FXPO:Ferrexpo which announced amazing results and a stonking special dividend, after which the share price went up by 21% of my original purchase price. My holding is now 115% up, and I've had 10% dividend already before this special one kicks in. The magic formula ranked this share at the top of the list, and it wasn't wrong!




This shows the cost going up a bit and the value also increasing, but the deficit is still quite wide.




The real picture of banked profits and widening deficit.

Here's the ISA and shares portfolio after week 33 of year 6.




Weekly Change
Cash £13.54

+£3.55
Portfolio cost £67,058.62
+£2,458.50
Portfolio sell value (bid price-commission) £57,524.22 (-14.2%) -£1,432.95
Potential profits £7,293.67
-£2,279.19
Yr 6 Dividends £0
+£0
Yr 6 Profit from sales £4,629.22
+£2,462.05
Yr 6 projected avg monthly profit £603.94 (17.3%) +£314.53
Total Dividends £1,343.15
+£0
Total Profit from sales £25,055.83
+£2,462.05
Average monthly cash profit £386.54     (11.1%) +£35.21
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees
 / Months)
Compound performance 63%
+6%

I sold two lots of JLP:Jubilee Metals to take my holding down from 80,000 to 60,000. I may come to regret it if they fly, but it remains one of my biggest holdings in terms of share cost, and they are also free shares as I've covered more than the cost with profits. If all goes well I will still get a nice dividend.

The first lot of 10,000 was sold for 16.4526p and made £1,205.91 (274.4%) profit. I used these to buy 3,217 shares of OPTI:Optibiotix at 50.47p costing £1,632.57.

The second lot was sold at 16.955p and made £1,256.15 (285.9%) profit. I used these to buy 1,283 shares in DDDD:4D Pharma at 130.7712p costing £1,686.74, as I wanted to buy more before they list on Nasdaq when we could see a significant re-rate.

The effect was a big drop in potential profits as they were realised, a big increase in portfolio cost, an increase in the deficit between cost and value of £1,432 which is £1,000 less than the profits banked which is good.

The sales had a stunning impact on my performance. Year 6 projected performance increased by £314 a month, and even if I sell nothing for the rest of the year will be 11% and above target, making me consider getting rid of a junk share at a loss. I guess I need to be prepared to write off MTFB:Motif Bio as there's no sign of a reverse takeover and that will lose me £2,521 and wipe out this week's profits.

Long term average went up to 11.1% which is well above target and gives me a bit of wiggle room.




Big spike in cost, smaller rise in value.




The real picture shows the down side of taking profit.

The SIPP looks like this after week 277 overall and week 17 of year 6.




Weekly Change
Cash £207.44
+£2.99
Portfolio cost £65,997.55
+£694.82
Portfolio sell value
(bid price - commission)
£58,736.32 (-11.0%) +£547.02
Potential profits £4,796.19
-£284.83
Yr 6 Dividends £433.05
+£0
Yr 6 Interest £0
+£0
Yr 6 Profit from sales £4,112.10
+£397.81
Yr 6 projected avg monthly profit £1,141.49 (33.9%) +£36.40
Total Dividends £2,500.13
+£0
Total Interest £0.20
+£0
Total Profit from sales £19,571.54
+£397.81
Average monthly cash profit £334.53 (9.9%) +£5.04
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees
/ Months)
Compound performance 53% +1%

Some sales in this account too, for the same purpose but making significantly smaller profits.

The first sale was PAY:Paypoint. I should really have held this share until October, but I've been increasingly worried that they are operating in a market that's becoming obsolete. I also wanted to buy some more OPTI:Optibiotix quite badly, so decided it was a worthy sacrifice. I sold them for 589.27p which made just £23.82 (2.3%) profit, but that rises to 6% if you add the dividends. I used the funds to buy 2,048 shares in OPTI:Optibiotix at 50.2p costing £1,037.05.

I feel bad about my next sale. I sacrificed some more of my CAML:Central Asia Metals holding and sold 500 at 259.91p making £374 (40.4%) profit. I also added £300 to my SIPP so I was able to buy 1,214 shares in DDDD:4D Pharma for 130.275p costing £1,590.49. I really hope there's a re-rate next week!

Year 6 performance is amazing, but it's only after 17 weeks so I'm unlikely to keep it up. However, even if I sell nothing else, my annual performance will still be 11% so as with the ISA we're in a good place, especially as I will start selling some magic formula shares from May onwards. Long term performance is still just under 10% so I do need some more sells to stop that drifting back downwards.

Potential profits went down less than the amount I banked due to FXPO:Ferrexpo doing so well this week, and there was actually an improvement in the deficit between cost and value of £547.




Not too big a gap to make up in order to cross the red line




An increase, but well below the trend line so we need OPTI:Optibiotix to start behaving.

The trading account looks like this after week 243 overall and week 35 of year 5




Weekly Change
Cash £259.74
+£10.16
Portfolio cost £2,374.14
+£9.71
Portfolio sell value (bid price - commission) £1,813.11 (-23.6%) +£8.14
Potential profits £0.00
-£14.00
Year 5 Dividends £12.18
+£0
Year 5 Profit £651.51
+£19.86
Yr 5 projected avg monthly profit £82.17 (41.5%) +£0.11
Dividends £60.10
+£0
Profit from sales £937.88
+£19.86
Average monthly cash profit £17.80     (9.0%) +£0.29
(Sold stocks profit + Dividends - Fees
 / Months)

I sold my 203 CAML:Central Asia Metals shares for 259.909p making £19,86 (3.9%) profit, but I've had them so long it was actually 15% when you include the £54 dividends. This allowed my to buy another 382 shares in DDDD:4D Pharma at 130.775p costing £508.51. I'm really counting on a major re-rate happening next week so have two lots in my trading account. One will be for quick 20% profit, the other will hopefully be nearer 100%. I may of course be completely wrong!

Not much change in performance due to the puny profits as the dividends were already accounted for, so we're still 1% below target for long term, but having an excellent year 5.




Nice tick up despite the sale.




In the right direction but below the trend line.

So despite saying on many occasions that I'm overweight with OPTI:Optibiotix shares, I'm still buying them. I think I will continue buying them while they remain at this price, as the story just gets more exciting. The ingredients are appearing in more and more products, and now they are being added to existing mainstream products rather than niche products or small markets.

The road to profitability has taken longer than most investors hoped, and some have lost patience and reduced their holding. I certainly feel the frustration, but that's not down to the performance of the company, it's down to the performance of the share price. That's entirely out of the hands of the company. It's due to a relatively small number of illiquid shares and trader manipulation. The price has been managed up and down in a 20p range for years, and I think that will continue until profits and dividends become regular.

My holding is now 145,375 shares costing £90,651 when you include commission. My average price per share is 61.9p and they currently sell for 51p so I'm around 18% down, which is a paper loss of £16,545. That I find utterly frustrating after 5 years, but it says more about bad timing on my early purchases than about anything the company has done since, as progress in commercialisation has been impressive.

I'm still seriously expecting these shares to be worth 500p in the next 3 or 4 years, which would take my holding to just under £750,000 and a 5% dividend would be worth £36,000 a year. That dividend alone would be enough to retire on without having to sell a share.

They say you should have a diverse portfolio, and I understand the risk of putting so many eggs in this basket, but it's not often you come across a company that no matter how hard you try to find faults, you keep coming to the same conclusion that you should buy more. There are faults. The choice of PR firm was awful, and some of the early contracts came to nothing. Promises of upcoming launches in major US retailers turned out to be one niche product, and if Sweetbiotix isn't taken up by global majors then my dreams are unlikely to be fulfilled.

However, the relatively fixed and low cost base and multiple revenue streams from ingredients, licenses and royalties that are ramping up as marketing starts to bear fruit, should mean that profitability is assured. The share price will then be tied to how much profit is made. 500p could be as far as we get, but it could easily be double if pharma trials go well and we replace statins, if the microbiome modulators are found to significantly improve the efficacy of the increasing number of probiotic drug treatments, and if Sweetbiotix is capable of replacing artificial sweeteners as well as sugar. If all that comes to pass, then I can retire to a farm!

Meanwhile I've increased my holding in DDDD:4D Pharma to 8,616 shares costing £11,284, making it my second biggest holding. One successful phase III trial in the pipeline of many could see this rocket to the £10 a share it was in the early days. That's nothing like the extent of the profits I can get from OPTI, but this is a very exciting company to be invested in, and next week could see the start of that journey as the shares list on Nasdaq. I'm very much looking forward to the American market opening on Monday.

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