Down again today yet there doesnt seem to have been any company specific bad news for CTT whatsoever the accounting changes will affect how earnings are recorded, but the 18 March webcast of the full year figures (available at www.cattles.co.uk) was very upbeat, and the figures seemed impressive- real earnings are still heading in very much the right direction.

It seems to me that almost any news is taken with the worst possible outlook the good thing is that this creates a buying opportunity I suppose and I added to my holding yesterday, and would be happy to do again if this downwards trend continues, because in the long term, CTT looks like a sound investment (good yield, well covered, low PE etc.)

Other than the accounting change which knocked the price last month, in February UBS downgraded CTT from buy to neutral and the price fell 12 to 397 at the very same time though UBS said that even though they could not recommend CTT as a buy, they were UPGRADING the price target from 435 to 460 another example of the bad news winning out.

And the previous month, Investors Chronicle had CTT as a buy and a week later we were at 416 that seemed quickly forgotten.

The point I am making is that this recent weakness doesnt seem to be justified (other than the fact that the price is always right, since if it were obviously cheap, buyers would force the price higher)

Apparently Barclays hold nearly 15% of CTT last summer HSBC were rumoured to be looking at a bid (CTT denied it) and of course HSBC bought Household for 9 billion in the US in 2002 (and paid a 30% premium over the pre-bid share price) which already owns HFC and Beneficial in the UK. London Scottish Bank is similar to CTT in terms of business, but a fifth of the size, and probably not a target.

More than once this year various brokers have recommended switching from Provident Financial into Cattles, and CTTs PE ratio is a good 20% cheaper than PFGs. Going forward I think that sitting tight makes sense, because right now, I cant see any reason why I would want to trade CTT any other way than to buy more. Either the market will alter its view as CTT continues to perform, or perhaps a Bank will make a move..

DYOR (Ive done mine.)

Errrr you're repeating yourself!
No point having two identical threads running, just confuses things!