PCs Mobiles & other electronic products in demand again so more chip companies building capacity.

At this price, BEDE looks good.

Any comments?

One large buy and several smaller buys, this should move promptly back up to the 25p area before results come out, very oversold at the moment given the bouyancy of its markets.

Bede- Iam puzzled by trades this morning. Can anyone explain why a (single protected transaction) of 150k at 18p hasn't so far dropped the bid- which was up from 18p to 19p this morning? Last trade yesterday was another SPT 200k at 18p.

At last they are finally reporting the good news!

Get ready for the ride.


05/04/04 07:30 Bede order backlog 3.2 mln stg on April 2 after winning new contracts AFX

05/04/04 07:00 Trading Statement RNS

UP 14.8% so far today

Stonking news, should be above 25p very soon, delayed protected trades definitely buys, should be a good one for the short term as results are out on the 26th I think.

Yep that's what the RNS says.

Order backlog is 3.2m against 2004 expected turnover of 8m, looks as though they should be beating their turnover for 2004 quite comfortably. Interesting to see if they have reduced costs, this will bring profitability through faster. Bede should benefit dramatically through contract wins as this should add directly to profits, expect increasing interest as we move towards the results, another contract win will probably secure their future profitability.

ehall

They are in a very good position.

What they need to do is get the good news out.

They are not very good communicators, the only reason we were told about this good news is because they were announcing the results date.

Chart still looks good for a 26P mid price, gains being registered every day!

Should be much better than that judging by the large increase in investment by their customers.

BEDE is the only supplier of some of the equipment that Intel needs.

Up 4 days in a row.

More good news!

Gartmore Investment Management plc
purchased 850,000 ordinary shares on 5 April
Total Holding now 7,987,851 14.25% of the shares of the Company.

13/04/04 13:39 Holding(s) in Company RNS

Biggest trading Volume on Bede for 6 months!

It may be about to accelerate upwards!

Interesting, two huge buys, one over 1 million shares and the MM's reduce the sell price to 22p. Not sure what this will achieve other than prevent trading as the spread is now ridiculous. Another example of the MM's operating a market for the benefit of themselves! This really gets me, about time the FSA published some regulations as it is always the small shareholders that loose out.

Anyway from citywire if you care!

Speculative Citywire tip and shrewd favourite Bede has seen a good start to the year and there are signs customers are finally starting to spend, but investors must wait at least a year for profits.

Shares (BED) are up 3p at 21.5p. This is above the 18.5p at which we highlighted them last June, but well down from their bounce to 32.5p in August.


Bede provides X-ray technology that measures materials. To date the company has focused on a niche part of the semiconductor industry called compound semiconductors. However the company reckons its technology is ideally suited to the next generation of materials being developed for the mainstream semiconductor business.


As Citywire reported, several shrewd investors dipped in at the time of a placing by the company last July and one, Mark Horrocks, has come in since then.


Horrocks bought 500,00 shares or 0.89% in November for the Intrinsic Value (IV.) fund.


AAA-rated Mark Slater was one of three shrewd investors who bought in at the July placing. Slater holds 0.29% in the MFM Slater Recovery Acc fund and a further 0.25% in the MFM Bowland fund.


AAA-rated Patrick Evershed has hung on to the 770,000 shares or 1.37% he holds in the New Star Select Opportunities fund. AAA-rated Giles Hargreaves has been trimming his stake but still holds 0.54% for the Marlborough Special Situations fund and AA-rated John Dodd holds 4.73% in the Artemis UK Smaller Companies Fund.


The reason Bede thinks its technology will be in demand is this. To get more speed and power from ever-smaller chips, semiconductor makers will use a host of new technologies that include strained silicon, copper and others. Existing measurement techniques will not cope with the far thinner materials being used, and according to finance director David Hall, potentially competitive technologies to X-ray are more 'destructive'.


The company has announced it has received an order for its BedeMetrix L tool, aimed at development centres working on new materials. This machine sells for between $800,000 (440,000) and $900,000. The company has also signed multiple orders for its BedeMetrix F tools, which sell for about $1.5 million and tend to be used in full scale production environments.

As a result of the latest orders, the company's order backlog at 2 April was 3.2 million.


Hall said this went a good way to underpinning analysts' expectations for the full year, which are for sales of 8 million, albeit still with losses of 2.4 million. However Hall said business should be loaded toward the second half of the year, which should show a positive move toward profitability, with 2005 being 'on the right side of profitability.'


He said the company sees a great difference from nine to 12 months ago, since companies now seem to have the budget to spend. The company's prospect list looks very strong and all signs are encouraging.


During the very tough past couple of years, Bede has cut nearly 1 million off its costs and has beefed up its sales team, re-focusing on the broader opportunities offered in the mainstream semiconductor market.


The biggest hurdle it faces is education, Hall reckons, since big semiconductor makers need to be convinced that X-ray is the answer to their needs going forward.


Citywire Verdict:


As we have been at pains to point out, this was never going to be an overnight recovery story.


Signs so far however are that things are moving in the right direction. It still remains to be seen whether a 12 million company can convince the world's large semiconductor manufacturers to buy its tools.

There is a supply agreement with an unnamed major US semiconductor company bubbling away in the background, but Bede could really do with being able to announce a big name customer some time soon.


The shrewd names in this company are among the higher risk fund managers, and this stock still suits the speculator rather than the risk-averse investor.

Thanks ehall

BTW
I think we are going to get a nice surprise next week.

Up again!

It looks like the word is getting around.

It doesn't take much to move this share with the comparatively low number of shares in issue.

Also the value of just a handful of sales is more than their market cap.

Gartmore Investment Management may be joined by other big boys soon.

Really like it apple, this is very risky but offers the best rewards in the sector and it doesn't take a whiz to work out that orders are improving as the news is out, a few more institutional investors would help but I agree about the price movement, nothing was traded today and they marked up although I am still suspect about the MM's! Expect more positive movement for the rest of this week to next Monday, I think by Friday afternoon we will be in the late 20's/30 as the t10ers and speculators push in!

ehall

You could be right about the late 20's/30

Anything could happen with this share, I expect large volatility.

Surprised really that this hasn't attracted attention, there has only been good news recently and it ooperates in an industry at the beginning of a cyclical upturn so the logic is that it's a good investment case, we will fijnd out soon though!