Marchpole is one of those stocks which have had a really bad time. Boardroom battles, losses, price collapse, profit warnings up the ying yang.

Now all of those things seem to be sorted out, new management are getting to grips, new contracts and the price is on the up. So much so that Monday ought to see a 50/200 day MA golden cross.

DYOR of course, but I think I will be putting a few of these away at the open.

Socco

LONDON (AFX) - Marchpole Holdings PLC's continued strong performance for the first quarter is significantly ahead of prior year and ahead of current expectations, chairman Chris Phillips said.

In a trading update, Phillips said that for the first quarter to June 2004, turnover on the existing core business of Yves Saint Laurent and Boateng grew by 2.5 mln stg to 5.2 mln compared to 2.7 mln the year earlier.

Operating profits on these businesses rose to 0.6 mln stg from a loss of 0.3 mln, having achieved strong sell-throughs on the Spring Summer 2004 deliveries.

'The recently acquired Castelbajac brand continues to be successfully integrated into the business, with first quarter performance in line with budget,' the company said.

Autumn Winter 2004 consolidated order books now stand at 15.2 mln stg versus 8.4 mln at the same time last year, and deliveries have commenced during July.

LONDON (AFX) - Tailoring group Marchpole Holdings PLC resumed paying a dividend as its pretax profit almost quadrupled to 2.7 mln stg for the year to March.

And it said its core business is performing well so far in the current financial year.

Marchpole, which which designs, produces and sells clothing and accessories for the YSL, Boateng and Castelbajac brands, reported pretax profit grew from 0.7 mln stg to 2.7 mln, with turnover rising from 16 mln to 20 mln.

It proposed a dividend payout of 0.25 pence per share. It said last August that it wanted to resume dividend payments as soon as possible after completing a capital reduction, inlcuding the cancellation of deferred shares.

The group said its order books for YSL and Boateng for the Autumn Winter 2004 ranges stand at 11.7 mln stg, against 7.6 mln at the same time last year, with the Boateng order book up 34 pct on the year.

Marchpole acquired Castelbajac in January in an all-share deal. The label's Autumn Winter 2004 order book currently stands at 2.3 mln stg. Marchpole said new licences are 'being actively sought and progressed'.

MPH is getting close to the speed limit. Now 27.25p on the offer.

welcome Grevis2 nice few posts reminding us why we are here.

28p buy just gone through !!

capa

capa: Thanks! Up 12 % and more to come no doubt. Will it break the speed limit today?

And up she goes again. Spread now 28p v 28.5p.

if it keeps on like this , then i guess i owe you a beer , capa.

up and down like a yo-yo on massive volume. Suggests to me that the day traders have arrived, now when shall I buy some more ?

capa

Buyers are flooding in again. Just topped up at 26.6p

Got a few more myself at 26.70p

capa

Blimey this shares on drugs today :-)

capa

Back up she goes.

just getting the "what happens if thus de-list" threads moving further down the page

capa

if you wonder how far this fashion stock can go, take a look at asos (asc)!!
It looked expensive at 15p a few weeks back.
Makes a change to see a bit of blue personally speaking!

It's been behaving like a YoYo, but up nevertheless.

Up on massive volume, a very good sign.

I think we have to get used to these topsy turvy intra day movements for a while, but they do provide some excellent buying opportunities. This now represents my biggest holding.

capa

capa: Did I read somewhere that these are tipped to go to 40p?

Grevis - I don't know that they have been tipped with a price target. They have recently been tipped by IC, Shares, RHPS and City Confidential as buys but when the price was below 20p.

30p has always been my short term target, not that this means I will be selling, these are a long term hold and 40p by Christmas is not at all unrealistic imo.

capa

They were also mentioned in Money Week from 16/7. But was just basically repeating what was said in IC I think. No price target was mentioned.

Thanks guys!