Shares in luxury accessories brand Jimmy Choo (LSE: CHOO) have risen by 15% today after it reported a positive trading update. It stated that the company has made a good start to the year and trading is in line with its expectations. That’s despite the challenging outlook facing the sector, with Jimmy Choo’s focus on controlled expansion and the development of its retail portfolio set to benefit its top and bottom lines.
With Jimmy Choo on track to deliver cost savings and efficiencies, the outlook for its margins is upbeat. It’s expected to record a rise in earnings of 26% in the current year, followed by further growth of 20% next year. This puts Jimmy Choo on a price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio of just 0.7, which indicates that now could be a good time to buy it.
Upside potential
Also rising today are shares in Severfield (LSE: SFR), with the structural steelwork specialist soaring by over 11%. That’s due to it releasing an upbeat set of results for the year to 31 March, with sales up by 19% and underlying profit before tax increasing by 59% as operational improvements and efficiencies delivered over the last three years have begun to have an impact.
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Looking ahead, Severfield is expected to increase its bottom line by 26% in the current year and by a further 22% next year. This has the potential to improve investor sentiment in the stock and with Severfield trading on a PEG ratio of only 0.4, there’s considerable upside potential on offer.
Profit warning
Meanwhile, falling heavily today are shares in Servelec (LSE: SERV), with the technology and software group recording a decline in its valuation of 34%. This is due to a profit warning, with Servelec having previously expected a heavier weighting towards the second half of the year than had historically been the case. However, given further slippage in contracts Servelec now expects to miss guidance for the full year.
With Servelec trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.4 prior to today’s update, its shares were already relatively expensive. While they’re now clearly much cheaper, there could be further falls to come in the short run as investors take stock of today’s update. Therefore, it may be prudent to avoid their purchase at the present time.
Gains reversed
Also falling today are shares in Aveva (LSE: AVV). The technology company is down by 12% after it announced that it’s no longer in talks with Schneider Electric regarding a potential combination between the two companies. Clearly, this is somewhat disappointing for Aveva and means that the gains following the news that talks were taking place have now been reversed.
Looking ahead, Aveva remains a business that’s struggling to deliver improved performance and with its profitability likely to come under further pressure over the medium term, there seem to be better options elsewhere within the technology space for long-term investors.
