Gamble of the week: an application service provider
Moneyweek article: Charlie Gibson's gamble of the week comes from a application service provider which is finally about to 'come good' - and its shares are far too cheap.
Down from 10p three years ago and slumping 50% in the past year alone, Ffastfill's (Aim:FFA, 3.8p) shares have been more "fast fall" than anything else recently, says Timon Day in Shares. But that looks set to change. Projected to make a maiden profit this year, the company is at last on the verge of achieving "critical mass".
An application service provider, Ffastfill's software "is used to automate dealings for clients with electronic-order routing, clearing, risk management and back-office reporting". Clients for their services include several big investment and clearing banks.
To date, progress on making a profit has been held back by a heavy investment programme building data centres. Now, however, turnover is up 40%, with forward committed revenue from clients signed up before last September up 21%. That's a healthy picture, yet Ffastfill shares are trading on an untaxed forward p/e of only 9.6 times in 2007, falling to 7.5 times in 2008. For a company that's finally "coming good", that's too cheap. Buy.