Primary Recommendation

Character Group - Polaroid cameras selling like hot cakes

April 2003

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Character is a fast growing business which lost its way in 2000 whenit took a massive gamble on Star Wars merchandise. Two poor acquisitions only compounded the feeling of a business in decline when the bet went wrong. But its management has shown a remarkably sure touch in repositioning the company with a transformation coming in the core business from a range of own-developed toys whilst the digital division is benefiting from the (almost global) licence to manufacture and distribute Polaroid digital cameras. In the year to 31August, Character made a pretax profit of Â£1.5m. Driven by a verystrong product line-up, this year's forecast was upgraded from Â£2.5mto Â£4.0m (eps 8.2p) in February. But these are proving ...

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Market Comment - April

Flying Brands - Listen2Books ahead of expectations

Character - More cautious on outlook (October 2011)

Character (July 2011)

Character (May 2011)

Character - Gain to date: 453% (March 2011)

Character - 33% jump in first half sales (February 2011)

Character Group - Piling up the cash (November 2010)

Character Group (October 2010)

Character Group (September 2010)

Character Group - Unveils range of Michael Jackson dolls (August 2010)

Character - Forecast eps upgraded to 17p (June 2010)

Character - Completes Â£5m buyback programme (March 2010)

Character - Charles Stanley set share price target of 110p after Â£1.5m upgrade to forecast (February 2010)

Character - Directors buy shares (August 2009)

Character Group - Largest product launch to date (June 2009)

Character Group - Anticipates â€œsubstantial revenue (February 2008)

Character (January 2008)

Character - â€œClassic Doctor Whoâ€ launch in 08 (December 2007)

Character - Master rights for Postman Pat (October 2007)

Character - Launches Classic Doctor Who range (September 2007)

Character - Goes over £2 (May 2007)

Character - Significantly ahead of forecast (April 2007)

Character (March 2007)

Character Group - Sales up 35% in first four months (February 2007)

Character (November 2006)

Character Group - Collins Stewart slashes forecast (August 2004)

Character (June 2004)

Character (February 2004)

Character - Digital cameras with Foveon technology (January 2004)

Character Group - Cool-iCam and Polaroid digital cameras still selling well (November 2003)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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