The UK stock market has moved lower over the past week amid rising tensions in the Middle East. This is understandable, but I believe some UK stocks have been caught up in the sell-off despite not really being that negatively impacted.
As a result, some are starting to look very cheap. Time to consider buying?
A sector in focus
First up is Pollen Street Group (LSE:POLN). The alternative investment manager has seen the share price fall 18% in the past month alone. But over the past year, it’s still up 5%.
The move lower is partly due to concern about private equity and private credit funds. Given the volatility in the markets right now, people are a bit scared about private markets where liquidity isn’t that high. What I mean is that it’s harder to sell a holding in a private company or recoup a private loan than if it were publicly listed.
However, I don’t see this as being a fundamental problem for the long term. Pollen Street’s continuing to outperform in its investment strategies. The latest company update from November showed total assets under management reached £6.7bn, up 32% from the same time period last year.
With a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.54, the short-term move lower has pushed the stock to cheap levels. It’s well below the FTSE 250 average ratio.
What makes it look seriously undervalued is the fact that the drop over the past month doesn’t match the company’s growth trajectory. As a result, it appears to me this dip’s being driven more by general investor fear than by anything more serious. Of course, the risk is that the fear compounds, which could result in the next earnings report detailing a fall in assets under management and therefore impacting profitability.
Rebuilding brand reputation
Next up is WH Smith (LSE:SMWH). The stock’s down 15% in the past month, bringing the total fall over the last year to 45%.
It’s true that the move lower in the past week has been driven by concerns in the Middle East. A trading update from last week spoke about how they are mindful of “the impact that this is having on passenger numbers across our key markets”. Further, the broader move over the last year speaks to accounting problems that surfaced last August. This remains an ongoing reputational risk.
Yet the drop in the past week has pushed the stock down to the lowest level in well over a decade. When I take a step back, I think this makes the stock look very cheap.
I don’t expect the conflict in the Middle East to last long. This should act to minimise the revenue hit for the company. Is profitability going to fall by 15% because of a conflict that has existed for a couple of weeks? I don’t think so, which makes the share price move of 15% seem a little overdone.
Further, the bulk of the crash from last summer wasn’t due to business deterioration but a financial reporting issue. If the company can move on from this and show more controls are in place, the stock should be able to recover. As a result, I think both Pollen Street and WH Smith are worth considering as potentially cheap purchases right now.
