As I write, it’s priced at 16.4p, which is 111% higher than at the start of November. This means a plucky investor who put two grand into this penny stock back then would now be sitting on about £4,220. Nice.

Valued only in the hundreds of pounds though, my holding’s worth well below that. However, I won’t complain, and I’m optimistic the share price could head higher, over time.

What’s the angle?

This small cancer diagnostics company specialises in liquid biopsies — non-invasive blood tests that can detect cancer cells or tumour DNA. These can help doctors diagnose cancer, assess treatments, and monitor to see if the disease has returned. 

Angle’s pioneered the Parsortix liquid biopsy system. This device separates cells and captures circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from blood samples. It’s increasingly being seen as a game-changing technology in the emerging field of personalised cancer care.

There are a few interesting interesting things to note here. Firstly, the company’s CTC-harvesting technology’s patent-protected and already cleared by the FDA for use in breast cancer. So this de-risks the investment case with regard to the company’s core technology (it works).

In 2024, it signed two deals with AstraZeneca and one with Japanese pharma firm Eisai. This is to support clinical trials and cancer drug development.

Angle is also working on next-generation capabilities for an even more comprehensive view of cancer progression. On 29 January, it announced successful results from a new dual workflow, using biotech company Illumina‘s platform. Consequently, the DNA-sequencing giant has assigned its entire European Association for Cancer Research webinar on 6 February to Angle’s findings!

CEO Andrew Newland commented: “We see a substantial opportunity for both Angle and Illumina to work closely together.”

Finally, the global liquid biopsy market’s already large and growing. According to Fortune Business Insights, it’s projected to grow from $9.63bn in 2024 to around $58bn by 2032.

Risks galore

Now, there are also significant risks here. Although it expects 2024 revenue to have increased 31% year on year £2.9m, it’s also guiding for a loss of £14m (down from £20.1m in 2023).

And while the loss-making company holds £12.6m in cash, enough to last until 2026, another share offering remains possible. That would potentially dilute shareholders like myself.

Asymmetric investing opportunity

Still, I’m excited to see what the future brings as Angle pivots from selling instruments to providing services for blue-chip pharma companies like Astra.

According to current forecasts, revenue’s expected to grow 49% in 2025 to £4.3m, then 68% to £7.26m in 2026. However, if cancer trials using its technology advance to larger, late-stage studies, revenue could explode.

Indeed, Angle says that landing a single Phase 3 contract could immediately push the company into cash flow-positive territory.

My thinking here is that I can handle losing a few hundred quid if things turn pear-shaped. But if the firm’s technology’s successfully commercialised, the rewards are potentially very large for this penny stock.

The post £2,000 invested in penny share Angle just 3 months ago would now be worth… appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

In early 2024, it surged more than 100% in a single day, then lost half its value in a month. Now the share price has risen by 79% in four weeks to sit at 21p. But it’s still 78% lower than it was just two years ago.

I have a very small position in the stock. Should I add to it?

What does the firm do?

AIM-listed Angle is a cancer diagnostic company that has developed a potentially groundbreaking technology called the Parsortix system. This provides a unique approach to capturing and analysing circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from the blood of cancer patients.

The system appears to represent a significant advancement in liquid biopsy (a blood test that allows the detection and analysis of cancer cells or fragments of the tumor’s DNA).

Cancer treatment often relies on understanding the specific characteristics of a patient’s tumour. Yet these can change over time. So the ability to capture CTCs and analyse them effectively allows the monitoring of cancer patients’ responses to treatments.

This is potentially a great development for patients and outcomes. But how will the company benefit?

Why is the stock up?

Well, in April, Angle announced a deal with FTSE 100 pharma giant AstraZeneca to develop a CTC test for DNA damage. The six-month development phase is worth an initial £150,000 to the firm.

Then in May, it signed another deal with Astra to develop a new CTC assay to detect androgen receptor (AR) status in prostate cancer patients.

Using Angle’s technology, clinicians can assess the effectiveness of prostate cancer therapies while a patient’s treatment is ongoing.

These were the catalysts for the recent share price explosion. The company is seemingly on the road to commercial lift-off.

Should I buy more shares?

Now, while this could eventually be a very lucrative market opportunity, investors should be realistic about the near term.

The two deals announced so far with AstraZeneca are collectively worth less than £1m. Meanwhile, the development of the AR assay isn’t expected to be completed before 2025.

Moreover, the company will probably need to issue more shares to raise cash in the next couple of years, which could cause volatility.

Today, the firm is hardly generating any revenue, yet has a market cap of £55m. This means the stock is trading on a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 32.

Clearly, the firm is being valued on its high future potential. But with its groundbreaking technology being validated with blue-chip partnerships, I do expect much large contracts to be announced moving forward.

If this does happen, then the share price could keep heading higher. But as things stand, this is a speculative and high-risk stock. It is only suitable for investors with a high risk tolerance.

On balance, I’m going to stick with my holding. If the stock reaches its potential and flies higher, a small position is all I will need. If it crashes, then that will be all I want.

The post Up 79% in a month, is Angle a penny stock worth considering? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

The last time I wrote about the company I said that taking a position would be based on “a hunch” rather than a proper understanding of what the company does and its prospects.

It describes itself as a “world-leading liquid biopsy company with innovating circulating tumour cell solutions”. Its technical reports make for heavy reading and, to be honest, I don’t really understand them, which is why I said I didn’t want to buy any of its stock.

That was on 19 January. Since then, the share price has risen 12%. However, despite this good run, they are 70% lower than they were in May 2019.

Two-faced

But is my approach justified, or am I being a hypocrite?

For example, I own shares in Lloyds Bank. And yet I can’t say with my hand on my heart that I fully understand how financial institutions work and the industry in which they operate.

Yes, I know what a bank does and how it makes money. But when it comes to the intricacies of the sector, I haven’t a clue. I don’t know what CRD IV models are. Nor do I understand countercyclical capital buffers. As for Pillar 2A requirements …

So my reasons for not investing in Angle are probably misplaced.

I’m aware that the company is trialling a cancer diagnostics tool. In January, it announced that initial results show that in 70% of patients, its technology found cancer mutations in cells that could not be identified from the DNA in the same blood.

And the more successful it is at detecting cancer — and the more lives it saves — the more money it will make.

Simple. And worthy.

The key question

But should I invest?

Well, in April, the company signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to develop a novel approach to tumour detection. It’s worth a relatively modest £150k. But the company must be good at what it does if the UK’s most valuable listed company wants to partner with it.

This was followed up, in May, by another agreement with AstraZeneca worth £550k. The two parties are looking at ways of identifying prostate cancer at an earlier stage.

If successful, these projects could lead to further collaborations or, perhaps, a takeover.

There’s little point dwelling on the company’s financial history. At 30 June 2023, it had accumulated losses of £113m. Revenue for 2023 is expected to be £2.2m. This company is all about the future.

Encouragingly, it claims to have enough cash to see it through until, at least, early 2025. Although with a market cap of £55m, it doesn’t have the financial might to withstand a shock to its business.

And there are no guarantees when it comes to medical research. It’s hugely expensive and failure is common. However, if successful, the rewards are large.

But despite these risks, I’m going to put the company on my watchlist for when I next invest. It looks like a company that’s going places.

The post Is it time to do a 360 degree u-turn and buy this penny stock? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

One is a relatively new company at the cutting edge of international medical research. The other has been in business for 60 years, selling tiles from its large chain of UK stores.

However, each has recently caught my eye due to significant movements in their share prices.

Should I buy one, both, or neither of them?

An innovative approach

Shares in Angle (LSE:AGL) have increased 64% since the start of 2024.

The announcement of a “breakthrough” in trials for its cancer diagnostics tool have helped propel them higher.

In 70% of patients, the company’s technology found cancer mutations in cells that could not be identified from the DNA in the same blood.

There’s little point dwelling on the financial performance of the company as the investment case is built entirely around its future potential.

By 30 June 2023, the company had accumulated losses of £113m. Yet revenue for 2023 is expected to be only £2.2m.

On the plus side, it says it has sufficient cash to see it through until, at least, the first quarter of 2025.

Old-fashioned

By contrast, Topps Tiles (LSE:TPT) stock is down 8%, since 1 January.

Investors didn’t like the trading update that revealed sales for the 13 weeks to 30 December 2023, were 4% lower than a year earlier.

But the company has been growing steadily for several years.

It achieved its 2025 target of a 20% market share two years earlier than planned. It expects this to increase further in 2024.

And its shares are presently yielding a very attractive 7.9%. Each year, it plans to return 67% of earnings to shareholders.

However, rising costs caused its gross margin to fall from 54.8% during its 2022 financial year, to 53%, in 2023. This is something to keep an eye on.

Decision time

Although there are reasons to invest in both, I’m cautious about penny stocks.

For example, I don’t have sufficient expertise to know whether the products of innovative companies, like Angle, are going to be successful.

Its technical reports make for heavy reading.

And if I’m honest, I’d only be buying its shares on a ‘hunch’. That doesn’t feel like a sensible basis for making sound investment decisions.

Also, because what they’re doing is pushing boundaries, the timescales for bringing products to market can slip.

Ironically, with more ‘traditional’ businesses like Topps Tiles, it’s the lack of technological innovation that worries me.

‘Bricks and mortar’ retailing is tough, with the internet radically changing the way people shop.

And consumer tastes can change quickly. I’m not sure the company has the financial strength to cope with a sustained downturn.

Both Angle and Topps Tiles highlight my principal fear about penny stocks, namely, that they will run out of money. With small businesses, there’s an increased risk that any investment I make today will be diluted in the future.

Should either company need to raise funds, they will probably ask their shareholders to buy more shares, rather than increase their borrowings.

If I don’t want to participate in a rights issue, the value of my shareholding will fall. Joining in will require more cash.

As a risk-averse investor, I don’t want to have to face this dilemma.

The post Here are 2 very different penny stocks. Should I buy them? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

Medical diagnostics

Angle is a medical diagnostic business. It specialises in products to help cancer diagnostics. Its patented Parsortix technology seems to be making waves in the medical industry, and this is the reason for its recent share price spike.

On 4 January, the share price soared from 13p to 31p. It has since come down to 19p, as I write (16 January). Over a 12-month period, the shares are down 36% from 30p at this time last year, to current levels. It’s not uncommon for small-caps to experience such fluctuations.

Promising update, future outlook, and risks

The update that caused Angle’s share price spike seems hugely positive, if you ask me. A clinical breakthrough in recent trials announced by the business seems to have boosted investor sentiment. It’s also worth noting that its patented tech is currently the only one of its type cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which could be positive news for the firm’s future prospects.

So what about these prospects then? Based on recent positive news, and the sad fact that cancer numbers are set to rise exponentially in the coming decades, there could be an opportunity for Angle to boost growth, performance, and investor sentiment.

From a bearish perspective, the fact the business hasn’t yet turned a profit is something to be wary of. I’ve seen many small caps in the past fluctuate up and down during times of trials or product testing with lots of promise but eventually fall by the wayside.

Next, I’ve noticed that Angle has had funding issues in the past. Similar to share price volatility, this is not uncommon for smaller businesses just starting out. A natural worry of mine is that the business may need to borrow to keep the lights on, or is at risk of being bought out by a larger business in the sector. Based on the most recent financial update, Angle seems to have enough money in the bank to remain operational until the second quarter of 2025, according to its balance sheet.

What I’m doing now

I must admit Angle’s recent news was promising and caught my eye. However, I currently have more questions than answers. Where will the cash and funding come from for product development? When will the business turn a profit? Is there a chance of a takeover if the firm runs into difficulties? Could borrowing damage the long-term profitability of the firm?

When there are more questions than answers, I tend to steer clear of most stocks, whether that’s a blue-chip or a penny stock.

I won’t be buying any Angle shares today. I must admit Angle has some hallmarks to be a potential growth stock. However, I’ll place the shares on my watch list and keep a keen eye out for updates and developments.

The post Here’s one exciting healthcare penny stock currently on my radar! appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

On 4 January, the price trebled. It’s since fallen back a bit, but we’re still looking at a 65% gain so far in 2024.

What do I do when I see a small-cap growth stock hitting the headlines like this? A few key things. First, I step back a bit and look at the bigger picture.

Ups and downs

I see Angle stock has been a lot higher in the past.

But that often happens with new growth stocks. Many times, I’ve seen false starts, and volatility in the early days. And it can happen multiple times.

But then, something comes good, and we see a sustained bull run.

Of course, telling the difference between early bubbles and the start of long-term growth can be tricky.

What’s happened

Next thing, what just happened to trigger the latest surge? A news release headlined: Breakthrough clinical results is the answer.

It talks about “combined DNA next generation sequencing of CTCs and ctDNA…“. Got that? And understand all about CTCs and ctDNA? No, me neither.

At this point I feel ace investor Warren Buffett tapping on my shoulder. And I imagine his words whispered in my ear: “Careful, young Alan, don’t buy something if you don’t understand it.”

That’s been a key to his success, and has seen his Berkshire Hathaway investing company achieve an average return of 20% per year since 1965. That’s stunning.

Need to understand?

But if I never bought any stock unless I understood every last detail of a company, I’d never buy anything.

So, we each need to get a feel for how much we need to know. And that will vary, depending on our own view of risk, among other things.

Angle does cancer biopsy diagnosis. It seems it has a new technique here and that it’s achieving some success with it.

How much more do I need to know? Should I be able to do DNA sequencing in my kitchen? Or just grasp how prevalent cancer is in modern society and get a feel for the odds of potential riches for a firm that can help do something about it?

Show me the cash

That’s a personal choice. But there’s one question I think every investor should ask, and then think very carefully about the answer.

Where will the cash come from?

Forceasts don’t show any profit yet. Will these latest developments have an effect on that?

At the halfway stage, Angle had cash and equivalents of £22.2m on the books, with tax credits to come. Is that enough to see it through to profits without needing more cash?

Is there a chance the firm might be bought out by one of the big operators, should the apparent promise of its technology come good?

Questions, answers

I don’t know the answers to these questions. But they’re the kind of things I ask about any new growth stock prospect that crosses my radar.

I’ll have my eyes peeled for Angle’s full-year results, that’s for sure.

The post What’s happening with the Angle (AGL) share price appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

Here are two top small-cap shares I’m hoping to buy for my Stocks and Shares ISA when I have cash to invest.

1. Angle

Rising healthcare investment across the globe provides excellent growth opportunities for medical stocks. Angle (LSE:AGL) is one such company on my radar today.

The penny stock is a liquid biopsy company that helps doctors diagnose cancers. And today its patented Parsortix technology is the only one currently cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration for the capture and harvest of living cancer cells from metastatic breast cancer patient blood for analysis.

You may have seen Angle’s share price spike recently. It surged after the company released excellent clinical results from its DNA molecular analysis of blood samples using Parsortix.

The study — which looked at blood samples from patients with breast, lung, and ovarian cancers — identified DNA mutations that were not found in other types of test. Angle said that the study “gives a completely new insight into cancer clonal evolution not currently available to researchers or oncologists”.

The number of cancer cases is tipped to rise steeply in the coming decades. The International Agency for Research on Cancer thinks there will be 28m new cancer cases each year across the globe by 2040. In this climate, Angle could see demand for its technology explode.

The small cap has a history of tapping its shareholders to solve funding issues. And this will remain an ongoing risk moving forwards. But encouragingly Angle says it has enough cash to operate until the second quarter of 2025 following cost-cutting measures. I think it could be a great growth stock to own.

2. Triple Point Energy Transition

Investment trust Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LSE:GSF) also has tonnes of investment potential, in my view. As its name implies, the business invests its money in assets that will help the world move over from fossil fuels. As a consequence, it provides excellent exposure to the rocketing green economy.

Power generation from renewables like wind, solar, and water is famous for being highly unstable. Modern life relies heavily on a constant supply of electricity, so this can cause significant problems.

This is where Gore Street comes in. Its technology (which is located across Europe and the US) stores energy and releases it when needed, like when sun doesn’t shine and the wind fails to blow. This critical role means demand for its services should rise strongly as renewable energy capacity ramps up.

Gore Street’s share price leapt towards the end of 2023. Yet at current prices of 81p per share, the firm still looks undervalued. Right now it trades at a large discount to the value of its assets (its net asset value currently sits at 111p per share).

The small cap also carries a large 9.1% dividend yield, more that double the 3.8% average for FTSE 100 shares. I think this is a brilliant buy at today’s prices.

The post 2 penny stocks I’d love to buy for my Stocks & Shares ISA today! appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

On 4 January, it rocketed 137% in a single day and ended the week 121% higher than it started it.

What news caused this sudden rise? And should I now be scooping up more shares at 24p? Let’s find out.

What was Angle getting right?

Angle is a liquid biopsy company, which means it specialises in cancer diagnostics.

Through its Parsortix cell-separation system, the company has developed a solution for real-time analysis of both ctDNA (fragments of DNA released mainly by dying cancer cells) and CTCs (living cancer cells) from a single tube of patient blood.

Last week, it announced that from 47 patient samples, previously unidentified mutations were discovered in 70% of breast cancer, 70% of lung cancer and 60% of ovarian cancer samples.

The firm said this “gives a completely new insight into cancer clonal evolution not currently available to researchers or oncologists.” This breakthrough news is what caused the shares to rocket higher.

Now what?

The company’s CEO said these cancer results “may turn out to be groundbreaking.”

This is because a patient’s cancer changes as time goes on, meaning the original tissue biopsy essentially becomes out of date. This liquid biopsy technology provides information on both dead and living cancer cells, meaning clinicians can potentially see how the cancer is evolving.

In turn, this should inform better decision-making on the appropriate treatments.

Angle is now engaging with genetics juggernaut Illumina and leading oncologists to seek their input. It said the “early stage responses have been encouraging.”

Some risks to consider

While this is encouraging, I’d point out that the firm has been diluting shareholders to raise funds on AIM for nearly 20 years. That’s a key risk.

Of course, one could argue this is the point of capital markets (to provide capital). But that’s a long time and the stock is down 84% over that period.

However, in 2022, Angle received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its Parsortix system. So the firm appears ready for commercial lift-off and reckons it has enough cash to last until the second quarter of 2025.

The shares are trading on a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 34, which seems excessive. But that valuation should quickly come down, with 2023’s forecast revenue of £3m expected to treble to £9m next year.

While there aren’t expected to be profits for some time, sales should accelerate meaningfully as the global liquid biopsy market grows. According to Precedence Research, it’s projected to surpass $18.2bn by 2032, up from $4.7bn in 2022.

Of course, this market opportunity isn’t a secret, meaning there’s plenty of competition, notably from Illumina-backed Grail.

Will I buy more shares?

With its novel technology and small £62bn market cap, I see Angle as a potentially tasty morsel for a bigger fish.

However, I don’t invest on the assumption that a firm may be taken over. The shares could always be acquired for a lower price than I paid.

On balance, I’m keeping my small holding as it is for now. But I’m now watching this penny stock like a hawk.

The post Why has this penny stock just exploded 121% higher? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

However, Dairy Crest (LSE: DCG) bucks this trend. Unlike its peers, shares in the company currently trade at a mid-teens earnings multiple compared to the likes of Unilever, which currently trades at a forward P/E multiple of 20.4.

I believe that Dairy Crest does not deserve this lowly valuation. Indeed, as the company reported in a trading update today, sales are expanding steadily, and the outlook for the group is bright. 

Too cheap to pass up

The producer of dairy brands Cathedral City, Clover, and Country Life today reported that for the nine months to the end of December, revenue from these key products rose 7% year-on-year. A spreadable version of the company’s leading cheese brand, Cathedral City has won ‘Product of the Year 2018’ in the UK cheese category. Meanwhile, all of the group’s spreads brands reportedly continued to gain market share throughout the period.

The company is set to report its full-year results for the 12 months to the end of March 2018 at the end of May. City analysts are expecting the firm to report earnings per share growth of 4% and earnings growth of between 5% and 6% for the next two years.

Nevertheless, despite this steady growth, and the company’s defensive nature, the shares trade as a relatively modest forward P/E of only 15.5, falling to 14 for the year ending 31 March 2020. As well as this modest valuation, it also supports a dividend yield of 4% and the payout is covered 1.6 times by earnings per share. 

All in all, I believe this defensive income stock could make a great addition to your portfolio.

Enormous opportunity 

Small-cap biotech firm Angle (LSE: AGL) flies under the radar of most investors, but I believe you should not overlook this future growth monster.

It is a leader in the process of liquid biopsy, which involves searching for cancer cells in blood samples, or pieces of cancer DNA floating in the bloodstream in an attempt to find the illness at an early stage. 

The market for any potential products is massive and Angle is already making a dent. According to the firm’s interim results for the six months to 31 October, 145 of its Parsortix liquid biopsy systems have been deployed around the world (up from 120 in the previous period). Further, during the period the company completed two large-scale ovarian cancer clinical studies, which demonstrated “potential for a Parsortix-based blood test to significantly outperform current standard of care.”

Unfortunately, as this business is still in its early stages of development, for the next few years City analysts are expecting it to report losses, although sales are expected to leap 600% to £7.8m by 2020, from an estimated £1.1m for the fiscal year ending 30 April 2018. A recent placing that raised £14.4m net of expenses should give the company enough financial firepower to be able to keep the lights on for next two years as it progresses towards profitability.

The post 1 cheap income stock and one growth monster I would buy for 2018 appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

Considerable potential

Angle said there was an increase in research use, with many leading cancer centres “evaluating and adopting Parsortix into their research and clinical studies“. Currently, this provides Angle’s revenue, which is relatively low — just £219,000 for the six months ended 31 October — but the commercialisation opportunity is far more substantial.

To this end, the company has initiated two 200 patient studies in Europe and the US for its first clinical application — the detection of ovarian cancer. In a separate release, it reported a positive interim evaluation of the first 50 patients in both studies and said headline data from the full studies is expected to be available in Q2 this year.

There are no concerns about Angle’s immediate funding needs, as it raised £10.2m at 64.5p a share last May and today reported cash on the balance sheet of £9.7m at 31 October.

Speculative proposition

The company’s market cap is £39m at its current share price of 52p, compared with a high of over 100p a couple of years ago. This is a speculative investment proposition, so the shares could easily double on sentiment alone, but such a rise could also be justified by fundamentals in due course.

But, of course, any setback in commercialising its technology could lead the shares to plummet. Angle estimates that the market value available to it, if its ovarian cancer test were fully adopted, would be in excess of £300m a year.

With the company also working to address breast cancer and prostrate cancer, there’s clearly considerable potential. But, at this stage of its development, it can only be rated as a ‘speculative buy’.

Advanced retreats

Another pioneering — and currently loss-making — small cap in the cancer field is Advanced Oncotherapy (LSE: AVO). It’s valued about the same as Angle by the market, having a market cap of £41m at a share price of 57p.

Advanced Oncotherapy saw its shares crash 20% on Tuesday after it revealed that it had been informed the day before that Chinese company Sinophi Healthcare “wished to terminate” an order for Advanced Oncotherapy’s LIGHT proton therapy machines.

However, Sinophi had already indicated this in an update on its website as long ago as 26 November, citing “delays in the proton therapy machine delivery schedules”. Furthermore, Sinophi suggested that Advanced Oncotherapy didn’t have “a working prototype capable of commercialization” and that its technology was “still in the research and development stage”.

Serious concern

If correct, this has to be a serious concern for investors, not only because the technology is less developed than imagined, but also because an empty order book isn’t going to help Advanced Oncotherapy in negotiations with potential lenders for funds it desperately needs. It’s also going to need cash for legal costs, because it believes Sinophi has “no legal basis” for terminating the orders and will “take appropriate action”.

For these reasons, I believe Advanced Oncotherapy is best avoided by investors.

The post Could this small cap double after posting a £2.7m LOSS? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.