The Royal Mail share price has hit a 3-month high. Here is what I am doing now

Post by **postareale** » 21 May 2020, 13:58

The Royal Mail share price has hit a 3- ... doing now

The Royal Mail share price has hit a 3-month high. Here’s what I’m doing now
Manika Premsingh | Wednesday, 20th May, 2020 |

Other FTSE stocks might be struggling to get back to their pre-crash levels, but the Royal Mail (LSE: RMG) share price is already there. Last week, its share price hit an almost three-month high. At the end of last week, it closed at 176p. This was an 8.4% jump from the day before. It was also the highest level seen since the last week of February.

Management changes underway

It’s not hard to see why the RMG share price bounced back. CEO Rico Back stepped down after two years at the helm last week. His term was marked with disagreements with the group’s strong workers’ union, which decided to strike more than once during this time. Additionally, Brexit uncertainty had kept the UK economy in limbo for the past few years. RMG’s business is sensitive to economic cycles, and was impacted as a result. More recently, the coronavirus crisis took its toll.

Still, I think the Royal Mail Group was an attractive, if not risky share to buy for its double-digit dividend yield. But, expecting potential losses from its letters business, the group suspended dividends at the end of March. This resulted in a 17.6% drop in share price on the day. While it started picking up soon after, the latest news gave it quite a bump up.

What’s next for the Royal Mail share price

The question now is whether the Royal Mail is share worth buying. That the interim executive chair, Keith Williams, is experienced in resolving human resource disputes is a positive. He was able to do so at British Airways earlier. But he is in an ‘interim’ role. This suggests that he may or may not be in it for a meaningful amount of time. So, whether he’ll successfully resolve trade union disputes remains to be seen.

Moreover, even if we were to put Royal Mail’s workforce issues aside for now, the fact is that its letters business is undergoing a structural decline in favour of electronic communication. While the parcels business is growing, it faces competition from other players. Its plan to turn the business around by 2024 has been suspended for now. As a result, it remains to be seen what’s next for the Royal Mail share price.

While the sharp rise of Royal Mail shares can give investors some serious FOMO, I think it’s best to hold back for now. Once its next steps become clearer, the long-term investor will have a better perspective on what’s in store for the company. For now I think there are safer and more rewarding FTSE stocks to invest in. A number of FTSE 100 stocks, for instance, have seen impressive increases in share price since the stock market crash first started, maintained dividends, and seem to have secure prospects too.

Celgar · Post by **Celgar** » 24 May 2020, 17:00

There has not been any official industrial action in RM for as long as I can remember. I think in about the past twenty two years we have only had one bout of industrial action which was less than a weeks worth of days. We got the bad end of the stick on that one as well and accepted a paltry bribe.
If they want to write about people on strike maybe they should look at the RMT instead.

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 08 Jun 2020, 18:25

DOM said today that the head honcho is reportedly having to go ''to the city'' as he put it(which is supposedly doom and gloom) to report a profits warning. apparently we are losing money hand over fist. they've stopped the overtime again. no money the lino says.

Post by **RobertT** » 08 Jun 2020, 18:36

The RM share price went up over 5% today and has seen a nice increase from the all time lows of a couple of months ago.

Had I bought then, I'd be sitting on a nice 50% or so profit now. But that's hindsight for you!

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 08 Jun 2020, 18:43

rico will be pleased.

Post by **aiden01** » 08 Jun 2020, 18:47

daveyeff wrote:DOM said today that the head honcho is reportedly having to go ''to the city'' as he put it(which is supposedly doom and gloom) to report a profits warning. apparently we are losing money hand over fist. they've stopped the overtime again. no money the lino says.

All the ot you like in mail centre.

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 08 Jun 2020, 18:57

jeez. wtf is going on with this company.

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 08 Jun 2020, 19:02

no days off, and telling the 'regular' overtime workers to leave stuff in if they are expecting to go over. some told not to book any more than 15mins, so leave what you think will take you over.

clashcityrocker · Post by **clashcityrocker** » 08 Jun 2020, 19:07

daveyeff wrote:jeez. wtf is going on with this company.

We are in the s**t.
The European arm that has been making all the money for the past few years (thanks to Rico) will be seriously hit by the pandemic.
The domestic business has been a basket case for years and now needs some serious decisions to be made. (pretend here you have confidence in the top team to come up with a plan)
The drop in letters and D2D will also have made serious inroads into our profitability.

At the same time the rumours that a takeover might be in the offing is inflating the share price.

Either way crap times ahead.