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Shares in the ATM and mobile phone top-up terminal operator ticked higher on the renewal of its ATM deal with motorway service chain Welcome Break, its biggest corporate customer.

Cardpoint has won an exclusive five-year contract to continue to supply the service station giant's ATMs, building on an original three-year deal. It currently has 85 cash machines at Welcome Break sites and the deal allows for at least 30 more installations.

Chief executive Mark Mills believes the deal is the first major customer retention contract in the UK's independent ATM deployer market, reflecting the immaturity of this sector. The contract, worth at least £8 million in sales over the five years, gives Cardpoint a good deal of revenue visibility. The group has already begun re-branding its ATMs to make them more attractive to users.

Cardpoint's full year results, released last November, showed a near-fourfold rise in sales to £12.2 million. Pre-tax profits before goodwill came in at £50,000, against a £757,000 loss. The loss before tax was £608,000.

Hector Forsythe at Evolution Beeson Gregory expects a £2.4 million pre-tax profit, and earnings of 6.7p, all delivered from hoped-for sales of £31.7 million, for the current year. Recommended at 79p in these pages in October, we still like this growth story. This stock remains a buy.

Tikit a firm favourite

Legal-sector software and consultancy services business Tikit continues to impress us with its trading gains and overall business prospects.

The last figures statement was back in September when the group revealed its interim results. These showed a 190 per cent surge in pre-tax profits to £235,000 from sales up almost £200,000 at £3.9 million.

Encouragingly, the news since then has been very positive. Management confirmed in early January that 'second-half trading has been encouraging' and that 'continuing demand for high margin consultancy and support services... and a number of important software sales' mean that full year results, to be released in March, are likely to end up 'in line with market expectations'.

According to the forecasts of house broker Charles Stanley, a £1.1 million profit before tax and goodwill from £8.4 million of revenue is on the cards. Earnings per share is expected to hit 6.2p and, although a current prospective p/e of 19.3 suggests the company's value is far from cheap, Tikit's managers are interpreting the recent upswing in activity as 'signalling a gradual change by clients in considering and committing to larger-scale projects'.

This theory is supported by recent press speculation that, after three years of depressed spending, IT budgets in the UK are being ramped up once more. The shares, once as high as 155p, now change hands for 116p, still well above our initial 80p tip price. Hold.

CODASciSys

We first backed financial solutions provider CODASciSys way back in November 2002 when its stock was priced at 215p. Following a period of volatility, the shares now stand at 350p, after the group, which actually released a profits warning last year, confirmed that results for the year to 31 December will exceed market expectations.

At the start of the summer the company admitted that its computer systems division, SciSys, was struggling to match internal forecasts because of 'a significant shortfall in order intake' from the Government and utility sectors. This led to a restructuring that was expected to cost the group an initial £1 million, yet shave £1.5 million off annual ongoing expenses.

With orders improving and the Government-focused business returning to profit in the second half, management is once again bullish with regard to the group's prospects. News that financial intelligence and accounting systems business CODA has continued its strong first half performance, meanwhile, has afforded the board confidence to state that revised forecasts, of a £6.3 million profit before tax and goodwill on sales of £69 million for the full year, will be surpassed.

Despite spending £10.8 million on acquisitions during the year – the vast majority of which went to the owners of accounting software developer SquareSum – cash is also said to currently exceed £6 million, just £3.4 million down on the total reported at the end of 2002. Trading off a 2004 p/e of 13.8 the shares look decent value. Hold.

Parkdean delivers on promises

Holiday park operator Parkdean Holidays supplied an impressive set of results for the year to October. Profits before tax rose a staggering 161 per cent to £8.9 million on increased turnover of £53.6 million, compared to £43.7 million in the previous year. Acquiring Pactrem in May for £13.1 million, paid for in part by a £8.3 million placing, added two Cornish parks to its portfolio (which now stands at 14 sites) and contributed £2.86 million profits in the last six months.

The new telesales and administration centre based in Newcastle is now up and running and canny chairman Graham Wilson is pleased to report that advanced like-for-like holidays sales are 10.2 per cent ahead of last year.

Although net debt is at £43 million, gearing dropped 13 per cent to 110 per cent and Wilson stresses the loans represent only 50 per cent of property values. Parkdean also has a revolving acquisition facility of £32.9 million available and is actively looking to acquire more sites since it only has three per cent market share of the £2 billion caravan camping sector.

Looking forward, Parkdean will spend £9 million in capital expenditure in 2004, including creating 125 new pitches, adding an extra 60 units and providing an indoor swimming pool at the Sundrum Castle site. A total dividend of 5p per share has been recommended, twice that of last year. With trading strong and the forward p/e currently at 13.4, falling to 11.8 for 2005, Parkdean remains a buy at 218.5p, despite doubling in price since January 2003.