FLT Flight Centre

[winner69]

Surprised no thread for FLT

However after todays profit upgrade price up to $19

Must be one of the stars of the ASX since March .... beaten down when the world was going to end in march and hit a low of $3.40

A six bagger .... better than most resource stocks eh

Great company ... just valuations go a bit awry at times

Alas .... this went of the radar for me and hadn't seen this great rise

Anybody here cash in?

[macduffy]

FLT is a stock that I've followed off and on for several years now.

I first became interested when the boss man and, I think, biggest shareholder, a chap known as xxxxx Turner ( forgotten his first name) mounted a takeover bid for the company. This fell down, probably because he didn't offer enough, but the perceived impact of internet bookings affecting the travel agency business always put me off. Meanwhile, it was a great trading stock if one had been canny ( or lucky) enough to pick the right times to buy and sell.

Their foray into USA set things back a fair bit recently. Despite that, FLT seems to have a business model that can cope with changing conditions in the travel industry.

Disc: Not holding.

[macduffy]

Comment here from the SMH on FLT's profit upgrade.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/fligh...0119-mj4j.html

[Awamoa]

If anyone wants to read a great book its "Family Village Tribe" by Mandy Johnson.
It covers the Flight Centre story from early 1970s when a couple of Aussies went to London and set up Top Deck Tours and how that set the owners up to create Flight Centre.
Its an excellent success story.

[winner69]

Compare WEB and FLT share price performance over the last 5 years. FLT has gone nowhere (0%) - so I don't see how that can be considered "successful". WEB on the other hand has appreciated 1700% in the same time frame.

Conveniently picking starting points for growth

Early 2002 shareprice was 72 cents - and was 198 in Sept 2005 so much gain in the last 4 1/2 years with current price


Never mind .... both FLT and WEB are successful companies

KW - were you a WEB holder pre the travel.com days which was the cayalyst behind WEB growth

Cheers

[peat]

good old fashioned business strategies according to Robert Gottliebsen

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/...ument&src=srch

[winner69]

Not conveniently picking starting points - Comsec has a 5 year option so I used it.

Where did you get 72c and $1.98 from??? Comsec has the 2002 shareprice at $25 to $27 Yahoo states the share price was $21.80 on 1 Jan 2003 - so you can make that 7 years of going nowhere!

from ft.com interactive charting

[soulman]

I know FLT floated around 1995 at 95 cents. Other than that, it's been a roller coaster ride from $30 to $4 and now back to $20. There were a management buyout at $17 a while back but that offer lapsed and failed.

[mark100]

Nice trading update from FLT. Profit is up 20-25% for the 1st quarter compared with last year however being conservative they are sticking with their 10% growth forecast for the full year.

[macduffy]

43% profit increase from a company whose business model, several years ago, was thought to be fatally injured by the growth of the internet!

http://www.smh.com.au/business/earni...828-24x8w.html

I never got up the nerve to buy any!