PDSNET Market Snapshot

Many private investors shy away from IT shares because they can be difficult to understand.  Their business models are often highly complex making it problematic to accurately assess their fundamental risk. Datatec is an international IT and telecommunications company with operations in more than 50 countries world-wide which makes it even more challenging as an investment. My response to this type of complexity is to look at the results and the people involved.

In its results for the six months to 31st August 2025 the company reported gross invoiced income up 9,4% and headline earnings per share (HEPS) up 109,5%. Clearly, this company is growing its turnover while at the same time hugely improving its operational efficiency.

Because of its international footprint, Datatec offers the investor a rand-hedge. It is also obviously benefiting from the world-wide move towards artificial intelligence (AI). It makes a gross margin of 26.3% and its operating costs are coming down. By bringing down its net debt the company has reduced its finance costs by 27.1%. From an investor’s perspective this makes buying the shares far less risky. Companies with plenty of “headroom” have the cash to avoid problems and take advantage of opportunities.  

Its business is divided into three main divisions - technology distribution through Westcon International, integration and managed services through Logicalis, and consulting and financial services through Datatec Financial Services and Analysys Mason.

Consider the chart:

The chart shows that Datatec had an extended period of sideways movement between April 2023 and October 2024. Then it began to move up strongly. We added it to the Winning Shares List (WSL) 26th October 2024 at a price of 3950c, when it began showing signs of structural improvement and it has since gone up to 7781 – a gain of 97% in 15 months. We believe it will continue to perform well as AI becomes more ubiquitous.

Jens Montanana is the CEO of Datatec and has been in that position since the company listed on the JSE more than thirty years ago. His drive and energy are what taken the company up to a market capitalisation of R12bn. Montanana says that “...the growth of interconnected digital communities and increased IT complexity drove infrastructure demand in networking and cybersecurity”. Now I will be first to admit that I do not understand the implications of that statement – but I know growth and financial stability when I see it.

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has forced businesses to implement the technology within their operations if they are to remain competitive. Datatec is riding that wave.

Obviously, this is a company which is dominated by Montanana and that does make it vulnerable to his inevitable retirement at some stage. However, we believe that Datatec has built a very solid international; presence which will continue to provide it with growth opportunities in the future whoever is in charge.

It is not one of the fastest growing shares on the JSE, but it has been a very steady performer since we added it to the WSL.

Technical analysis is the study of investor perceptions as they are reflected in the price and volume patterns of a security. It is also true that shares move in cycles which take them from being overbought to being oversold and back again. This is especially true of the blue chip shares which are heavily traded and patronised by the big institutions (pension funds, unit trusts and insurance companies).  The fund managers who manage the institutional portfolios account for about 90% of all trades on the JSE.

In our opinion, Clicks (CLS) is a high-quality share which should be part of every private investor’s portfolio. The problem is that it is generally very popular with the big institutions who are always buying it, which tends to make it very expensive – most of the time. But there are occasions when it goes out of fashion with the fund managers for some reason and at those moments it can represent excellent value and a great buying opportunity. In our opinion, right now is just such a moment.

A few days ago on 22nd January 2026, Clicks published a trading update for the 20 weeks up to 11th January 2026. In that update it said that group turnover was up 7,4% and that pharmacy sales had gained 9%. They also commented that they had record Black Friday sales and robust customer demand for their Christmas gift range.

Consider the diagram below.

The top chart in the diagram below shows the share price of Clicks over the last ten years. The lower chart shows the 200-day overbought/oversold (OB/OS) of Clicks over the same period.

On the OB/OS I have drawn in a -10% buy line and you can see that over the ten-year period there have been just 5 occasions (the green arrows) on which the OB/OS has fallen below -10%. Then considering the top chart you can see that, on each of those occasions, Clicks represented an excellent buying opportunity (the red circles).

On Friday last week, the Clicks OB/OS ended the week at –10,64%. And you will observe that historically it generally does not spend a great deal of time below that minus 10% buy line. Inevitably, the fund managers become aware that it is heavily over-sold and begin buying it, driving the price up again.

Of course, the fact that Clicks is heavily oversold right now does not guarantee that it will not fall further and you should always maintain a stop-loss strategy. But, if you are buying, it does give you a good indication of your probability of being right. In my estimation, the share has spent about 2% of its time over the last ten years below that -10% buy line. That means that your statistical probability of being wrong in buying it at that level is therefore extremely low.

And you will have one great satisfaction – you are not buying it at +24% - but somebody did! Otherwise, the chart would not have gone there.  It is amazing to consider that, less than 4 months ago on 25th September 2025, there were institutional fund managers buying Clicks at an OB/OS level of over +24% (the red arrow). If you buy now at -10,64%, you are certainly doing a lot better than them!

The fall in the Choppies share price from 795c on 2nd January 2026 to last Friday’s close at 290c is a great example of the volatility of markets, especially in shares which are relatively thinly traded. It demonstrates the importance of investor sentiment and the potential for popular shares to rapidly become over-priced once they attract the investing public’s imagination.

Choppies represents an unusual investment opportunity on the JSE, because it is a supermarket chain which is apparently highly successful in Africa outside of South Africa. This made it unique and a potential take-over prospect on the JSE. Most of the larger grocery retailers like Shoprite and Pick ‘n Pay have made an effort to establish themselves in other African countries with varying degrees of success. Those markets tend to be characterised by high levels of inflation and political instability. Choppies, on the other hand, was demonstrably successful in the rest of Africa, but found the South African market too competitive.

This made the Choppies story unique. We first recognised Choppies potential when it broke up out of an extended period of sideways movement in March last year. We added it to the Winning Shares List (WSL) on 6th March 2025 at a price of 85c and its performance was nothing short of meteoric. Eventually, by the beginning of 2026 it was trading on a price:earnings ratio (PE) of over 100. Consider the chart:

The chart shows the extraordinary climb in Choppies share price last year and then its subsequent collapse in 2026.

So, what happened? The answer to this question is that we really do not know. There have been no explanations or even comment given by the company itself in Stock Exchange News Service (SENS). There is some speculation that there was an offer from one of the other South African supermarket giants that was then abandoned, but again the company itself has said nothing.

In our view, the Choppies business proposition gained momentum leading up to the publication of its financials on 22nd September 2025 causing its share price to run up too quickly – accompanied by rising volumes. Investors felt that the company had suddenly caught the attention of institutional investors.

On 8th January 2026, probably a single investor decided to take profits and gave a market order to his broker to sell a million shares “at best”. The investor concerned was almost certainly a beneficiary of the Choppies “Long-term Investment Scheme” (LTI) and a member of the company’s senior management. The trade demonstrated his ignorance of the share market because he dumped a huge amount of shares into a relatively thinly traded market in a single day. A more experienced investor would have dribbled the shares into the market over a number of days thus giving time for the market to adjust. The problem is that 89% of the shares in issue are held by just two investors – which means that the “free float” is relatively small.  

So, how should you have handled this situation as a private investor? The answer is to strictly apply your stop-loss strategy. On the day after the share fell (Friday 9th January 2026) you should have sold out your holding on stop-loss. You would have got prices of at least 400c per share. If you bought the shares when we put them on the WSL on 6th March 2025, you would still more than quadrupled your initial investment. The lesson is never ignore your stop-loss.

And what should you do now? Well, when a share falls heavily like this, we always advise applying a 65-day exponential moving average (MA) and then waiting for the price to break up through that MA. There may still be some bad news which has not come out so you don’t want to buy prematurely. Wait for the share to settle down at these lower levels and then buy when it begins to move up again.

Notably, Choppies, at its current price (290c), is now on a P:E of 41 – which is far more attractive than its peak of over 113, but still very fully priced when compared to other grocery retailers on the JSE. Shoprite is on a PE 19.6 of and Spar is at 18,41.