ShoreCap 'palpably cautious' when it comes to Ocado

Analysts at Berenberg continued to express "palpable caution" towards Ocado shares, telling clients that there was precious little to work with when it caming to valuing the business.

In a research summary issued on the back of the online grocer's full-year figures, they said that the company had "very low financial visibility, which we not believe to be a virtue when it comes to equity valuation multiple".

And that was leaving aside, its Ocado Retail unit which they judged "has not exactly been a bastion of steady progress and forecasts transparency, there is virtually no basis for credibly model the Solutions activity of the Group where to date, so much has been invested for such material accumulated losses, noting considerable capitalisation of costs."

They were therefore not able to estimate Ocado's medium-term financial output with any confidence "whatsoever", for which reason they did not have a recommendation on the company's equity.

However, their caution "remained palpable".

They also commented on what they described as "spoof" stories around possible bid interest from Amazon or anyone else for that matter.

Had a bid been tabled or an approach even made, then given the share price move the UK Takeover Panel would asked for clarification, they surmised.

"No such clarification came but the effect on potentially falsely causing short positions to be closed, or even worse for some investors, particularly retail ones, to buy into a bid story that does not exist, does not reflect well all round."