Sunday share tips: Concurrent Technologies, Mpac

Cascading conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, alongside tensions in the Red Sea or Taiwan Strait were making many politicians around the world wonder whether their country's armed forces were up to scratch.

Well, the company's computers were made precisely to be used in war zones.

Concurrent had recently shifted its focus from telecoms to defence, with its chief executive officer, Miles Adcock having also gone about reenergising the firm since he joined in 2021.

Adcock, who had decades of experience at BAE Systems and Qinetiq, was hoping to more than triple turnover to £100m over the next few years.

The company could also expect to benefit from changes in the U.S. Pentagon's procurement policies, which were expected to favour smaller players.

"While current economic conditions do not automatically lead to increased spending on defence, they certainly focus government minds – and that is likely to benefit Concurrent," Midas added.

"At 86p, the shares are a long-term buy."

The Sunday Times's Lucy Tobin tipped shares of Mpac, telling readers that shares in the maker of niche packaging machines were undervalued and a 'buy'.

Mpac's machines have been used to pack everything from Unilever's pyramid-shaped teabags through to Covid tests.

The company was now also involved in helping clients make production lines more efficient and had diversified into new industries, including for battery cells in the US.

Looking ahead to its full-year results announcement in March, analysts were estimating that sales rose by 10% while pre-tax profit doubled.

Yet huge opportunities remained for Mpac, including in robotics, 5G and AI control systems, the tipster added.

Indeed, ShoreCap analysts expected to see a significant acceleration in growth over the next few years.

Furthermore, the shares were changing hands on a price-to-earnings multiple of eight, against 17 times for UK engineers such as Weir or Smiths Group.

Tobin also noted the £2m in cash sitting on the company's balance sheet which could be deployed on acquisitions in the "very fragmented" automated-packaging market.