Sunday share tips: Anpario, Kooth

The Financial Mail on Sunday's Midas column touted shares of health animal feed maker, Anpario, to readers, arguing that the company was set to continue benefitting from the global trend to use antibiotics antibiotics less.

Already in 2014, China had banned their use in animal production, resulting in a boom for Anpario.

So too in the US, more than half of chickens bred for consumption were now reared without antibiotics and that proportion was set to continue rising.

Europe meanwhile had severely restricted the use of formaldehyde due to concerns over its carcinogenic properties.

Hence, Midas pointed to hopes that the firm would surprise to the upside again when it next updated markets, during the following week.

Indeed, Anpario itself was hoping to treble its sales "over the next few years", including through acquisitions, the tipster pointed out.

"Midas recommended Anpario in April last year when the shares were £3.25. They have since increased to £5.50. Investors would be forgiven for selling a chunk of stock and banking some profit, but the long-term outlook for Anpario is benign.

"Antibiotics are being phased out of the food chain worldwide, farmers are looking for natural alternatives and Anpario provides some of the most innovative products on the market."

The Sunday Times Sabah Meddings recommended shares of recently-listed Kooth.

Since floating on AIM in the autumn, stock in the online therapy service provider had shot 39% higher.

Driving those gains was the need for digital therapy as Covid-19 added to the numbers of those suffering from mental health problems.

Against that backdrop, the company's management expected sales in 2020 to come in at between £12-13.5m.

Kooth was already the largest mental health provider to the NHS and was set to branch out from its focus on children and young people to adults.

Meddings expected the company's app to prove tempting for corporates, given that depression and anxiety accounted for 54% of sick days in 2018-19.

On the downside, the fact that its shares were tightly held by investors meant that the share price could prove volatile if one of them decided to sell, she added.

"Kooth is a real business with opportunities to grow.

"Panmure Gordon has a share target of 306p, expecting the company to reach revenues of £50m by 2028. Buy."