Shares in Entertainment One (LSE: ETO) have risen by around 18% today after it was rumoured that ITV was considering a bid for the company. The Peppa Pig franchise owner said that it has received no approach, but this has clearly not stopped the market becoming excited about the prospect of a takeover.
Even if a takeover doesn’t happen, Entertainment One continues to be an excellent buy at the present time. Factoring-in today’s share price rise, it trades on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 9.9 and with the company’s bottom line expected to rise by 16% next year, this puts it on a price-to-earnings-growth (PEG) ratio of just 0.6. This indicates that Entertainment One offers significant capital gain potential over the medium-to-long term and it could be about to reverse its disappointing share price fall of 40% during the last year.
Risky but rewarding?
Also in the news today is Eland Oil & Gas (LSE: ELA), with the company’s share price rising by around 20% after it announced an operational update on the Opuama-3 well re-entry. Notably, canal access clearing operations have been completed, providing the required access to the Opuama-3 wellhead. Furthermore, the mobilisation of contractor equipment, crude storage barges and the associated marine spread from Warri and Port Harcourt to the Opuama-3 wellhead has now been completed.
Looking ahead, Eland expects to complete flow-testing of Opuama-3 within the coming weeks. The company is upbeat about the prospect of perforating two new zones and it believes that they could be highly productive and could almost double reported production rates. As such, Eland could be a stock for less risk-averse investors to take a closer look at, although with the wider sector offering excellent value for money there may be lower risk opportunities elsewhere that offer high potential rewards.
Meanwhile, life sciences company OptiBiotix (LSE: OPTI) today released full-year results that showed it’s making progress on its strategy of delivering compounds to tackle obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes. Although its pre-tax loss increased versus the previous year, OptiBiotix was able to increase the size of its intellectual property portfolio and signed multiple commercial agreements, including one with Slimfast after the end of the year.
With OptiBiotix having successfully conducted a placing last year and also since the end of the year, its research and development programme appears to be well-funded. In fact, it has a cash position of £4m and this should also allow it to extend its technology platforms into new product and application spaces.
Clearly, with the company having made a loss of £1.4m last year, it remains a relatively high-risk play. But for less risk-averse investors who are seeking a smaller company to buy alongside a healthcare major, OptiBiotix could be worthy of consideration.