Here's the thing: if you buy a great company at the wrong price, you're probably still in for a bad time. Just ask Shoprite shareholders, who suffered a 7.5% drop yesterday based on the retailer's annual results.

Were they so bad?

Revenue was up 12.6% on a comparable 52-week basis. The dividend was 10.3% higher. HEPS grew by 7.8%. It doesn't exactly sound awful, does it?

After the drop in share price, the price/earnings (P/E) multiple is still over 20x. Compared to HEPS growth, that's a demanding multiple even for a defensive business. This thing was priced for perfection and I think the market was frightened by the contraction in the trading profit margin, as expenses grew at a higher rate than gross profit. We aren't used to seeing that at Shoprite.

Meanwhile, Pick n Pay has launched its QualiSave offering, which is targeting mid-marke t shoppers. Hopefully the name will be the worst thing about these stores. Pick n Pay's branding and marketing is absolutely nowhere compared to Shoprite. Toddler Ghost loves his Checkers Sixty60 toy "coota" and Mrs Ghost avidly collected the miniature shopping items, allegedly for our little one's benefit but I'm not sure I believe her. Shoprite really do know what they are doing.

For more on the Shoprite results and many other stories, including earnings updates from Metair, Attacq, Bowler Metcalf and others, be sure to read Ghost Bites this morning. There are also some very juicy director dealings at Tharisa, Old Mutual, Thungela and others.

Dial 911 - Porsche is coming to market

In this week's edition of Ghost Global, two of the grads teamed up before a busy test week to pull together a lovely update on global news. Karel Zowitsky and Sinawo Bikitsha focused on Lululemon, Best Buy, sad news at Bed Bath & Beyond and the exciting news of Volkswagen moving ahead with the IPO of Porsche despite iffy market conditions.

Get up to speed with that news by reading Ghost Global.

Daily Market Wrap with TreasuryONE

After the US markets were closed on Monday for Labour Day, we saw increased momentum in the dol lar when markets reopened yesterday. There was much volatility in the rand, trading between R17.08 and R17.33. Our currency is looking vulnerable yet again.

South African GDP grew at a pedestrian 0.2% in the second quarter, missing expectations of 0.6%. Although the rand briefly reacted, the real focus is on the dollar and the upcoming Fed meeting at the end of September. As the team at TreasuryONE has been highlighting, there is also the important ECB meeting this week.

At the most recent TreasuryONE webinar, there was a question on why the petrol and diesel prices have diverged so much. Andre Botha from TreasuryONE dug deeper into this issue and has reported back to Ghost Mail readers in this article. We learn every day!

Chasing the sun

In Episode 91 of Magic Markets, the team from Westbrooke joined us once more. This time, we talked about investing in solar, an asset class that is all too familiar for South Africans, particularly as load shedding is back this week. To learn more about this alternative asset class, listen to the podcast here.

Finally, if you are interested in the Money Summit being held on 15th September at the Sandton Convention Centre, you can use the code "Ghost" for free entry. You just need to reg ister here. I'm not involved in the summit but I'm happy that Ghost Mail readers are offered free entry!

Have a terrific Wednesday.