The 5 April ISA deadline for the 2016/17 year is just six weeks away. And it’s this time of year that many investors rush to contribute to their ISAs before it’s too late. With the FTSE 100 index trading just below its record highs, it’s becoming harder to find attractively valued stocks right now. Having said that, here are two stocks that I believe offer value at their current valuations.
Provident Financial
I’m a big fan of sub-prime lender Provident Financial (LSE: PFG). And I’m not the only one – with Provident being the sixth largest holding in Neil Woodford’s Equity Income fund.
Provident has grown both its revenues and earnings consistently in recent years, and City analysts expect revenue and earnings growth of 6% and 8% respectively when the company reports its 2016 final numbers next week.
The stock has significant potential as a dividend growth investment in my opinion, as the company has grown its dividend from 77.2p per share in FY2012 to 120.1p per share in FY2015. Analysts expect Provident to payout 131p for FY2016, equating to a generous yield of 4.7% at the current share price.
After trading as high as 3,300p late last year, Provident shares have underperformed the FTSE 100 index in recent months, trending down since October to now trade below 2,800p. At this price, the shares are beginning to look attractively priced to my mind, on a forward looking P/E ratio of 16 times FY2016 earnings.
Sentiment towards the company is clearly a little low at present, with the market concerned about the potential consequences of Brexit, however for patient ISA investors, I reckon Provident Financial could be a long-term winner.
SSE
I also like the look of utility giant SSE (LSE: SSE) at its current share price.
The company announced in January that it remains on target to achieve a return to growth for 2016/17 and that it expects to generate adjusted earnings per share of at least 120p.
Importantly, SSE also stated that it expects to report an annual increase in the full-year dividend of at least RPI inflation and that it expects to be able to continue increasing the dividend in line with RPI inflation in subsequent years.
SSE places a strong focus on rewarding shareholders with dividends and has stated that “we believe that our first responsibility to shareholders is to give them a return on their investment through the payment of dividends.” The company has a fantastic dividend growth track record, increasing its dividend every year since 1999.
Indeed, over the last 15 years SSE has increased its dividend from 30p per share to 89.4p per share, meaning that if you had bought the stock 15 years ago, and held on for the long term, your shares would now be yielding almost 14%.
Earnings of 120p per share equate to a forward-looking P/E ratio of just 12.7, which looks attractive given the high valuations across many other areas of the market. As such, I reckon SSE could be a solid long-term dividend pick for investors looking to add stocks in their ISAs before the end of the tax year.
