February will be a busy month for watchers of big company results.
A lot of our top FTSE 100 companies have their year-ends in December, and February is the time when their full-year results start to come through. With many investors having abandoned riskier companies and retreated to quality shares, here's a look at some of the announcements coming our way for the month.
The two big oilies
Both Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) and BP (LSE: BP) will be reporting during February, with Shell on the 2nd and BP on the 7th. Most people who invest in blue-chip dividend-paying companies will have shares in at least one of these two tucked away, and it's easy to see why.
The long-term case for oil is still strong, as it is a commodity with no ready substitute -- and, despite what we might like to hope, that's going to be the case for some time yet.
There are certainly risks associated with oil exploration and production, as we saw only too well with the Gulf of Mexico disaster, and these two are not quite cash cows in that constant reinvestment is needed to keep the black stuff flowing.
But they do return masses of cash to investors. Shell was the biggest FTSE dividend payer of 2011, handing out £6.7bn, and BP has resumed its payouts after suspending them during the Gulf cleanup. For the full year, the City is forecasting a 4.1% yield from Shell and 3.7% from BP, based on share prices of 2,340p and 473p respectively.
Pharmas, too
Results from the two big pharmaceuticals companies will arrive in early February, with AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) reporting on the 2nd and GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) on the 7th.
There have been plenty of worries over the past few years about lucrative drug patents expiring and development pipelines not being as full as we might like, while competition from generic drug producers increases. That has left the AstraZeneca share price pretty flat for the past year, though GlaxoSmithKline's has put on a bit.
But decent dividends are still expected for 2011. With GlaxoSmithKline's price of 1,420p, forecasts suggest a yield of 4.8%, while AstraZeneca's 3,035p shares should generate a very nice 5.8%.
Consumer goods
Producers of consumer goods are often thought of as good quality defensive investments, and we have a duo of those coming, with the venerable Unilever (LSE: ULVR) releasing results on the 2nd and Reckitt Benckiser Group (LSE: RB) following up on the 8th.
It has been said that to live without using any Unilever products would be an arduous task and, with Colman's, Lyons, Knorr, Wall's, Persil, Cif, Pond's, Lux and many more in the portfolio, it really is easy to believe the company's claim that "160 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product".
And Reckitt Benckisser's Dettol, Finish, Scholl, Durex, Nurofen and Cillit Bang are among the brands attracting people every day.
Of the two, shares in Unilever have performed better over the past year, due at least in part to superior forecasts for 2012, and are currently around 2,045p. Reckitt Benckisser shares have been flat overall and stand around 3,350p. 2011 dividend forecasts are 3.6% and 3.7% respectively.
Miners and bankers
I opined recently that there may well be some bargains in the mining sector these days, and three of the big ones will reveal figures next month. Xstrata (LSE: XTA) will start on the 7th, Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) will report on the 9th and Anglo American (LSE: AAL) will update us on the 17th.
Our high-street banks were long regarded as safe blue-chip investments, though today they're seen more as plague-ridden pariahs by many. But they're not all bad now, and we'll have news from Barclays (LSE: BARC) on the 10th and HSBC Holdings (LSE: HSBA) on the 27th, both of which escaped having to go cap in hand to the government for a bailout.
The two taxpayers' banks will also report, Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) on the 23rd and Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) on the 24th.
The rest
Of the rest scheduled for February, a couple that catch my eye are BAE Systems (LSE: BA) updating us on the 16th, and RSA Insurance (LSE: RSA) releasing figures on the 23rd.
I noted recently that RSA has a very high dividend yield currently forecast for the full year, of 8.7% on its 107p shares, which have fallen over the past six months, so that'll be a full-year update well worth looking out for.
But one of my current favourites, in the unfashionable aerospace and defence sector, is BAE Systems, which I recently picked as one of my five shares for five years. It's not without risk, but at 315p the shares are on a P/E of only 7.7, with a dividend of 6% expected.
Do you like the look of any of these? Watch out for our analysis of their results.
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More from Alan Oscroft:
> Alan owns shares in BP. The Motley Fool owns shares in GlaxoSmithKline, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever and AstraZeneca.
