A busy week will also see results from AstraZeneca, Shell, Sky and BT.
As we head into February, the results from all those companies whose years end on 31 December start to roll in, and we've got some pretty important ones coming up next week.
Fuel and drugs
To kick off the big oilies, we have results from Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) on Thursday. Handing over £6.7bn to investors last year made Shell the UK's biggest dividend payer, though it is expected to be eclipsed by Vodafone (LSE: VOD) this year.
With the share price standing at £23.60, we've got a yield of 4.4% expected, which should be pretty safe. The shares are up 23% since I reckoned they were a screaming bargain in October, but on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 9, I still think they're cheap.
The first of the FTSE's two pharmaceuticals giants, AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) also reports next week, on Thursday, and again its main rival, GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), will follow up a week later.
At £30.45 apiece, AstraZeneca shares have managed no net movement over the past 12 months, which is partly due to a profits fall forecast for next year keeping the price down, but there's a pretty good full-year dividend on the cards at 5.8%.
Chips and other foodstuffs
Two results coming our way on Tuesday will be interesting, for different reasons.
Ace computer chip designer ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM) has rewarded investors handsomely in recent years, more than six-bagging from a low point of 79p in 2008 to 598p today. The tantalising prospect of WinARM edging out WinTEL over the next few years hasn't done its prospects any harm, either.
There is strong earnings growth expected for 2011, but at 598p and a P/E of 54, a fair bit of that future potential is clearly already in the price, which looks too high to me. With a dividend yield of just 0.5%, it's perhaps not one for retired income-seekers, but we might just be at the start of a new golden era.
Online supermarket Ocado (LSE: OCDO) is the other, and shareholders will be trying to decide whether or not they bought a pig in a poke. At the time of its Christmas update, Ocado told us that full-year sales were up 17% on the previous 12 months. That led to a bit of an upswing for the shares, though they are still well down on the flotation price.
Will Ocado bring home the bacon? With profits still some way off, new warehouse development still needed, and cash in the bank dwindling, Cliff D'Arcy is not exactly bullish about the prospects. I think I'm with him on that.
Battle of the networks
We'll be learning more about the competition for communications and televisual entertainment, with British Sky Broadcasting (LSE: BSY) releasing interim figures on Tuesday. A couple of good years are expected this year and next, but the price has slumped a bit of late, falling to 672p from 2011's high of 850p. That puts them on a P/E of 14 with an expected dividend of 3.7% by June.
Rival BT Group (LSE: BT-A), which reports its third quarter on Friday, looks to be showing slightly better figures. Again with growth forecast for the year ending March 2012 and for 2013, the 204p shares are on a P/E of 10 with an expected dividend of 4%. That's after a decent rise in the share price since over the past 12 months.
The third major player in this market, Virgin Media (LSE: VMED), will report its full-year results the following week. Which of these three, in their increasingly overlapping markets, is likely to win the battle for eyeballs? Tony Reading asked that very question recently.
And the rest
Full-year results from multi-brand owner Unilever (LSE: ULVR) will come our way on Thursday. "160 million times a day, someone somewhere chooses a Unilever product," claims the company, and that's reason it's done so well over the decades. With well-covered dividends expected to continue, it's still looking good to me.
Interdealer broker ICAP (LSE: IAP) will report interims on Wednesday, and with the share price having lost 40% of its value over the past year, some will see its mooted 6% dividend as an attractive prospect.
We should also have updates from Carpetright (LSE: CPR) on Tuesday and United Utilities (LSE: UU) on Wednesday.
Notable announcements next week:
Monday: SThree
Tuesday: ARM Holdings, Ocado Group, British Sky Broadcasting, Mattioli Woods, Carpetright, Phoenix IT, Porvair, Vedanta Resources, NWF Group, National Grid, Xstrata
Wednesday: Creston, United Utilities Group, ICAP, Johnson Matthey, Imperial Tobacco, Creston, Brewin Dolphin Holdings
Thursday: AstraZeneca, Royal Dutch Shell, Smith & Nephew, Unilever, Great Portland Estates, Investec, Workspace Group, Compass Group, Great Portland Estates
Friday: BT Group, Electrocomponents
Fool comment on this week's news:
> The Motley Fool owns shares in AstraZeneca, Smith & Nephew and Unilever.
