British Aerospace (LSE: BA) and Telford Homes (LSE: TEF) reach lofty levels.
The FTSE 100 (UKX) hasn't gone anywhere much this week, and is less than a point down on the day to 5,791 points at the time of writing. But last week's good news from the European Central Bank -- that it is launching a cross-Europe bond-buying programme -- has strengthened the index, and set it moving back in the direction of its previous 52-week high of 5,989 points.
Individual companies in the various indices are hitting high points every day. Here are three that are scaling the heights...
British Aerospace
British Aerospace (LSE: BA) is back up to new levels not seen since February, after hitting the same 333p high point again, before falling back a couple of pennies to 331p. In-between, the price has been down all the way to 270p, so that's a 23% recovery from the beginning of June, and up 32% since the share's 52-week low of 251p in November.
But even after that rise, the shares are still looking cheap. Forecasts for the year to December suggest a fall in earnings per share of around 10%, but that still puts them on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 8.1, and suggests a dividend yield of 5.9% -- and the dividend should be twice covered. Forecasts for 2013 are similar.
Telford Homes
On a day when housebuilder Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV) fell after releasing interim figures, the much smaller property developer Telford Homes (LSE: TEF) hit a new 52-week high of 134p, before falling back a little to 129p. The firm saw earnings slide last year and we've had two years of slashed dividends, but the year to March 2012 saw the start of a recovery, and 2013 is expected to see earnings back up to pre-slump levels.
If those expectations come good, we should be looking at a dividend of 3.3% from a share on a P/E of 11, improving to 4.2% and 8.9 for 2014.
Costain
In a related field, construction and civil engineering company Costain Group (LSE: COST) hit a peak of 251p today, and is currently just a shade below that on 249p. Last month's interim results were strong, showing a 16% rise in underlying operating profit, and that helped the shares to a 32% rise from early June, and 38% since November's 52-week low. But it's been volatile, with a brief peak approaching today's price in March.
Forecasts look pretty good, and the shares are on a forward P/E of 8 with a 4.4% dividend pencilled in. The firm has net cash, so there's no debt to worry about.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
