Spirit Pub Co PLC, Soco International plc and Telford Homes plc all reach for the sky.
Shock, horror! The FTSE 100 (UKX) did not reach a new 52-week high today! But the index of the UK's biggest companies is holding steady, up four points at the time of writing to 6,112. That's not far short of its recent record of 6,134, set yesterday, and it's a long way from the index's 52-week low of 5,230.
Meanwhile, a number of companies are helping push various FTSE indices upwards by achieving new high ground of their own. Here are three trading at record valuations:
Spirit
Spirit Pub Company (LSE: SPRT) continues its rise, trading around its 52-week high of 68.5p -- the price has fallen back a couple of pennies to 66.5p as I write. Spirit's shares are up around 50% since their low point last summer, with a very steady rise since.
Maiden full-year results for Spirit as an independent company in October were good, with pre-tax profit for the business up 16% to £51m, allowing the company to announce a 1.95p full-year dividend. Forecasts for this year put the shares on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of only a little over 10, with dividend yields in excess of 3% expected.
Soco
Oil and gas explorer and producer Soco International (LSE: SIA) has had a great start to the year, with its shares already up 6.7% since the start of January. And the price hit a 52-week high of 387p today, before dropping back a bit to 382p at the time of writing -- that's a rise of 30% over the past 12 months.
The shares are on a P/E of only a little over 8 based on 2012 expectations, falling to around 7 on 2013 forecasts. It's a risky business, but is that valuation too low? That's for you to decide.
Telford Homes
The recovery in the housebuilding business is continuing nicely, with AIM-listed Telford Homes (LSE: TEF) reaching a new 52-week high today of 211p. That's a rise of 6.5p (3.2%) on the day, and more than 150% over the past 12 months.
Telford, which operates in the East and North of London, has a fall in earnings forecast for the year to March 2013, but an expected 50% rise for 2014 takes its forward P/E for that year down to a modest 11. There are dividend yields of 2-3% on the cards.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
