Old Mutual plc (LON: OML), Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (LON: RBS) and AVEVA Group plc (LSE: AVV) extend their recent gains.
Will the FTSE 100 hit yet another new 52-week high today? Well, it already has, reaching 6,278 points during the day. At the time of writing it's a point down on that, standing 12 up on the day on 6,277. It's only yesterday that the index of top UK stocks broke the 6,200 barrier, and it looks like 6,300 is set to fall pretty soon.
There isn't much actually bullish out there in the great global economy, other than optimistic murmurings starting to emanate from China, though Japan is still stuck in deflation.
But what of individual constituents of the FTSE indices? Here are three companies achieving new records of their own.
Old Mutual
Savings and insurance giant Old Mutual (LSE: OML) ended on a new closing high yesterday, of 186.8p, and is above that at the time of writing, on 187.4p. The share price has powered up around 30% over the past 12 months.
After several years of falling earnings, the City is expecting a 60% rebound in earnings per share for the year to December, with further gains of around 10% per year for the next two years. That puts the shares on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 11, falling to 9 by 2014, and there's a dividend yield of 3.3% expected for 2012, rising to 4.3% for 2014.
Royal Bank of Scotland
When the down-and-out banks finally recovered, they were going to recover well. Royal Bank of Scotland Group (LSE: RBS) (NYSE: RBS.US) has certainly done that, with its share price hitting a new 52-week record of 369.5p today. The price is back a little on 366.6p at the time of writing.
But for the real recovery, we need to look back to last July, when the shares were changing hands for just 196p. That's an 87% rise in just six months, which is very nice for those who bought in at the right time.
Aveva
Engineering software specialist Aveva (LSE: AVV) has had a storming year, reaching a new high of 2,232p today, up more than 30% over the past 12 months. Apart from a dip in 2009, Aveva has been growing its earnings nicely. And though the actual yield has not been much above 1%, the dividend has been lifted steadily year by year.
Current forecasts see that continuing, with double-digit earnings growth penciled in for the next three years, and that dividend steadily growing. But Aveva is clearly priced as a growth share -- March 2013 forecasts put the shares on a P/E of 29.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
