3 FTSE 100 Shares For The Week Ahead

Published in Investing on 8 February 2013

Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LON: RR), Shire PLC (LON: SHP) and Anglo American plc (LON: AAL) are set to report next week.

Full-year reporting season for companies with their years ending in December is firmly with us, and we have a busy week for FTSE 100 constituents ahead. We've already taken a look at three companies from the top-tier London index that are reporting next week. But we don't want you to miss any, so here are three more:

Rolls-Royce

Thursday will bring us full-year results from Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE: RR), and they're expected to continue the company's past record. Apart from a brief pause in 2010 when reported earnings per share fell slightly, we've been seeing steady growth in earnings and dividends. And the share price has kept apace of it, having come close to four-bagging from 2009's low of 260p to today's 975p.

A further 17% rise in earnings per share is expected for the year just ended, putting the shares on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 17, but that falls to 14 by 2014 based on current forecasts. There's another boost to the dividend expected, too, though only to a yield of around 2% -- but it should be around thrice-covered.

Shire

Biopharmaceutical firm Shire (LSE: SHP) is due to release results on the same day, Thursday, and Shire's shares have also had a great few years. From a low of 781p in early 2009, the price is up 2.7-fold to 2,112p today. Shire has less of an earnings record and it's only offering a dividend yield of around 0.5%. But forecasts suggest a 25% rise in earnings per share for 2012, suggesting a P/E of 17.

In the company's recent guidance update, released on 8 January, Shire confirmed that it is expecting "double digit full year earnings growth", and that it is "increasingly confident of meeting current consensus earnings expectations for 2013". And for 2013 that's a 10% or so rise in earnings per share, with City analysts currently predicting a further 14% growth for 2014.

Anglo American

Reports from our big miners continue next week too, with full-year figures from Anglo American (LSE: AAL) expected on Friday. Following the sector slump in the wake of the slowdown in Chinese demand for commodities, Anglo American has not recovered as strongly as have some. That's largely because it has a bigger fall in earnings per share, of more than 60%, expected for the year to December, compared to around 40% for Rio Tinto.

But with the mining recovery forecast to continue well this year, current predictions of a 25% rise in earnings put Anglo American on a year-out P/E of 13, falling to 11 based on 2014 forecasts. The dividend yield is about 2.5%, which is around the average for FTSE 100 miners.

Finally, coming out of a recession when depressed share prices are rising, the odds can be tipped in favour of growth investors -- and we've seen strong share prices rises for two of the three companies featured here today. But finding the best growth shares is not easy.

If you want some help with the task, I recommend you get yourself a copy of our latest BRAND-NEW report, "The Motley Fool’s Top Growth Share For 2013", which is the result of a bit of serious brain-work by the Fool's top analysts.

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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.

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