Pearson plc (LON: PSON), Bovis Homes Group plc (LON: BVS) and Domino's Pizza Group PLC (LON: DOM) all fall, despite good results.
The FTSE 100 is up 86 points at 6,377 at the time of writing, as fears that the American and Japanese central banks might be bringing their stimulus packages to an end appear to be fading. The US Federal Reserve appears to still be committed to its bond-buying policy, at least for now.
But not all is well with individual shares prices. Here are three constituents of the FTSE indices that are falling today:
Pearson
Pearson (LSE: PSON) (NYSE: PSO.US), publisher of the Financial Times and owner of Penguin books, saw its share price fall by 68p (5.6%) to 1,148p on results day, despite posting a 5% rise in sales to £6.1 billion with adjusted operating profit up 1% to £936 million. What seems to have done the damage was a 2.7% fall in earnings per share to 84.2p and a 20% drop in operating cash flow to £788 million -- although it was all pretty much in line with expectations.
And the company felt confident enough to lift its dividend by 7% to 45p per share, for a yield of 3.9% on the current price.
Bovis Homes
Good-looking results followed by a share price fall was the order of the day for Bovis Homes Group (LSE: BVS), as the housebuilder's shares fell 7.3p (1.1%) to 665p. That happened despite a 17% rise in revenue for the year to December to £425.5 million and a 69% jump in pre-tax profit to £54.1 million. Basic earnings per share climbed 75% to 30.7p, enabling an 80% dividend boost to 9p per share. That's still only a yield of 1.4%, but it's very much in the right direction.
By Friday we should have a better picture of the sector as a whole, as we have four more housebuilders reporting this week.
Domino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza Group (LSE: DOM) brought us the same story, with the share price falling 14.5p (2.7%) to 523p after the company released strong results. A 12.8% rise in sales to £598.6 million led to a record pre-tax profit of £46.7 million, up 10.8%. UK like-for-like sales in mature stores gained 5%.
A 14% rise in pre-exceptional earnings per share enabled the company to lift its full-year dividend by 17.9% to 14.5p per share, for a yield of 2.8%.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
