Homeserve plc (LON: HSV), Mulberry Group PLC (LON: MUL) and Stanley Gibbons Group Limited (LON: SGI) are all slipping.
The FTSE 100 appears to have put the woes of Cyprus behind it today -- market sentiment does seem to be exceptionally short term these days. The UK's top index recovered 16 points by early afternoon, to 6,405, though it has been held back a little by falling bank shares.
But other shares are falling further. Here are three that look unlikely to match the FTSE today:
Homeserve
Homeserve (LSE: HSV) shares dropped 11.3p (5%) to 212p after the firm, which provides home emergency insurance and repairs, warned of a fall in UK business and announced the loss of 300 UK jobs. The firm now expects business for 2014 and 2015 in the UK to suffer, as it awaits the outcome of an FSA investigation into allegations of mis-selling.
It's not the kind of thing that inspires customer confidence, and that is reflected in forecasts of an 18% fall in earnings for the year to March 2013. Expectations of a further 14% fall for 2014 may well be revised further downwards now.
Mulberry
Shares in fashion retailer Mulberry Group (LSE: MUL) dropped 197p (16%) to 1,038p in reaction to a profit warning this morning. Trading since the Christmas shopping period has turned out weaker than expected, and the purveyor of up-market handbags now expects profit to be lower than market expectations.
With wholesale sales down 15%, the firm says full-year revenue will be around £165 million. Pre-tax profit of approximately £26 million is expected, which is down around a third on last year, and lower than the £31 million analysts' consensus before today's news.
Stanley Gibbons
Stanley Gibbons Group (LSE: SGI) shares fell 3.6p (1.3%) to 276p, knocking some of the shine off recent rises -- but they're still up around 35% over the past 12 months. The driver today was the release of full-year results for December 2012, which looked good.
Sales were flat at £35.6 million, but the firm has moved towards higher margin business, so adjusted pre-tax profit gained 11% to £6 million with adjusted earnings per share up 10% to 21.44p. Internet sales appear to be booming, with a rise of 55% on the previous year -- and the 2011 figure was itself 27% up on the previous year.
Finally, reliable dividends can more than compensate for the day-to-day ups and downs of share prices. So how about a company that's offering a 5.7% yield and which could be set for some nice share price appreciation too?
It's the subject of our BRAND-NEW report, "The Motley Fool’s Top Income Share For 2013", which you can get completely free of charge -- but it will only be available for a limited period, so click here to get your copy today.
> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
