If you spend any time analysing results from FTSE 100 companies, you’d better set aside a few hours next week for the sheer number of interims that we have coming our way. We’ve already taken a look at a few companies offering first-half results, and here are three more from the engineering, oil & gas and banking sectors:
BAE Systems, Thursday
I’ll be particularly keen to see first-half results from BAE Systems (LSE: BA) next Thursday, as I have the aerospace and defence engineer in the Fool’s Beginners’ Portfolio. And we’re doing quite nicely from it, with the share price up 108p (33%) since its addition, to 440p today.
At the time of May’s interim update, things were said to be going according to expectations, which suggests current forecasts for a 10% rise in earnings per share (EPS) for the year to December 2013 are probably realistic. There is a flat year predicted for 2014, but the shares are on a forward P/E of only a little over 10. That has been creeping up of late as the share price has recovered, but for a company with net cash it doesn’t seem at all stretching to me — especially as there’s also a twice-covered dividend yielding 4.7% expected.
BAE’s dividend record has been pretty impressive too, with steady year-on-year rises — this year’s forecast 20.4p per share represents a 4.6% boost from 2012’s full-year payout.
Royal Dutch Shell, Thursday
It’s time for another of our big oilies on Thursday, as we await first-half figures from Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: RDSB) (NYSE: RDS-B.US), and what can we really say about the biggest oil and gas producer in the FTSE 100?
Well, if we said it was a reliable giant, steadily churning out the profits for its shareholders, and effectively turning those profits in cashflow while carrying modest debt, we’d be on the nail. Shell’s dividend has been a large part of the company’s attraction for years, with investors enjoying a 5.1% yield for the year to December 2012. The same yield is currently forecast for this year, and though EPS should dip slightly, the payment should still be well over twice covered.
The Shell share price hasn’t done a lot over the past year, just 5% up over the past 12 months to 2,318p, after being flat to the start of July — the FTSE is up around 20% over the same timescale. But that puts Shell shares on a forward P/E of only 8.5. Do I think Shell is cheap? You can be sure of it.
Royal Bank of Scotland, Friday
Friday brings us interim figures from the second of the FTSE 100’s bailed-out banks, with Royal Bank of Scotland Group (LSE: RBS) (NYSE: RBS.US) exposing itself this time — Lloyds Banking Group is on Thursday. UK taxpayers hold a bigger stake of RBS, amounting to around 80%, and many are looking forward to the day it resturns to the private sector.
For the first quarter of the year, RBS reported a pre-tax profit of £826m, which supports the recent consensus for around £3.3bn for the full year. Earnings per share forecasts are pretty much all over the place, mind, so a consensus forward P/E of aound 15-16 has to be treated with utmost caution.
We shall have a better picture next week. Meanwhile, the RBS share price has dipped 9.9p (2.9%) to 328p today, perhaps in nervous anticipation — but it’s still around 60% up over the past 12 months.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
