We’ve already taken a quick look at three FTSE 100 companies set to deliver first-half results next week, and there are plenty more to come from a number of firms in the top-tier index which end their financial years on 31 December. In particular, the financial sectors are busy next week, but there are others as well. Here are three companies st to bring us half-time news.
Standard Chartered, Tuesday 6 August
Shares in Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN) (NASDAQOTH: SCBFF.US), the bank focused on Asia and emerging markets, have had a rocky ride this year. They climbed to over 1,800p in March, but have since slid back to 1,538p today — just a few percent up over the past 12 months.
First-half results should be with us next Tuesday, and judging by June’s pre-close update they should be pretty solid. With chief executive Peter Sands saying that the bank had put in a better performance in the second half than in Q1, we were told that “income for the first six months of 2013 is expected to grow at a mid single digit rate“.
City analysts translate that into a 3% growth in earnings per share (EPS) for the full year to December 2013, putting the shares on a P/E of just over 10. There’s also a well-covered dividend yield of around 4% predicted, and Standard Chartered does have a good track record of lifting its payout year-on-year.
Meggitt, Tuesday 6 August
Tuesday is also set to bring us first-half figures from aerospace and defence engineer Meggitt (LSE: MGGT), and it’s a sector that has enjoyed something of a resurgence in 2013. The Meggitt share price itself is up nearly 45% over the past 12 months, to 555p today, with pretty much all of that coming since the start of January.
An update in May was pretty positive, with chairman Sir Colin Terry telling the company’s AGM that “Proforma revenues grew modestly in the first quarter of 2013, and we continue to expect mid-single-digit revenue growth for the year“. That comes after Meggitt had put in double-digit EPS growth for each of the previous three years, with only a small 4% fall in 2009. The dividend over the past few years has been pretty reliable too, being held unchanged for 2009 and raised every year since.
It all bodes well for the full year, with forecasts indicating a 4% rise in EPS and putting the shares on a P/E of just under 15 — that’s a fraction ahead of the FTSE average of 14, but it should fall below that for 2014. The dividend is forecast to grow by about 6%, but should only yield around 2.3%.
Old Mutual, Wednesday 7 August
It’s back to finance for Wednesday, with interim results from insurer and investment manager Old Mutual (LSE: OML) expected. Old Mutual shares have beaten the FTSE over the past 12 months, gaining approximately 23% to today’s 196p. Earnings per share have been erratic during the recession, and the dividend was slashed in 2009. But since then the annual payout has been creeping back up, and last year’s 7p per share represented a respectable yield of 3.9%.
There’s another rise in the dividend forecast for the year to December 2013, and on today’s price it would yield 4.3%. That’s beaten by most of Old Mutual’s insurance rivals, but the shares are on a relatively low P/E of 10 — and that would drop to 9 for 2014 should forecasts prove accurate, with the dividend yield boosted to 4.8%.
In May the firm told us that funds under management were up 7% to £288.4bn, with net inflow of £3.9bn and gross sales up 14%. We also heard that expansion in Africa is going well, with business strengthening in Nigeria and Mozambique.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
