After a quiet week or two for FTSE 100 company results, we have a bit of a last-minute rush coming our way next week from companies with half-years ending in June. We’ve already taken a look at three due to report on what is an unusually busy Tuesday, and here are three more bringing us key results next week:
Persimmon, Tuesday 20 August
It’s a big day for the Fool’s Beginners’ Portfolio on Tuesday with one of its constituents, Persimmon (LSE: PSN) reporting first-half results. The UK’s biggest housebuilder has been kind to us, with its shares up nearly 70% to 1,155p over the past 12 months — though they did break the 80% barrier in July.
We already have some key information, with a trading update on 2 July telling us that the firm legally completed 5,022 new homes during the first six months of the year, up from 2012’s comparable figure of 4,712. That was at an average selling price of around £179,200, which is 4.6% up on the previous year’s £171,206. Total revenue was up 12% to approximately £900m.
Forecasts for the full year suggest a rise in earnings per share (EPS) of 27%, putting the shares on a P/E of 15 — but a further expected boost of 22% in 2014 would bring that multiple down to just over 12, which still looks cheap to me.
BHP Billiton, Tuesday 20 August
On the same day we have a full year report too, from mining giant BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT) (NYSE: BBL.US). The prospects for the mining sector have taken a turn for the better of late, with news that Chinese factory output is once again on the way up — that should translate to increased demand for metals and hopefully better prices.
It’s too late to affect this year’s results, and BHP is expected to see a fall in EPS of close to 30%. But even at that low ebb, the shares would still be on a P/E of a relatively modest 13.5 based on today’s share price of 1,985p. And we should also be seeing a twice-covered dividend of around 3.7%, which isn’t bad. Beyond that, a recovering EPS expected in 2014 should drop the P/E to under 12.
As if to presage a recovery in profits, we have already been given BHP’s production report for 2013. We saw production of iron ore, copper, petroleum products and coal all up on the year before — we just need those commodity prices to start nudging upwards now.
IMI, Friday 23 August
On Friday it’s the turn of diversified engineer IMI (LSE: IMI) to release interim figures, and what a time shareholders have had so far! The shares are up 55% over the past 12 months to 1,421p as I write, and they’ve more than six-bagged since 2009’s lows. That’s a result of three years of strongly-rising earnings to 2012, with dividends following suit.
There’s more growth expected, albeit fairly modest, with a 3% rise in EPS predicted for the year to December and a 9% rise for the year after. Though dividends have been growing, the share price has outstripped them and the yield has dropped — the City is predicting 2.4% for this year, picking up to 2.6% next.
An interim update in May told us that trading for the first four months of the year had been in line with expectations, with revenue down 1%, and we were told that “we remain confident that the Group will deliver progress over the full year in 2013“. At the time, the firm’s share repurchase programme had reached £31.2m of a planned £175m, and it has been progressing since.
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> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.
