Today I am highlighting three FTSE 100 superstars primed for stunning earnings growth in 2015.
Prudential
Life insurance giant Prudential (LSE: PRU) (NYSE: PUK.US) is a terrific growth pick for next year and beyond, in my opinion. Not only does the company’s global span giving it tremendous exposure to the economic recovery in the US and UK, as well as the hot growth markets of Asia, but Prudential’s aggressive acquisition programme promises to give earnings a further shot in the arm.
‘The Pru’ has been a consistent deliver of growth for many years now, and has punched earnings expansion of 17.6% during the past five periods. And even though poor investor appetite earlier this year is expected to see earnings growth slow to just 7% in 2014, to 97.3p per share, a solid 13% increase is anticipated for 2015 amid improving market sentiment, to 110.1p.
And I believe these projections makes Prudential excellent value for money. A P/E multiple of 16.1 times prospective earnings for 2014 falls to 14.2 times for next year, below the benchmark of 15 times which represents decent value for money.
And next year’s growth also creates a price to earnings to growth (PEG) readout of 1.1 — any value around or below 1 is widely considered too good to pass up.
Glencore
With significant asset-shedding and cost-cutting ratcheting through the gears, the earnings outlook at Glencore (LSE: GLEN) continues to improve markedly.
Indeed, Glencore is expected to experience a seachange in its earnings profile from 2014, snapping back from two years of heavy, double-digit dips with a fractional improvement to 33.2 US cents per share. And growth is expected to rocket 32% higher to 43.9 cents next year as restructuring work continues.
Consequently a P/E multiple of 15.4 times for this year collapses to just 11.6 times for 2015, while a PEG rating of 0.4 further illustrates the excellent value on offer.
Of course investors run the risk that further weakness across Glencore’s key commodity markets could put paid to these spritely projections.
But it could be argued that these perils are already baked into the price, particularly for 2015. Meanwhile signs of mothballed mining capacity across the globe — allied with the potential for further heavy stimulus from commodities glutton China — also bodes well for earnings next year.
Meggitt
Weapons builder Meggitt (LSE: MGGT) is in terrific shape to benefit from recovering economic growth in the West. The business is a major supplier to the UK and US militaries, and I expect an environment of growing geopolitical conflict — from the threat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, through to China’s armed expansion — to keep sales ticking resolutely higher.
The company is predicted to punch a colossal 17% earnings decline in 2014, to 31.3p per share on the back of lumpy military sales, although a recovery in its critical markets is expected to underpin a solid 14% recovery in 2015, to 35.5p.
Accordingly Meggitt’s P/E multiple of 15.7 times for this year slips to a very attractive reading of 13.9 times in 2015. And the arms builder’s decent value relative to its growth prospects is underlined by PEG reading bang on the bargain watermark of 1.
As well as its involvement in military programmes, Meggitt also has tremendous exposure to the red-hot civil aerospace sector through hardware and aftermarket sales, another major lever for earnings growth.
