Today I’m looking at three blue-chip FTSE 100 companies that I believe offer good growth potential.
Substantial resilience
While Imperial Brands (LSE: IMB) may not have the fastest growing bottom line in the FTSE 100, it is one of the most resilient stocks when it comes to rising profitability. That’s because it operates in a market that has exceptionally high barriers to entry and which benefits from a high price elasticity of demand. In other words, Imperial Brands is able to raise its prices without major fear of new competition or loss of sales.
Furthermore, Imperial Brands also has a strong foothold in the e-cigarette space, with it owning brands such as blu and having the potential to grow its sales in this space. And with its geographic exposure being heavily diversified, Imperial Brands also has a substantial amount of resilience when it comes to profit growth. For instance, it was still able to post a rise in sales in the final quarter of last year despite headwinds in the Middle East.
With Imperial Brands forecast to increase its bottom line by 11% this year, it remains a very impressive growth play. And with it yielding over 4%, its income appeal is an added bonus – especially since dividends are set to rise by almost 10% next year.
Cross-selling strength
Similarly, Sky (LSE: SKY) offers excellent growth potential due in part to its gradual move towards being a quad play operator. This means that it will offer landline, broadband, pay-tv and mobile services, with the company having the potential to benefit from a significant amount of cross-selling over the medium to long term. And with Sky only moving towards this goal at a relatively gradual pace, the risks from adding new products to its line-up appears to be rather low.
With Sky forecast to increase its bottom line by 11% in the current year, investor sentiment could pick up and help it to reverse the 8% fall in its share price since the turn of the year. And with the company trading on a price to earnings growth (PEG) ratio of just 1.5, it seems to offer good value for money at the present time.
However, while Sky may be a worthy purchase for the long term, its earnings are due to come under pressure next year. As such, describing it as one of the top three growth stocks in the FTSE 100 may be overly generous, although it remains relatively appealing when compared to most of its index peers.
Mature growth
Meanwhile, ARM (LSE: ARM) continues to offer an exceptional growth outlook despite becoming an increasingly mature company. For example, it is expected to increase its net profit by 43% in the current year and with its shares trading on a PEG ratio of 0.7, further gains following its share price rise of 680% in the last ten years are very much on the cards.
Of course, the slowdown in China is a concern for investors in ARM, since the company is highly dependent upon the sale of smartphones for its profit. However, with the Chinese economy likely to provide significant demand for consumer products in the long run as incomes rise in the world’s second-largest economy, ARM remains in a strong position to deliver further profit growth in the next decade.
And with its business model being asset light and focused on intellectual property as opposed to manufacturing, ARM should be able to maintain double-digit earnings growth for a number years – even as it becomes increasingly mature.
