Heading into June, the rate of company reporting is starting to drop off a little for the summer, but we still have a few tasty morsels coming our way.
Electronics revival
The story of the old Dixons was a remarkable one of turnaround from the brink of disaster, and since its rebirth as Dixons Carphone (LSE: DC) we’ve seen a decent performance. Dixons shares have gained 39% over the past two years to 443p, and the company’s dividend has been creeping up slowly.
For the year ended April 2016, the forecast dividend would only yield a modest 2.2% on today’s share price, but it would represent an inflation-smashing rise of 26% on the previous year and there are big boosts on the cards for the next two years. The firm’s fourth-quarter trading update told us to expect headline pre-tax profit of between £445m and £450m, after revenues grew by 5% in the final quarter and over the 12 months. Net debt should below £300, which is really nothing at all to be worried about.
What about the value of the shares? The latest P/E of 15.6 might seem a little high, but that would drop to 12.6 by April 2018 if forecasts prove accurate, and I see that as fair value for a company with decent growth expectations even if it’s perhaps not a screaming bargain. Full-year results are due on 29 June.
Cash in on housing
Before that, on 15 June, we’re due full-year results from housebuilder Berkeley Group Holdings (LSE: BKG). The City’s analysts are expecting a standstill in earnings for this year to put the 3,302p shares on a P/E of around 12.7, which might not sound too thrilling. But a 50% EPS forecast for the year to April 2017 would drop that to just 8.4, and there are dividend yields of 6% on the cards.
In its last update in March, Berkeley told us that the London market was stable and that it had “cash due on forward sales remaining in excess of £3 billion“, although reservations were down 4% on the previous year at that point. But the company did predict “£2 billion of pre-tax profit in aggregate over the three years culminating in 2017/18” and said that results should be at the top end of expectations.
Fears for a slowdown or even a reversal in London house prices have helped show share price growth, and we’re looking at a rise of just 6% in the past 12 months. But with expectations so strong, I’d say rumours of a demise in the housebuilding sector are very much exaggerated.
Oil & gas bargain?
On 30 June we should see a trading and operational update from Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW), ahead of first-half results due on 27 July. Tullow oil shares have picked up 84% since their low on 20 January, trading now at 232p, and that is in no small part due to the recovery in the oil price to above $50 per barrel.
Tullow is one of those mid-sized oil companies that carry a lot of debt, but which at least do have profits on the cards to service it. And while that makes the firm riskier than the likes of BP and Shell, it’s way ahead of the unprofitable tiddlers in the safety stakes. Despite that, Tullow shares are still down 85% since their peak in early 2012, and you’d have had very little in the way of dividends since then.
But the tide looks like turning, and now could be a great time to buy Tullow Oil shares.
