At a time when Brexit is casting an increasingly large shadow over much of the London stock market, Nexus Infrastructure (LSE: NEXS) is a share I’m confident can still deliver brilliant returns, regardless of how Theresa May executes our European Union withdrawal.
Despite the political and economic malaise of the past two years, house-building in the UK has remained robust because of the simple fact that there aren’t enough homes to go around. An ever-increasing population means that over the long term, more and more houses will need to be built.
And this bodes well for Nexus, whose range of a broad variety of critical engineering services and products already provide it with great earnings visibility.
Latest trading details released last month underlined its resilience in even these most trying of times for the domestic economy. It advised that pre-tax profit still sprinted 25% higher in the 12 months to September, to £9.2m. A robust order book of £290m as of the close of the period, up 43% year-on-year, suggests that the bottom line should continue to swell.
Another growth opportunity
This isn’t the only reason to be optimistic over Nexus’s revenues outlook, though. Latest data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders today shows sales of plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles continued to leap in 2018, up 24.9% and 13.8%, respectively.
Britain needs to spend a fortune on upgrading existing architecture to meet the surging demand for these next generation cars. Through its eSmart Networks division — which was launched in 2017 and supplies charging infrastructure, battery storage and distribution network services — Nexus is therefore well-placed to capitalise on this growing market.
City analysts expect the firm to continue growing earnings by double-digit percentages in the medium term at least, and an 11% advance is forecasts for fiscal 2019. This means that Nexus can be picked up on a dirt-cheap forward P/E ratio of 9.2 times, inside the accepted bargain territory of 10 times, or below.
And it means the number crunchers also predict further excellent dividend growth. The engineer lifted the full-year dividend to 6.6p last year and is anticipated to hike it to 7.3p in this period, resulting in a chunky 3.8% yield.
Euro smash
Another little-known income star worth considering today is Summit Germany (LSE: SMTG), particularly for those concerned about the impact of Brexit now, and in the years to come.
While recent data shows that the Central European nation’s economy is also suffering a little turbulence at present, there also remains plenty of opportunity for real estate investment trust Summit to make a packet. In its most recent trading update, the AIM firm commented on “a lack of supply in the German commercial market,” an imbalance that means “rental demand is resilient and rent levels are increasing.”
City analysts are predicting another 3% earnings improvement at the business in 2019 and then pay another total dividend of 4 euro cents per share, meaning a meaty 3.6% yield. Throw a forward P/E ratio of 13.9 times into the equation, and I reckon that Summit Germany, like Nexus Infrastructure, is a great all-rounder to buy today.
