Today I am looking at four London lovelies set to enjoy titanic earnings growth.
Banco Santander
Banking colossus Santander (LSE: BNC) gave the market much to cheer after its latest set of financial numbers were released last week, easing the steady share price pressure of recent months. These showed attributable profit surge 24% during January-June, to €3.4bn, driven in no small part by the terrific performance of its UK retail operations — revenues here rose 5% during the period, a result that pushed profit a third higher to more than €1bn.
Although the UK is now Santander’s biggest market, the company’s huge presence in Latin America — not to mention the US — should help it to deliver robust growth looking ahead, in my opinion. Indeed, the City expects Santander to punch a 9% earnings advance in 2015, and an 11% extra advance is pencilled in for 2016. Consequently the bank deals on P/E multiples of just 12 times for this year and 10.8 times for 2016 — a reading below 15 times is widely considered brilliant value.
easyJet
With air passenger numbers galloping consistently higher, I reckon budget carrier easyJet (LSE: EZJ) is on course to enjoy brilliant earnings expansion in the years ahead. The business advised last month that passenger numbers climbed 6.2% during April-June, to 19.1 million, mirroring the wider trend seen across the industry. And while improving economic conditions are no doubt helping, easyJet’s route-and-hub expansion strategy also threatens to drive revenues skywards.
On top of this, easyJet’s bottom line should receive an extra boost as a worsening supply/demand balance in the crude market keeps a lid on fuel costs. Given these factors the City expects the Luton firm to print earnings growth of 12% for the year ending September 2015, and by a further 10% in 2016. The carrier subsequently carries bumper P/E multiples of just 12.8 times and 11.5 times for these years, terrific value given easyJet’s proud record of previous earnings growth.
CRH
Building materials specialist CRH’s (LSE: CRH) acquisition-based growth strategy was boosted further today after the firm completed the €6.5bn acquisition of cement assets from recently-merged Lafarge and Holcim. The deal makes the company the third largest materials provider in the world and boosts its exposure to established markets Canada and Europe, not to mention bolstering CRH’s footprint in lucrative developing territories like Brazil.
With conditions improving across the global construction sector, and CRH having plenty of financial firepower to finance even more acquisitions, I am convinced earnings should continue to stomp higher. This view is shared by the City, and growth of 45% and 34% is chalked in for 2015 and 2016 correspondingly. So although CRH currently deals on elevated P/E multiples of 23.9 times for this year and 17.8 times for 2016, I reckon these values should keep rattling lower.
Legal & General Group
With business continuing to flow in from across the globe, I reckon life insurance leviathan Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) is a great bet for those seeking sterling bottom-line growth. While shrewd expansion in the explosive regions of US and Asia is already paying off handsomely, the firm’s steady stream of new financial products, rolled out in light of demographic and legislative changes across the globe, are also proving irresistible to the market — total assets surged 17% higher in January-March, to £736.8bn.
On top of this, Legal & General’s strategy of hiving off underperforming assets and slashing costs continues to rattle along, and last week the firm entered into talks with APICIL Prévoyance to sell its French assets. The number crunchers currently expect the insurer to clock up earnings growth of 12% and 9% in 2015 and 2016 respectively, figures that produce mega-low P/E multiples of 13.8 times for this year and 12.7 times for 2016.
