Bovis Homes BVS Issues a trading up date for the year to date and what a good year it has been. Demand for new homes has outstripped supply. Of course credit for that can be given mainly to the government, rather than the house building industry which can just sit back, hikes is prices as much as it dare and watch the profits come rolling in. Bovis has not been backward at this and admits to increasing its average selling prices robustly i.e by 10%, in order to help it deliver what it hopes will be record revenues for 2016. Completions for the year will be 5% ahead of last year so with the 10% price rise on top, those record revenue (more socially correct than record profits) seem virtually gauranteed.
Auto Trader Grp AUTO There is no holding back the fearless British consumer once he, or she, has got the bit between the teeth and so it goes for Autotrader which is more than tripling its interim dividend for the six months to the 25th September. On a rise of 11% in revenue, operating profit was up by 21% and basic earnings per share by 28%. And as for that interim dividend, it is raised from 0.5p to 1.7p. Growth expectations for the second half are expected to ne met.
Halfords HFD is increasing its interim dividend by 3% on the basis that a 12% fall in profits and a 13.5% decline in basic earnings per share represents a strong sales performance. True, like for like revenue for the 6 months to the 30th September did rise by 2% but the CEO admits that the rise can only be justified by progress on strategy implementation which is intended to transform the future of the company.There are some grounds for optimism in that like for like sales for the 6 weeks to the end of September did rise by 6.1% and total revenue was up by 12.3% but that at present is a very short term view. Halfords has also been buffeted by the headwinds of currency fluctuations but claims to have found ways of mitigating these. The next quarter with Christmas trading could be all important.
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