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Atlantic Capital Markets Month Ahead – Keep Your Shorts On In September
Alan Green and John Woolfitt, Director at Atlantic Capital Markets discuss the month ahead.
We discuss the US Fed August meeting, and indications from Fed boss Jerome Powell that the administration was prepared to ride with higher inflation around 2%. The markets seems to translate as low interest rates for years to come…John gives his view.
John discusses the resilience of mining and commodity stocks in the face of the economic turmoil and Coronavirus threat, along with some of the trading calls from Atlantic over the past month.
Finally we look at some trading ideas and upcoming corporate news in September from Halfords #HFD, Meggitt #MGGT, JD Sports #JD, Travis Perkins #TPK, Tullow Oil #TLW and Costain #COST. Given the volatility in the markets, John advises using the Atlantic Alerts system – moving after the results not before. “If the tide goes out, make sure you’ve got some shorts on”.
WPP Slumps, Costain Excited
Costain Group COST is enjoying exciting times as the countries energy, water and transport infrastructure continues to be upgraded. The interim dividend is to be increased by 15% to 4.3p after revenue for the half year to 30th June rose by nearly 25%. The half year ended with a record order book, 90% of which was repeat business.
Paddy Power Betfair PPB Online half year revenue rose by 20% and total revenue by 18%. merger integration is ahead of plan but merger related items led to an operating loss of £48m. and a loss per share of 68.3p Underlying operating profit however was up by 39% and underlying EBITDA by 31%. an interim dividend of 40p per share is to be paid.
WPP plc WPP After exceptional write downs interim profit before tax slumped by 40.1% and profit after tax by 53.1%. On a headline basis however, reported PBT was up by over 15%. Billings rose by 9.3% and revenue by 11.9%. Like for like net sales grew by 3.8% and the interim dividend is to be raised by 22.9% to 19.55p.
Headlam Group HEAD enjoyed a strong first half to the 30th June and is increasing its interim dividend by 11.7% to 6.7p.It made further gains in market share in the UK where it outperformed and saw an improving trend on the continent. Profit before tax rose by 22.4% and basic earnings per share by 23.1%
Hikma Pharmaceutical HIK claims a solid first half performance which saw operating profit fall by 27% on revenue up by 28%. Basic earnings per share were down by 49% and the interim dividend is being maintained at 11 cents per share.
Goldplat GDP has put in a strong financial performance for its year end at the 30th June thanks to the recovery in the price of gold and the collapse in sterling. A full year profit before tax of £2m. is now expected.
Record year for Costain vs Stagecoach slowdown
Costain (COST) is raising its final dividend by 16% after strong trading in 2015 saw underlying operating profit also up by 16%. The year ended with a record order book, 11 % up on 2014 and over 90 of which are repeat orders. The share price fell back from its September peak of 395p to 320p but has already climbed back to 357p with the RSI still under 60.
Empresaria Group (EMR) is raising its final dividend by 43% after producing record profit before tax, up 30%, for the year to 30th December. Earnings per share were up by 24% and net debt was down by 26% The company sees exciting opportunities ahead which it is confident will produce profitable growth. The shares which peaked at 106p had fallen back to 78p but have risen over the past 3 weeks to to 86p and have have been marked up a further 10% this morning which looks like it may have been a bit optimistic.
Stagecoach Group (SGC) confirms that lower second half growth in its UK rail and bus businesses has continued whilst business in North America has benefited from new contracts.
James Fisher (FSJ) – Diversity has helped James Fisher offset the sharp decline in offshore oil activity and as a sign of confidence in the future the final dividend is being increased by 8%. Swift action was taken to reduce costs in offshore oil which helped to limit the fall in group profit before tax to 6% despite overall revenue being down by 16%. The strength of the specialist marine and other divisions saw them increase their operating profit by 25%