Thursday preview: WH Smith to report full year profit growth

WH Smith reports its full year results on Thursday, with analysts expecting solid profit growth.

In a pre-close trading update in August, the company said its travel business continued to “perform strongly” with “good sales” across its channels.

The new store opening programme in the UK and internationally was on track while the profit performance of the High Street business in the second half was in line with the group’s expectations.

WH Smith added that it continued to deliver gross margin improvements and cost savings in line with its profit focused strategy.

“Overall, the preliminary results were likely to be in line with forecasts (consensus pre-tax profit £132m, up 7% year-on-year),” said Numis analyst Matthew Taylor on Wednesday.

“This would reflect a slower performance during the second half (pre-tax profit +5% versus H1 +10%) due to tougher comparatives in both businesses.”

The broker recommended a ‘reduce’ rating and target price of 1,500p on the shares, saying its views the valuation as “excessive” despite expectations for profit growth.

Thursday 13 October

INTERIMS
Booker Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Arrow Global Group, Communisis, Macfarlane Group, Molins, Restaurant Group, Zotefoams

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Action Hotels, Amati Vct 2, Braime (T.F.& J.H.) Holdings, British American Inv Trust, Centrica, Charles Taylor, Curtis Banks Group, Dillistone Group, F&C Private Equity Trust, Kerry Group 'A' Shares, Manx Telecom , Mears Group, Morgan Sindall Group, OneSavings Bank, Restore, Scisys, Spectris, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Sprue Aegis, Staffline Group, Tandem Group, Witan Pacific Inv Trust

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
GlaxoSmithKline, XP Power Ltd. (DI)

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Custodian Reit , F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd., Middlefield Canadian Income PCC, Primary Health Properties

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Budget Statement (US) (19:00)
Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Crude Oil Inventories (US) (16:00)
Import and Export Price Indices (US) (13:30)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q3
Unilever

FINALS
Imperial Innovations Group, WH Smith

EGMS
Avarae Global Coins

AGMS
Leeds Group, Renishaw, Sky

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mondi

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
RICS Housing Market Survey (00:01)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
Avation

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
City of London Investment Group, Close Brothers Group, CPL Resources, Daejan Holdings, Hays, JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust, Pacific Horizon Inv Trust, Schroder Japan Growth Fund, Strategic Equity Capital

Q1
Sky