Wednesday preview: St.Jame's Place, Weir Group in focus

A stream of corporate announcements will be in the spotlight on Wednesday, as the earnings season continues to ramp-up.

Wealth manager St.James's Place is among those corporates set to update investors on Wednesday.

According to analysts at Numis, the outfit is expected to post full-year cash earnings per share of 59.6p (consensus: 57.6p), alongside a payout of 47.7p per share (consensus: 47.3p).

"We recommend SJP as a core long term holding, as fundamentally we believe it will continue to serially compound key metrics (including cash EPS and DPS) at 15-20% p.a. over the medium term," said Numis's David McCann.

"We consider it a clear buy today given the abnormally cheap valuation."

The shares were then trading on a cash price-to-earnings multiple of roughly 15 and sporting a dividend yield of 5.6%, McCann said.

Over in the oil patch, Numis's David Larkam is expecting oil field services outfit Weir Group's profits before tax to come in at £296m, for EPS of 96.7p.

For the Minerals side of the business, Weir was anticipating flat margins of about 17.5%, albeit together with double digit organic growth and "good" order intake.

In Oil and Gas, the key will be whether an anticipated reversal in crude oil prices in the back half of 2019 is still expected to pan out.

But the focus would be on the prospects for the sale of the company's Flow Control unit, which might reduce net debt below 1.5 times EBITDA, the analyst said.

The possibility of a possible exit from the O&G business is also of interest, albeit even if unlikely in the short-term.

"The valuation is not overly stretched but there remains risk to 2019 oil & gas numbers, arguably in both directions! This, along with any thoughts that they might dispose of it, is likely to drive the share price, once more frustrating management aim of focusing attention on the strong minerals businesses."

On the economic front meanwhile, no major data releases are scheduled in the UK, while Stateside the main economic report due out is for advanced trade, covering the month of December.

Across the Channel meanwhile, investors will be waiting on euro area money supply data for January and industrial and consumer confidence surveys covering the month of February.

In the background, US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a summit in Hanoi.

Wednesday February 27

INTERIMS

Avingtrans, Clinigen Group, Pantheon International , Redde

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Cohort

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Canadian General Investments Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Economic Sentiment Indicator (EU) (10:00)

GFK Consumer Confidence (GER) (07:00)

MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)

Pending Homes Sales (US) (15:00)

GMS

Personal Group Holdings

FINALS

Capital & Counties Properties , FBD Holdings, Green Energy Technology Inc. GDR (Reg S), International Personal Finance, ITV, Law Debenture Corp., Metro Bank, Nichols, Pacific Horizon Inv Trust, Provident Financial, Rio Tinto, Riverstone Energy Limited , St James's Place, Tarsus Group, Taylor Wimpey, Unite Group, Weir Group

SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Hollywood Bowl Group

AGMS

Aberdeen Diversified Income and Growth Trust , Bankers Inv Trust, Baronsmead Venture Trust, Driver Group, Electra Private Equity, Finsbury Growth & Income Trust, Image Scan Holdings, Jupiter Emerging & Frontier Income Trust RED, Nexus Infrastructure , PCGH ZDP , Polar Capital Global Healthcare Trust, River and Mercantile UK Micro Cap Investment Company Limited , Sage Group

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Hollywood Bowl Group, Tharisa (DI), Urban&Civic