Results round-up: Taylor Wimpey, St James’s Place, Fresnillo, Croda

As it posted largely pre-announced annual results, Taylor Wimpey said it had made a "very good" start to 2017 and suggested the UK housing market will remain supportive for its bumper dividend programme for some time.

With the market having stabilised quickly after the Brexit referendum, the first weeks of 2017 to 19 February have seen net private sales increase to a very strong 0.91 compared to 0.77 in the equivalent period last year.

The FTSE 100 company's total order book value of £1.98bn is roughly flat, being about 49% forward-sold for private completions.

Management expects underlying building costs to increase at a similar level to last year, around 3-4%.

For 2016, revenue was declared at £3.68bn, a rise of 17.1%, with operating profits up 20% to £764.3m and adjusted profit before tax rising 21.5% to £733.4m.

The consensus forecast was pointing towards PBT of £731m.

As already announced, an ordinary dividend of roughly £150m and a £300m special dividend will be paid to shareholders in July, given shareholder approval, equating to 13.8p per share.

"In 2016 we delivered an excellent performance set against an uncertain political and economic environment that stabilised in the final quarter," chief executive Pete Redfern said.

"The outlook for 2017 is for ongoing stability and incremental price growth, which is a healthy backdrop for our business and our customers."

St James’s Place

Wealth management group St James’s Place hiked its total dividend 18% as it reported a strong rise in net asset value for 2016, while chief executive David Bellamy is set to retire at the end of the year.

The European embedded value (EEV) new business profit increased 18% to £520.2m in calendar 2016 from the previous year, while net asset value per share jumped to 900.7p from 737.3p a year before.

Operating profits rose 2% to £673.6m but pre-tax profits fell 7% to £140.6m.

The company proposed a final dividend of 20.67p per share, up 20%, which brings the full year dividend to 33p per share, growth of 18%.

Outgoing chief executive Bellamy, who will be replaced by current chief financial officer Andrew Croft at the end of 2017, said: "At the time of our half year results, we increased the interim dividend by 15% and reaffirmed our commitment to continue to grow the dividend in line with the underlying performance of the business.”

Over the year, the FTSE 250 company achieved record gross inflows of £11.4bn, up 24%, and net inflow of funds under management was up 17% to £6.8bn, while funds under management increased 28% to £75.3bn.

Fresnillo

Miner Fresnillo gave an upbeat outlook for this year after more than doubling its profits in 2016 as revenues surged due to record gold and silver production, high precious metals prices and the devaluation of the Mexican peso against the dollar.

Gross profit more than doubled in 2016 to £882.1m, compared to the previous year, from a 29.2% surge in adjusted revenue to $2.04bn due to a rise in volumes and higher metal prices.

While earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 88.5% to $1.03bn and adjusted earnings per share jumped 503.1% to $0.453.

Fresnillo recommended a final dividend of 21.5 cents per share, equivalent to about $158.4m.

Profit from continuing operations before net finance costs and income tax grew 237.5% to $676.5m.

The FTSE 100 company benefited from the recent devaluation of the peso against the dollar as it positively affected production costs, with the cost per tonne and cash costs decreased at all of its mines last year.

Capital expenditure fell 8.6% to $434.1m, which was below guidance mainly due to lower expenditure at the San Julián site in Mexico after a delay in phase two of development.

Last year, the company made record annual silver production, including Silverstream, of 50.3m ounces, up 7.1% due to the start-up phase of the San Julián site and higher ore grades at the Fresnillo and Ciénega sites.

While, gold production of 935.5 kilo ounces exceeded revised guidance due to a reduction of inventories at the Herradura site, production from San Julián and increased production at the Noche Buena site.

Croda

The weak pound helped boost full year pre-tax profits st specialty chemicals firm Croda to £288m from £275m.

Sales increased by 15% to £1.24bn which included a 11.9% benefit from currency translation due to weaker sterling. Sales in constant currency increased by 3.1%, with acquisitions contributing 4.7%.

The full year dividend was lifted by 7.2% to 74p a share.

"Croda has delivered a record profit in 2016. We have grown sales through selective acquisitions and organic growth in premium market niches, driving bottom line performance through high value products and relentless innovation,” said chief executive Steve Foots.

“Our innovation pipeline is exciting, with sales of new and protected products increasing for the fourth consecutive year. We continue to expand in higher growth markets, with Asia the stand out performer, and we are growing with regional and smaller customers.”