FTSE 250 movers: Raft of results impress investors

London's mid cap stocks were marginally higher after the Budget reading on Wednesday, with the FTSE 250 index up 0.3%.

Hill & Smith led the charge, with the infrastructure products and galvanising services provider lifting underlying earnings per share 27% to 65.9p on revenue up 16% to £540.1m.

Confirming a 28% rise in the dividend per share to 26.4p, chief executive Derek Muir said it was the best ever trading performance in 2016 with infrastructure spending in "the key UK and US markets remaining strong”.

Beleaguered Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel's owner Restaurant Group was another top riser, despite like-for-like sales being down 3.9% compared to to the previous year and adjusted pre-tax profit falling 11.2% to £77.1m, as it was expected by analysts.

The FTSE 250 company said that while 2016 saw a “consistently disappointing trading performance” which exposed “fundamental issues” across its main leisure brands, management had conducted review for all of its leisure brands. CEO Andy McCue revealed his turnaround plans for the casual dining group, with the ex-Paddy Power chief laying out plans that include £10m in cost savings and work to breathe new life into the ailing brands.

G4S impressed investors with full year results as it reported progress with its turnaround strategy delivered revenue growth of 6.3% and earnings growth of 16.6%. The total dividend of 9.41p per share was held at the same level as the prior year, as statutory revenue for the calendar year rose 10.6% to £7.6bn and profits before interest, tax and amortisation were up 17.9% on a statutory basis to £461m.

Based on the transformation strategy set out at the end of 2013, chief executive Ashley Almanza said "good progress" had been made in 2016: "We now have much stronger foundations, growing competitive capabilities and an attractive array of market opportunities. Our transformation strategy is expected to produce further performance improvements and underpins our aim of delivering sustainable, profitable growth."

Inmarsat impressed as it lifted full year earnings rose 9.5% to $795m, boosted by strong performances in its government and aviation units, moderately offset by weaker maritime revenues.

“We remain confident about the medium to long term outlook for the business,” Inmarsat said, while it also signed up IAG as the launch customer for its European Aviation Network high-speed in-flight broadband service. British Airways and Iberia passengers will be able to operate their personal devices for internet browsing and various online services.

Another riser was online retail trading provider CMC Markets, which climbed on the back of a major new stockbroking partnership with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, which would result in CMC becoming the second largest stockbroker in Australia by both number of clients and trades executed.

Following a transition period, CMC will service more than 500,000 ANZ retail stockbroking clients under the ANZ Share Investing brand.

Property investor CLS Holdings’ ascended thanks to its net asset value increasing strongly with its strong balance sheet and ample liquid resources giving directors confidence to hike the full year dividend 23%.

Investors were hungry for Just Eat after it reported much improved annual revenue and earnings as it continued seek to capture further share of the online food delivery market. The strong results were due to a 42% rise in orders to 136.4m, or up 36% on a like-for-like basis, processed orders worth over £2.5bn for Just Eat’s restaurant partners and a 31% increase in active users to 17.6m.

Chief executive David Buttress said: "We continue to see strong growth in the UK, adding materially more revenues in absolute terms than the year before. Our international businesses also go from strength to strength; having become profitable in aggregate during the year, they continue to grow rapidly and now represent over one-third of group revenues.

Dropping solemnly lower, Dignity shares were hit by the funeral service provider cutting its underlying earnings per share guidance for 2017 due to increasing competition in each of its markets, with historical data also suggesting that deaths in 2017 could be “significantly lower” than 2015 and 2016.

The company revised its medium-term EPS target to 8% per year from 10%, citing the increased size of the group and increasing competition in each of its markets.

Chief executive Mike McCollum said that he anticipated further engagement with the British and Scottish governments for regulation of the funeral and pre-arranged funeral markets to "ensure every family receives minimum standards of care from appropriate facilities".

Power supplier Aggreko continued falling following it profits warning on Tuesday.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,258.00p 9.39%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 357.80p 9.32%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 745.00p 8.84%
G4S (GFS) 287.30p 7.44%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 129.10p 6.69%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,802.00p 6.00%
Just Eat (JE.) 570.00p 5.17%
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 2,193.00p 3.93%
Ascential (ASCL) 315.20p 3.24%
Ibstock (IBST) 217.20p 3.18%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Dignity (DTY) 2,367.00p -14.36%
John Laing Group (JLG) 256.40p -3.25%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,740.00p -2.63%
Berendsen (BRSN) 776.50p -2.57%
Redefine International (RDI) 36.60p -1.88%
Aggreko (AGK) 904.00p -1.85%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,456.00p -1.69%
Assura (AGR) 56.75p -1.48%
Hunting (HTG) 560.00p -1.32%
Derwent London (DLN) 2,731.00p -1.27%