Tuesday newspaper share tips: Construction in the spotlight

The focus is on construction in Tuesday’s newspaper share tips, with Taylor Wimpey and Keller in the spotlight.

On Monday, housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said it expected to report a 2% rise in 2015 operating profit margin and a return on net operating assets of more than 25%. The company said it had seen an “excellent summer selling season strengthen further in the autumn period”, underpinned by rising wages and access to a wider range of mortgages. Sales rates for the year to date are ahead of last year at 0.76 per outlet per week against 0.66 last time.

The Times’ Tempus noted the housebuilding industry is a cyclical one and it will drop again at some point, but that won’t happen any time soon. With the company’s lack of exposure to the higher end of the market and the southeast, it means it is benefitting more from the Government’s Help to Buy scheme.

Despite housebuilders in general affected by a small sell off in recent months over interest rate fears, Tempus said it was probably more likely a case of investors casting around for reasons to take profits.

With the company due to spend around £300m on special dividends next year, the newspaper pundit said the shares look attractive “unless you take a very pessimistic view of the housing market”, and recommended them as a ‘buy’.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph’s Questor is looking at a bigger construction project as it turned its attention to Keller Group.

The engineering specialist company said on Monday that it remains confident that results for the year will be in line with current market expectations despite challenging conditions in many of its markets, thanks in part to strength in its main market of US construction.

Questor pointed out that the company has suffered from its exposure to commodity-related building projects, with the worst trading coming from Australia and sharp falls in Asian revenues.

But it said the shares have suffered sharp falls from highs of £11 per share in June when there was little change to the company’s trading.

“We think the selloff has been slightly overdone at Keller and would be happy to buy for the long term at these levels.”