Thursday newspaper share tips: Travis Perkins, Connect Group

The building materials merchant saw sales drop in the backhalf of 2015 as the effects of the 2014 tightening of rules on mortgage availability filtered through.

However, in the first quarter of 2016 like-for-likes were up by 4.2%.

About half of that improvement was the result of the market and the remainder of the opening of new stores and other self-help measures.

Sales growth should continue accelerating in 2016 helped by the easier comparisons with 2015 as the year advances.

“This is the investment thesis: an ability to take market share by means of such growth and by better performance, in a gradually rising market,” the tipster said.

The fall from the near-£23 price seen last summer “looks overdone”, so buy for the long-term Tempus said.

Connect Group saw a steady start to the year, with pre-tax profits ahead by 36%, The Daily Telegraph's Questor pointed out.

Significantly, the extension of a major contract with Northern&Shell helped to secure the sales underpinning the newspaper distributor’s hefty 6.2% prospective dividend yield.

Furthermore, while print media circulation is on a declining trend Connect Group’s contracts also take into account cover price inflation.
Newspapers are offsetting falling circulation by hiking prices.

The company is also slashing costs in a bid to become more efficient. It is on target to save £5m this year and believes it can achieve a further reduction of £5m next year.

Hence, while sales and profits fell slightly at the half-year stage, free cash flows were higher by 13% to £18m.

Connect is also buys diversifying its business given its main industry is in long-term decline, although some of those initiatives have run into headwinds from cuts to public spending.

Nonetheless, at eight times forecast earnings and trading on a dividend yield of 6.3%, the shares are worth holding on to for the income, Questor concluded..