Recent articles for private investors with a focus on dividend announcements
21 Feb 2013
21 Feb 2013
21 Feb 2013
21 Feb 2013
21 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
21 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
21 Feb 2013
19 Feb 2013
19 Feb 2013
19 Feb 2013
20 Feb 2013
19 Feb 2013
19 Feb 2013
19 Feb 2013
15 Feb 2013
15 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
Shire Increases 2012 final dividend by 18%
Financial Highlights Full Year 2012Product sales $4,407 million +12%Product sales excluding ADDERALL XR $3,978 million +16%Total revenues $4,681 million +10%Non GAAP operating income $1,474 million +9%US GAAP operating income $949 million -14%Non GAAP diluted earnings per ADS $6.10 +14%US GAAP diluted earnings per ADS $3.93 -13%Non GAAP cash generation $1,637 million +18%Non GAAP free cash flow $1,256 million +43%US GAAP net cash provided by operating activities $1,383 million +29%DIVIDENDIn respect of the six months ended December 31, 2012 the Board has resolved topay an interim dividend of 14.60 US cents per ordinary share (2011: 12.59 UScents per ordinary share).Dividend payments will be made in Pounds Sterling to ordinary shareholders andin US Dollars to holders of ADSs. A dividend of 9.39 pence per ordinary share(2011: 7.96 pence) and 43.80 US cents per ADS (2011: 37.77 US cents) will bepaid on April 9, 2013 to shareholders on the register as at the close ofbusiness on March 8, 2013.Together with the first interim payment of 2.73 US cents per ordinary share(2011: 2.48 US cents per ordinary share), this represents total dividends for2012 of 17.33 US cents per ordinary share (2011: 15.07 US cents per ordinaryshare), an increase of 15% in US Dollar terms.Angus Russell, Chief Executive Officer, commented:"It's been another strong year for Shire with 12% growth in product sales and14% growth in Non GAAP earnings which have driven particularly strong cashgeneration. While delivering strong financial results, we continue to invest inour emerging late stage R&D pipeline.Our ADHD portfolio is performing very well in a growing global market and wesee further growth going forward. The positive opinion received from theEuropean regulators for ELVANSE is a significant milestone and we're nowpreparing for country launches in some of the largest markets in Europe. Allour rare disease treatments continue to grow and we saw particularly strongperformance from FIRAZYR in its first full year in the US market. We advancedour plans for developing our Regenerative Medicine business with theacquisition of VASCUGEL and the approval of DERMAGRAFT in Canada.Our late stage R&D pipeline now holds the prospect of future growth from LDX(the active ingredient in VYVANSE) in major depressive disorder, binge eatingdisorder and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Our intrathecal programs arealso progressing well as we plan the next clinical trials for Hunter CNS andSanfilippo A and continue to enrol MLD patients into the ongoing Phase 1/2trial. A phase 2b study of SPD602, our iron chelating product, is underway andheadline results are expected later this year.We've completed a number of in-licensing deals and acquisitions in 2012,bringing us new technology platforms in rare diseases, hematology and a rangeof early stage and exciting differentiated treatments.We've put in place our leadership succession plan. Dr. Flemming Ørnskov joinedus at the beginning of January and is familiarising himself with the businessbefore he assumes the role of CEO at the end of April. His considerablepharmaceutical and international experience will benefit Shire going forward.Today we announce that Sylvie Gregoire, President of our HGT business, hasdecided to leave Shire at the end of March, after five years. We're gratefulfor her significant contributions to the growth of Shire through establishingHGT as a leader in rare diseases.Shire is in great shape, with the current business performing well, a promisingpipeline of new growth opportunities, and the strategy in place to deliver anexciting future. As we look forward to the year ahead, we expect our financialresults to show further growth in line with current consensus earningsexpectations for 2013(1)."
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
Dividend of the week - Centrica
Given their reputation for big dividends, it is about time that we looked at companies in the Utilities sector. As a start point we cannot consider any companies yielding under 5% on the 3 dividend optimizer in DividendMax. This yields fifteen Electricity companies and what is surprising is that so many of them are from outside the U.K. The gas, water and multi-utilities sector throws up five more companies. Mobile telecoms throws up a couple more and telecoms another fifteen. Thirty seven companies is too big a start point so we will eliminate the Mobile telecoms sector as we have featured Vodafone in a previous dividend of the week. Next, we insist on having a forecast dividend increase and this reduces our list to twenty three. Still too many, so we up the yield criteria to >7% and this makes our list a more manageable 11 companies. From the telecoms sector, we have Belgacom, Mobistar and Kcom group. From the multi-utilities sector we get Centrica and from the Electicity sector, we have EON, RWE, EDF, Iberdrola, Red Electrica, National Grid and SSE. For these companies, dividend cover is not so important as their earnings tend to be very consistent and they can pay high dividends with relatively low cover. In this sector, it is important to consider the consistency of the payout, so we next look only at companies that have increased their annual dividend for at least the past 5 years. This eliminates a good number of companies and to some extent explodes the myth that these companies always increase their dividends.
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
14 Feb 2013
Reckitt Benckiser increases 2012 final dividend by 11% to 78p
Commenting on these results, Rakesh Kapoor, Chief Executive Officer, said:"A year ago we set a new purpose driven strategy to deliver growth and outperformance over the next decade.We are laying the foundations for RB to succeed in a world where health and hygiene play an increasingly important role in terms of both economic and social development. We enhanced our focus on our 16 Powermarkets, many of which are in the emerging market areas that now represent 44% of our core net revenue. I am very pleased that our 2012 achievements demonstrate the strength of this strategy and its ability to create sustainable value for all of our stakeholders.In environmental sustainability we have already reduced the carbon footprint of our products by 20% and have now set an ambitious target to reduce that by a further third, while also cutting the water use associated with our products by the same amount.While much has yet to be done and markets remain challenging, we approach 2013 with the confidence that we have the right strategic focus, the right organisation and culture, and with the right innovation platforms. We are particularly excited by our entry into the vitamins, minerals and supplements(VMS) market with the acquisition of Schiff. We are supporting our brands with more and better quality brand equity investment to deliver further growth in an increasingly competitive consumer environment.We remain committed to our goal of net revenue growth on average +200bps per annum above our market growth, and moderate operating margin expansion (ex RBP). For 2013, we are targeting net revenue growth of +5-6%2 including acquisitions and disposals announced to date. Given the early achievement of cost savings in 2012, we expect to maintain operating margins in 2013. These targets exclude RBP.This will allow us to further accelerate the shape of our core business in line with our strategy. We are now setting the target of Health & Hygiene categories to become 72%, and our emerging market areas to become 50%, of our core business net revenue by 2015. This is a year earlier than previously targeted."
13 Feb 2013
13 Feb 2013
13 Feb 2013
13 Feb 2013
12 Feb 2013
12 Feb 2013
15 Feb 2013
11 Feb 2013
08 Feb 2013
08 Feb 2013
08 Feb 2013
07 Feb 2013
07 Feb 2013
07 Feb 2013
08 Feb 2013
07 Feb 2013
29 Mar 2013
