Recent articles for private investors with a focus on dividend announcements
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
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
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08 Feb 2013
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29 Mar 2013
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31 Jan 2013
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30 Jan 2013
30 Jan 2013
United Utilities end-2012 Interim Management Statement
Trading updateCurrent trading is in line with the group's expectations.Revenue has continued to increase at a rate slightly below the allowed regulated price rise for 2012/13, as expected, reflecting the on-going impact of a tough economic climate on commercial volumes. Depreciation, power and other costs have also increased as expected, largely offsetting the increase in revenue. The company continues to make good progress on its regulatory capital investment programme and remains on track to invest around £750 million in its asset base in 2012/13.Improving operational performance and customer service continue to be top priorities for United Utilities Water (UUW).The business met its regulatory leakage target for the sixth consecutive year in 2011/12 and remains on course to meet its target for 2012/13. Water resources in the region are robust, with reservoirs currently around 90% full.UUW's significant progress on Ofwat's customer service measure, the service incentive mechanism (SIM), in 2011/12 has continued into 2012/13.Encouragingly, our qualitative SIM results for quarter three 2012/13 have helped improve our ranking. Building on the performance achieved in the first half of 2012/13, UUW has now moved up to 12th position out of 21 water companies on this qualitative measure for the financial year to date. UUW was 16th in 2011/12. Overall SIM performance for 2012/13, including our quantitative SIM score, will be published, along with the industry's results,after the financial year end.In addition, the number of customer complaints UUW received via the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has reduced further in the three months to December 2012 and, importantly, there have been no customer complaints requiring investigation by the CCW in the first nine months of the 2012/13 financial year. This improved performance will positively contribute to Ofwat's quantitative SIM assessment.
30 Jan 2013
30 Jan 2013
