Friday Email: 02 August 2013
Every Friday morning our lead analyst Mark Riding sends out his weekly run-down and upcoming events in the investor calendar, like this one:
That was a very busy week with plenty of companies reporting every day. What struck me was that the larger companies seemd to be struggling. The results were O.K, but they were not the sort of results that can help justify where the markets sit right now. Once again, it looks overbought. All eyes will be on the US non farm payroll numbers where, ironically, a blow out number, whilst good news for the US econonmy, could see the markets go into reverse; as the market starts to fret about the QE tap turning off sooner rather than later. The highlights of the week were:
On Monday, Hiscox with a 16.7% dividend increase & Intertek with 15.4% were the star performers. Tuesday saw ITV (a former dividend of the week, now up almost 50%) increase its interim by 38%. Also International Personal finance with 17.5%, Pace with 27% and Telecity weighed in with a 40% increase at the half year stage. Wednesday saw a lot of heavyweight companies producing lightweight dividend increases. The highlights came from the smaller companies and were Essentra (23%), Moneysupermarket.com (20%), Rightmove (22%), Taylor Wimpey (15%) and finally St James's Place with a whopping 50% increase at the interim stage. Thursday saw a similar pattern. We were not let down by ever reliable former dividend of the week RPS group who provided their usual 15% dividend increase. They were bettered by Laird who managed 21%. As for today, Man's new dividend does not look so mighty these days following the implementation of the new dividend policy. Rexam (14%) and William Hill (16%) did well but they all trailed in the wake of Inchcape who increased their interim dividend by 43% and announced a £100 million share buyback programme.
The week ahead is also busy with plenty of declarations to come. Watch out for a blowout non farm payroll number and mind your eye!
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Read next: 26 July 2013
After a very quiet three or four weeks, the corporate world has come alive as the next reporting season has kicked in. There were strong dividend increases from Dialight (22.5%) and ARM holdings with a 26% increase. PZ Cussons managed it's 40th year of consecutive dividend increases. Beazley, Croda, Provident Financial, Rolls Royce, Bodycote, Capita, CSR, Reed Elsevier and Shire all manged increases between 7 and 18%. Glaxo Smithkline, Morgan Advanced Materials, Renishaw and IG Group all managed increases between 3 and 6%. The market has continued to be bullish, but we are getting a little cautious.