Diageo Share News (DGE)

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open higher on Thursday, with all focus on the European Central Bank as traders brace for a more dovish tilt. In a jam-packed day for UK corporate news, Diageo announced a GBP4.5 billion share buyback, AstraZeneca lifted its product sales guidance and Compass now sees annual organic growth at the top end of guidance.In addition, Cobham has agreed to be taken over in a deal valuing the aerospace and defence firm at GBP4 billion.IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 26.74 points higher at 7,528.20 on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 55.40 points, or 0.7%, at 7,501.46 on Wednesday."Last night's positive US close looks set to spill over into European markets this morning as shares look to open higher ahead of today's European Central Bank rate meeting," said Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.In the US on Wednesday, Wall Street ended largely higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 0.3% but the S&P 500 closing up 0.5% and Nasdaq Composite up 0.9%.In Asia on Thursday, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 0.3%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 0.3%.Focus on Thursday lies on the latest meeting of the European Central Bank, which announces its monetary policy decision at 1245 BST before a press conference with ECB President Mario Draghi is held."In terms of what the ECB might do today is that we could see a modest rate cut in one or all of the headline rates," said Hewson. "Currently the deposit rate is at -0.4%, and the main refinancing rate is at 0%. As such we might see a 10 or 20 basis point reduction, particularly since Swiss rates are already much lower than that at -0.75%, however this would be a surprise.""As such any move today seems unlikely, despite yesterday's poor PMI numbers, particularly since we won't be getting any new economic projections until September, however we could see the ECB signal an intention to act at today's meeting," he continued.Elsewhere, the economic events calendar on Thursday has US durable goods data at 1330 BST.In early UK company news, distiller Diageo unveiled further buyback plans as it reported solid growth in its recently-ended financial year.Sales were up to GBP19.29 billion in the year to June 30 from GBP18.43 billion the year prior, while pretax profit improved to GBP4.23 billion from GBP3.74 billion. Net sales grew 5.9% to GBP12.88 billion. Organic volumes were up 2% to 245.9 million equivalent units. The firm's organic operating margin improved 83 basis points to 32.0%, driven by improved price/mix and productivity benefits.The Smirnoff vodka maker recommended a full-year dividend of 68.6p, up 5% from 65.3p the year prior. Further, the board approved share buyback of up to GBP4.5 billion over the 2020 to 2022 financial years."Diageo has delivered another year of strong performance. Organic volume and net sales growth was broad based across regions and categories, with new product innovation being a strong contributor. We expanded organic operating margin ahead of our guidance and increased investment behind our brands ahead of organic net sales growth," said Chief Executive Ivan Menezes.He continued: "These results reflect the steady progress we are making and as we look ahead we see attractive opportunities to deliver consistent growth and create shareholder value. In the medium term I expect Diageo to maintain organic net sales growth in the mid-single digit range and to grow organic operating profit ahead of net sales in the range of 5%-7%." Consumer goods giant Unilever saw solid interim underlying sales growth, driven by its operations in emerging markets.Underlying sales growth in the first half was 3.3%, with volumes up 1.2% and prices up 2.1%. Underlying growth was driven by Unilever's emerging markets performance, with the region up 6.2%.Group revenue fell 0.9% to EUR26.13 billion, though the Ben & Jerry's ice cream maker's pretax profit inched up 0.6% to EUR4.35 billion."We have delivered consistent growth within our guided range for 2019, led by our emerging markets. Accelerating growth remains our top priority and we continue to evolve our portfolio and seek out fast growth channel and geographical opportunities, as well as address those performance hotspots where growth is falling short of our aspirations," said Chief Executive Alan Jope."For the full year, we continue to expect underlying sales growth to be in the lower half of our multi-year 3-5% range, an improvement in underlying operating margin that keeps us on track for the 2020 target and another year of strong free cash flow," he added.Drugmaker AstraZeneca raised its annual product sales guidance after a strong first half.First half product sales were up 12%, or 17% at constant currencies, to USD11.18 billion. This included an acceleration in second-quarter sales to USD5.72 billion, up 14% year-on-year. Total revenue was up 9% to USD11.31 billion, with core operating profit shooting up 39% to USD3.01 billion. Reported pretax profit increased to USD899 million from USD786 million."The momentum generated last year continued into the first half, consolidating AstraZeneca's return to growth based on the strength of our new medicines," said Chief Executive Pascal Soriot."Accompanying earnings growth this year, we are pleased to upgrade our Product Sales guidance and we are committed to working on our operating leverage and driving cash generation over the long term," he added. Astra now expects product sales in 2019 to increase by a "low double-digit percentage". Prior to this, the company had seen growth in the high single-digits. The FTSE 100 constituent reiterated its core earnings per share guidance.Astra will pay out a flat interim dividend of USD0.90 per share.Contract caterer Compass said it expects full-year organic growth at the top of its guided range. In the third quarter ended June 30, Compass achieved organic growth of 6.3%, driven by a strong revenue performance in North America and and improvement in the Rest of World. In the nine months to June 30, organic revenue growth was 6.5%. As a result, Compass expects to report annual organic revenue at the top end of its 4% to 6% guided range. At the same time, the group's margin is expected to be in line with a year ago.Accounting software firm Sage said it expects recurring revenue in the current financial year to slightly exceed guidance. However, the combined decline in software and software related services and processing revenue will be slightly sharper than that seen in the first nine months.For the three months to June 30, total organic revenue was up 5.3% to GBP476 million, up 5.9% to GBP1.42 billion in the first nine months of the financial year. Recurring revenue was up 11% to GBP405 million in the quarter, and up 11% to GBP1.18 billion in the year-to-date.Software and software related services, or SSRS, revenue slipped 16% to GBP195 million in the first nine months, reflecting a focus on driving high-quality subscription revenue, as well as some underperformance in X3 licences and services. The combined decline in SSRS and processing revenue in the first nine months was 13.0%. "We remain encouraged by the progress made in recurring revenue in the first nine months of FY19, reflecting Sage's focus on high-quality subscription and recurring revenue as we continue the transition to becoming a great SaaS company," said Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Howell."We expect full year FY19 recurring revenue growth to slightly exceed guidance of 8-9% and the combined decline in SSRS and processing revenue to be slightly greater than the decline seen in the first nine months of the year. We expect organic operating profit margin to be at the lower end of the guided range of 23-25%," he said.Cobham has reached agreement with an indirect subsidiary of funds managed by private equity investor Advent International Corp over a takeover deal, valuing the London-listed defence firm at GBP4.0 billion.AI Convoy Bidco, the subsidiary in question, has agreed to pay 165 pence per Cobham share in cash. This represents a 34% premium to Cobham's closing price of 123p on Tuesday, and a 50% premium to the three month volume weighted average price of 110p.Cobham directors intend to recommend unanimously that shareholders vote in favour of the deal. The deal was first reported by the Financial Times.In the UK, Boris Johnson will preside over his first meeting of his new Cabinet after a brutal cull of Theresa May's top team.Within hours of taking office on Wednesday, the new prime minister moved to stamp his authority, putting Brexiteers into key Cabinet posts as he vowed to take Britain out of the EU by the October 31 deadline.Following Cabinet, Johnson will address MPs for the first time as prime minister in a Commons statement, expected to be long on optimism, setting out his plans for government.The most high profile casualty of Johnson's cull was his defeated leadership rival Jeremy Hunt, after he refused to accept a demotion from the Foreign Office.