Taylor Wimpey lifts margin guidance, expects "positive" 2015

Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said trading stabilised somewhat in the second half of 2014 as house-price growth eased, but painted an upbeat picture of the UK housing market as it lifted its margin guidance slightly.The company is now guiding to a full-year operating margin of "slightly over 400 basis points (bp) ahead" of last year's 13.6%. It had raised its guidance in November to a 400bp improvement, from 300bp initially.The builder completed 12,454 homes in 2014, up 6% on last year, while average selling prices improved by 12% to £213,000."As we enter 2015, we are encouraged by the more balanced market conditions, with a lower rate of price growth, which should create a healthy and more sustainable housing market," said chief executive Pete Redfern.He said that the company has started the new year in an "excellent position" with a record order book of £1,397m, up 12% on 2013.Taylor Wimpey welcomed the recent changes made to the stamp duty tax system, which should help more prospective buyers get onto and move up the property ladder.In the land market, the company said it has reached its optimal short-term landbank size and so will "maintain, rather than grow, this proportion of our landbank"."Whilst the macro economic outlook is uncertain, with a reduced risk of UK interest rate increases in the near term and sensible mortgage regulation, we believe that the market and political risk for our sector is balanced as we enter 2015, and the outlook remains positive," the company said.Broker Shore Capital said it was a "solid but unspectacular" statement, just what was expected with the trading outcome pretty much exactly as expected for 2014.Analyst Robin Hardy noted that unit sales were 0.5% below forecast and the average selling price higher than his 2014 forecast of £211,000, with margins in line and the cash position slightly ahead of guidance."Overall, everything in line and we will keep forecasts unchanged at £451m for full year 2014, giving 10.8p of EPS and 2.74p of total dividend."Our view on this stock and the sector overall has not changed - we stick with a target price for TW of 148p and keep this as a core investment in the sector. There is nothing to change our view of the sector and we continue to see limited and only selected value in the sector."