Wednesday preview: GlaxoSmithKline to report difficult quarter, analysts say

Healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline is expected to report 'another difficult quarter' when the company unveils its latest results Wednesday, according to analysts.The pharmaceuticals group will post its full-year and fourth quarter financials, a day after announcing it increased its stake in its Indian consumer healthcare subsidiary by investing more than half a billion pounds in the unit. "We expect another difficult quarter as the company experiences some tough [year on year] comparisons [Advair & Cervarix], EU austerity and a forex headwind," analysts at Credit Suisse said.The broker expects a 3.0% fall in sales and 4.0% decline in earnings per share (EPS) in the fourth quarter. About £50m of incremental vaccine tenders will offset some of the negatives in the quarter but many of the headwinds look set to continue into early 2013 including its products Cervarix, Vesicare, Lamictal XR, it added.Credit Suisse said a solid dividend yield of circa 5.0% will remain an attraction for the stock along with a free cash flow generation of circa £5.0bn per annum. "We forecast an ongoing £2.0bn per annum share buyback programme to double operational EPS growth of 3-6% [2012-16 compound annual growth rate]. However, we see limited opportunity for this to improve in the near term, in the absence of significant top line growth."Shares were down 0.91% to €5.57 at 16:02.INTERIMS Hargreaves Lansdown INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Ashtead Group, Halma, Vodafone Group INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE Cohort, Daejan Holdings, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 'C' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 'D' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 E Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 F Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2 'C' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2 'D' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2 F Shares, Mattioli Woods, Penna Consulting, Puma High Income VCT , Puma Vct 8, Puma Vct VII, Stagecoach Group, Tricorn Group QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE IBM Corp., JPMorgan Claverhouse Inv Trust, Unilever INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS PMI Construction (GER) (08:55) Q3 Canaccord Financial Inc. Q4 GlaxoSmithKline, Virgin Media Inc., Wolfson Microelectronics FINALS GlaxoSmithKline, New Europe Property Investments, Virgin Media Inc., Wolfson Microelectronics IMSS Grainger SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Rensburg AIM VCT AGMS Blackrock Income And Growth Investment Trust, LED International Holdings Ltd (DI), Redhall Group UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS BRC Shop Price Index (00:01) New Car Registrations (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE Noble Investments (UK), Victrex Thursday February 07 INTERIMS Mcbride INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE FirstGroup INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Consumer Credit (US) (20:00) ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45) Industrial Production (GER) (11:00) Productivity (US) (13:30) Q4 Smith & Nephew FINALS Beazley, Smith & Nephew IMSS Avon Rubber, Supergroup, Vodafone Group EGMS Hotel Corporation (The) AGMS Avon Rubber, BlackRock New Energy Inv Trust, Compass Group, Downing Absolute Income VCT 1, Downing Absolute Income VCT 1 'C' Shares , Downing Income Vct, Downing Income Vct 4, Paragon Group Of Companies, Thomas Cook Group, TUI Travel, Unicorn AIM VCT TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS Bellway UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Balance of Trade (09:30) BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Cardiff Property, JPMorgan Asian Inv Trust Q1 TUI Travel, TUI Travel