Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Superb set of results. I would have liked a slightly higher divi but pleased with the buyback announced.
Dare I say it, this is a real British stock market success story; BEZ is a hugely profitable business, a market leader, a global business and is growing rapidly. What's not to like?
Shore Capital Markets has maintained a generally positive outlook on Premier Inn parent Whitbread PLC (LSE:WTB) despite recent underperformance and projections of a downturn in RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room).
Analysts said Whitbread's financial forecasts suggest a trajectory of growth, with anticipated improvements in revenue, EBITDA, and adjusted profit before tax over the next few years.
“We maintain our BUY stance on Whitbread with the forthcoming preliminary results at the end of April set to provide greater clarity of the trading backdrop,” said Shore Cap.
European operations are also continuing to build.
Shore Cap said: “In Germany, we expect Whitbread to meet its milestone of reaching run-rate profitability in the current calendar year although it is arguably the return metrics on its maturing portfolio of hotels which is key".
Whitbread shares are currently down 12.3% year to date at 3,168p.
A current valuation ratio of 12 times net forward income suggests the market is now starting to price in a 5% fall in UK like-for-like RevPAR, said ShoreCap analysts.
“This continues to feel too low, given attractive returns (ROI of 15%), significant freehold backing and market leading position.”
Great acquisition IMO. Probitas is a profitable and well managed business, but most importantly it is the vehicle to help Aviva accelerate its global, corporate, and specialty growth aspirations.
It gives Aviva access to international licences and the ability to transact more profitable business. An 82% combined loss ratio is excellent. I see no reason why Aviva can't increase the GWP to £1bn over the next 3 years, and if the loss ratio is maintained, that would add £180million to the bottom line.
There's no real catalyst for the share price to go up any time soon following the divi. The next scheduled results are 5 June 2024 i believe. All being well we should move back up to £6 over the next few months.
Superb trading update today and a great rise. Looking forward to the results on the 7th and how the capital will be returned to us shareholders. I'm expecting a combination of a rise in the divi and a share buyback.
Still more to come from this share IMO, so I'm happy to hold for the time being.
Confirmed today by RNS.
Tritax Big Box said it had agreed terms on a possible bid for UK Commercial Property REIT in an all-share deal worth £924m.
The company on Monday said it had offered 0.444 new Tritax shares for every UKCP share, leaving it with 76.7 of the merged group and UKCM shareholders with the remainder.
It also represents q 10.8% premium to UKCPs closing share price of 64.2 pence per share on February 9.
Tritax said the boards of both companies believe the potential offer would "bring together complementary logistics-oriented investment portfolios with a shared focus on resilient and growing income".
The only piece of news today I can see is this:
Oddo BHF cuts Wizz Air price target to 2,400 (2,600) pence - 'outperform'
Unless someone has got wind of some good news coming out of Thursday's trading update....
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EasyJet PLC has received a double upgrade from analysts at Bank of America, who see bigger capacity, stable fuel costs and more people going on holiday as a winning trio.
'Buy', from 'underperform', is the bank’s new view after it raised its profit forecast for this year by 14% to £549 million, with load factors (plane occupancy) estimated to be 1 percentage point higher than previously on average.
“Growth will be driven by both higher passenger numbers (company targets over 35% year on year and we are at 36%) and increasing ASP (seat prices),” BofA said.
Shares rose 1.85% to 518.6p.
The load factor is not unsurprising at this time of year. Like many airlines, WIZZ makes a loss in the winter months.
The load factor was still higher than December last year and fuel costs are also lower year on year.