Housebuilder and land developer MJ Gleeson (GLE) more than doubled operating profit to £6m in the year to end-June. That was driven by Gleeson Homes, where operating profit jumped from £300,000 to £4m, and the forward order book grew 141 per cent at £25.9m. Accordingly, broker N+1 Singer has increased its adjusted EPS forecasts for 2014 by 23 per cent to 15.7p (2013: 9p), and by 13 per cent for 2015, to 20.7p.
Completed sales grew 46 per cent to 406 units and the proportion of homes sold from recently acquired higher-margin sites rose from 31 per cent to 75 per cent. Moreover, with prices for north of England inner city brown field sites still subdued, the group added 1,050 plots to its land bank, with a further 1,240 on conditional purchase - if concluded, that would take the land bank to 3,860 plots.
Profits on the strategic land side tend to be lumpier, reflecting the uncertainties around gaining planning consent. Land sales here, which are concentrated in the more profitable south of the country, did fall - from 115 acres to 42.5 acres. However, much of the previous year’s sales comprised land that couldn't be developed and operating profit fell only marginally from £3.7m to £3.5m.
| MJ GLEESON (GLE) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 333p | MARKET VALUE: | £176m | |
| TOUCH: | 326-335p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 360p | LOW: 134p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 0.8% | PE RATIO: | 17 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 212p | NET CASH: | £7.7m | |
| Year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 43.0 | -50.7 | -102 | nil |
| 2010 | 46.5 | 0.45 | 1.30 | nil |
| 2011 | 41.4 | 1.54 | 3.02 | nil* |
| 2012 | 40.8 | 3.03 | 5.51 | nil* |
| 2013 | 60.7 | 5.78 | 19.1 | 2.50 |
| % change | +49 | +91 | +247 | - |
Ex-div: 20 Nov Payment: 20 Dec *Excludes special dividends: 15p in 2011 and 5p in 2012 | ||||
