There is plenty for Crest Nicholson (CRST) shareholders to be cheerful about. The housebuilder's shares rose more than 6 per cent in early trading after it delivered strong full-year numbers, with the market further cheered by an increased dividend and a pledge to reduce dividend cover to twice post-tax earnings. On that basis, analysts at Barclays are forecasting a dividend yield of 6.1 per cent for the year to October 2017, putting Crest Nicholson among the best payers in the sector.
Trading last year saw completions up 8 per cent at 2,725, and the group remains on target to achieve its stated objective of £1.4bn turnover and 4,000 homes by 2019. Once again, build cost inflation was around 5 per cent, but this was more than covered by a 14 per cent rise in the average selling price to £318,000.
Crest Nicholson also has a very large land bank of more than 33,000 units, with a gross development value in excess of £10bn. Activity remains brisk, with forward sales at mid-January up 28 per cent to £512m, equivalent to more than a third of forecast output for the entire financial year.
Analysts at Barclays forecast adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to October 2016 of £188m and EPS of 59.5p, compared with £154m and 48.4p in FY2015.
| CREST NICHOLSON (CRST) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 546p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.37bn | |
| TOUCH: | 545-547.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 599p | LOW: 364p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.6% | PE RATIO: | 11 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 251p | NET DEBT: | 4.9% | |
| Year to 31 Oct | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011* | 319 | -27 | na | nil |
| 2012* | 408 | 62 | 28.5 | nil |
| 2013 | 526 | 81 | 27.1 | 6.5 |
| 2014 | 637 | 117 | 39.3 | 14.3 |
| 2015 | 805 | 154 | 49.3 | 19.7 |
| % change | +26 | +32 | +25 | +38 |
Ex-div: 10 Mar Payment: 8 Apr *Prior to flotation | ||||
