McCarthy & Stone (MCS) has been around for some time, but only returned to the London Stock Exchange in November last year. Trading was strong for the retirement home specialist in the year to August 2016, although the past few months were affected by the referendum vote and a subsequent fall in the number of retired homeowners opting to downsize to a purpose-built retirement apartment.
Consequently, the forward order book fell from £131m to £114m, but trading in the first 10 weeks of the new financial year has seen reservations improving. By September, weekly reservation rates had risen by 13 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, helped by the release of three additional sales releases, and by 12 November the forward order book was back ahead of the 12-month prior figure at £250m.
A total of 64 new sales outlets were opened and a further 65 development sites were added, taking the total land bank to 10,186 plots. Legal completions grew by 20 per cent to 2,299 and the return on capital was maintained at 20 per cent. Over the medium term, these metrics are targeted to rise to 3,000 units and 25 per cent.
Analysts at Peel Hunt are forecasting adjusted pre-tax profit of £120m and EPS of 18.1p for the year to August 2017 (from £105m and 16.3p in FY2016).
| MCCARTHY & STONE (MCS) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 169.6p | MARKET VALUE: | £911m | |
| TOUCH: | 169.6-170.3p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 295p | LOW: 135p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.7% | PE RATIO: | 12 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 130p | NET CASH: | £52.8m | |
| Year to 31 Aug | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 486 | 80.9 | 3.4 | - |
| 2016 | 636 | 92.9 | 13.9 | 4.5 |
| % change | +31 | +15 | +309 | - |
Ex-div: 5 Jan Payment: 1 Feb | ||||
