Peers are struggling to improve profits, but marine engineer James Fisher (FSJ) had little problem dishing up another serving of double-digit growth last year. Better than expected results were enough to generate both another round of earnings upgrades and a share price break-out above stiff resistance at 1,400p.
Broker N+1 Singer now expects adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 71.3p this year (from 65.6p in 2013), up 6 per cent on its last estimate. Crucially, Fisher has avoided the difficult US market and exploration sector. Instead, it makes money from the booming sub-sea industry, which is served by both the marine support and specialist technical divisions. Demand for saturation diving systems made by Divex, which Fisher bought a year ago, has done better than expected. This is why the specialist technical almost doubled underlying operating profit to £7.6m. It's also sitting on over £60m of orders, and a lot of new dive support vessels about to be built will want Divex kit, too.
Profit at the larger offshore division grew 15 per cent to £19.7m, buoyed by activity in the Norwegian North Sea and in new deep-sea markets off Brazil and Africa. Adjust for £21m of disposal profits in 2012 and a £9.2m write-down, and pre-tax profits jumped by a fifth to £41.4m at the group level.
JAMES FISHER (FSJ) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
ORD PRICE: | 1,468p | MARKET VALUE: | £737m | |
TOUCH: | 1,468-1,475p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,485p | LOW: 869p |
DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.4% | PE RATIO: | 19 | |
NET ASSET VALUE | 364p* | NET DEBT: | 30% |
Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | 250 | 24.7 | 37.1 | 13.6 |
2010 | 268 | 25.9 | 39.9 | 14.7 |
2011 | 308 | 29.8 | 48.4 | 16.1 |
2012 | 363 | 46.4 | 79.1 | 17.7 |
2013 | 414 | 46.2 | 76.6 | 20 |
% change | +14 | - | -3 | +13 |
Ex-div: 9 Apr Payment: 9 May *Includes intangible assets of £114m, or 226p a share |