Business is booming at Bellway (BWY), with the housebuilder delivering a record 7,752 new homes in the year to July, up 13.2 per cent from a year earlier. Average selling prices were 5 per cent higher at £224,000, which helped to boost operating margins by around 300 basis points to over 20 per cent.
And the pipeline is just as strong, with a forward order book of 4,568 units valued at £1.09bn. To cater for the strong demand, Bellway upped its investment in land and land creditors from £460m a year earlier to £620m. But, despite the big increase, net debt was just £39m against a £3.6m cash position a year earlier.
On the back of these numbers, analysts at Numis Securities have upgraded their estimates for the year to July, and now expect underlying pre-tax profit of £344m and EPS of 223.7p, rising to £395m and 259.2p the year after (from £245.9m and 157p in 2014).
