Dealer and auction house Noble Investments is on target to record its ninth successive year of profits and dividend growth after delivering another impressive performance in the half year to end February, boosted by the $26m (£16m) raised at the Greek Prospero coin auction.
"There is still a massive demand for quality collections of coins and stamps", says chief executive Ian Goldbart, "but supply continues to act as a constraint". Even so, the auction division notched up a more than five-fold rise in operating profits to £2.38m, and there is a healthy pipeline of auctions to come, notably the Bentley collection of gold sovereigns and a collection of classic Islamic rare coins.
Turnover on Nobel's retail side, where the company simply buys and sells collectables without all the expense of an auction, declined principally because the retail team spent more time preparing auction material at the expense of working on the retail side. This meant profits slid from £1.53m to £0.6m, but with an auction the size of Prospero unlikely to be repeated, the retail side is expected to recover in the second half.
Brokers WH Ireland are forecasting full-year pre-tax profits of £3.8m and diluted EPS of 19.7p (2011: £3.1m/15.3p).
| NOBLE INVESTMENTS (NBL) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 196p | MARKET VALUE: | £30.5m | |
| TOUCH: | 194-200p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 211p | LOW: 148p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.4% | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 107p | NET CASH: | £3.3m | |
| Half-year to 29 Feb | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 6.52 | 1.52 | 7.5 | 1.75 |
| 2012 | 7.00 | 2.42 | 12.3 | 2.25 |
| % change | +7 | +59 | +64 | +29 |
Ex-div: 6 Jun Payment: 6 Jul | ||||
