Shares in Berkeley Group rose nearly 5 per cent after sales at the house builder topped £1bn for the first time. That helped lift operating profits for the year by more than two thirds to £226m, helped along by the £30.7m profit on disposal of a subsidiary. The shares aren't cheap compared with the rest of the sector, but shareholders have been promised a cumulative payout of £13 a share by 2021, so they're worth buying.
Sales rose from 2,544 to 3,565 homes, and the average selling price moved up from £271,000 to £280,000, which helped to push operating margins up from 18.3 per cent to 18.8 per cent. Moreover, there is £1.06bn due in cash on forward sales already made. Berkeley has also been busy building its land bank, investing a further £311m during the year and boosting potential gross realised value by 12 per cent to £2.58bn. And the group plans to grow the value in the land bank to £3bn by April 2014, a year earlier than originally planned.
Analysts at Peel Hunt have upgraded their forecasts for the coming year by around 7 per cent to adjusted pre-tax profits of £216m and EPS of 119p (from £183m in 2012).
| BERKELEY GROUP (BKG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 1,425p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 1.87bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,424-1,427p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,430p | LOW: 1,011p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | 12 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 838p | NET DEBT: | 5% | |
| Year to 30 Apr | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0.99 | 194 | 114 | nil |
| 2009 | 0.70 | 120 | 71.3 | nil |
| 2010 | 0.62 | 110 | 60.0 | nil |
| 2011 | 0.74 | 136 | 72.1 | nil |
| 2012 | 1.04 | 215 | 121 | nil |
| % change | +40 | +58 | +68 | - |
