Taylor Wimpey delivered a solid first-half performance that saw operating profits rise 50 per cent in the period to £100.9m. However, the shares are no more cheaply rated than those of most other housebuilders and with the company pension deficit ballooning to 21 per cent of its market value, the shares look up with events.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
45p
First-half completions rose 8 per cent to 5,083 and the average selling price grew 4.8 per cent to £176,000 - both of which helped boost the operating margin from 8.4 per cent to 11.4 per cent. Moreover, average private net reservations rose from 0.56 to 0.6 per week, while cancellation rates were stable at 15.1 per cent.