Dart Group (DTG) helped hoards of Brits escape the recession and awful weather this summer. In fact, its budget airline and package holiday operations were so busy that it expects to make more money than expected this year, forcing analysts to rethink their numbers - again.
Arden Partners upgraded forecasts just last month. Now, Arden analyst Chris Thomas has raised forecasts for adjusted pre-tax profit by another 9 per cent to £35m, giving adjusted EPS of 18.6p (from £28.1m and 16p for 2012). Yet he still admits these could be conservative. Twice as many passengers booked their break with package holiday business Jet2holidays, mostly popular all-inclusive deals, than last year. Each of the 312,000 holidaymakers paid around 10 per cent more than last year for the privilege, too, swelling revenue by almost £100m. That inevitably meant more passengers for Dart's Jet2.com airline. It flew 3.6m passengers in the six months, increased revenue by 23 per cent to £388m and managed to push profit margins higher - despite operating costs increasing by a fifth.
A big increase in forward bookings for both this winter and next summer helped boost the net cash pile by £98.2m year on year. True, the business is becoming more seasonal - bad news for the second half - but Dart is running extra flights to the Canary Islands through the winter and capacity for next summer will increase by another 11 per cent.
DART (DTG) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 111p | MARKET VALUE: | £159.2m | |
| TOUCH: | 110-112p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 122p | Low: 57p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.3% | PE RATIO: | 5 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 132p | NET CASH: | £191.9m | |
| Half-year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 446 | 41.6 | 21.8 | 0.43 |
| 2012 | 585 | 57.0 | 30.1 | 0.54 |
| % change | +31 | +37 | +38 | +26 |
Ex-div: 24 Dec Payment: 01 Feb | ||||
