Week Ahead 18-22 February

Monday 18 February

Interim: Sareum

Final: Pinnacle Technology

AGM: Renovo

EGM: Ruspetro

Economics: Rightmove house prices

Tuesday 19 February

Finals: AZ Electronic Materials, Brammer, Drax, Icon, InterContinental Hotels, Morgan Sindall

AGMs: Hardide, Sunrise Resources, Tertiary Minerals, Titon, Weatherly International

EGMs: Fortune Oil, Phoenix

Apart from reshuffling the management team, speciality chemicals firm AZ Electronic Materials (AZEM) has been quiet since the company's third-quarter numbers. Revenue for the three-month period was up by 1 per cent, but down by the same amount for the nine months, as the larger integrated circuit (IC) materials division offset good growth at the Optronics flat panel unit. Still, contract wins in Taiwan and Japan mean the latter should guarantee a strong result for the full year. Deutsche Bank reckons Optronics grew cash profit by 17 per cent year-on-year in the second half to $35.3m (£22.4m), and even the micro-chip business should have had a better fourth quarter. Admittedly, pre-tax profit will be up just a little in 2012 to $130m, but that should ramp up this year to $156m and to $192m in 2014 if Deutsche has got its sums right. We think it has and continue to run our successful buy tip given smartphones, tablet devices and laptops made by customers such as LG, Apple, Samsung and Toshiba continue to sell well. As long as AZ maintains margins - about 33 per cent in the first half - and keeps winning new business, the shares have further to go.

Wednesday 20 February

Interims: BHP Billiton, Centaur Media, Galliford Try, Mucklow (A&J), Netcall

Finals: London Capital, Rathbone Brothers, Rexam, RSA Insurance, Spectris, STV, Travis Perkins

Economics: Minutes of Bank of England meeting, Employment data, Average earnings

Most shareholders will already have received a pleasant surprise by the time consumer packaging giant Rexam (REX) unveils its full-year results. Cheques worth 45p a share are in the post, part of the proceeds from the sale of Rexam’s personal care division last year. That could make up for annual results that are unlikely to create much fizz, given management cooled expectations for the second half at the interim stage. Volumes at the core beverage cans division rose 6 per cent in the third quarter, although growth in Europe outside of Russia was a little slower than in the first half. However, Rexam is regaining lost volumes in North America and South America grew faster than before. Recent comment alongside results from US rivals Crown and Ball Corp were largely positive, too, suggesting Rexam’s final quarter probably went to plan. That should mean further progress toward its return on capital employed target of 15 per cent by the end of 2013. Barclays Capital predicts adjusted pre-tax profit of £412m and adjusted EPS of 34.1p for 2012.

Galliford Try (GFRD) releases half-year results on Wednesday, and in a recent trading statement the housebuilder indicated that profits are expected to be higher than expected. Turnover is likely to have been driven up by a combination of a record 1,364 completions and an increase in average selling prices from £239,000 to £248,000. And sales reserved for the coming year are up 4 per cent at £544m. Moreover, the number of plots in the 10,400 land bank secured at current market values has risen from 75 per cent to 83 per cent, and operating margins are expected to higher as a result. On the construction side, virtually all of projected revenue for the year to June has already been secured and 62 per cent for the following year and, despite tough trading conditions, the order book has been maintained at £1.6bn. Analysts expect pre-tax profits for the year to June 2013 to rise 14 per cent to £72.9m, to produce EPS of 69.2p and a dividend of 36p. On this basis, the shares at, 839p, trade on a forward PE ratio of 12 and offer a 4.3 per cent prospective yield.

Thursday 21 February

Interims: Animalcare, Ashmore, Go-Ahead

Finals: BAE Systems, CSR, Informa, Filtrona, Ladbrokes, Lancashire, Mondi, New World Resources, Premier Foods, RM

Trading statements: Kingfisher, Sports Direct International

AGM: easyJet, Optos

EGM: Bumi

Economics: Public sector borrowing, CBI trends - total orders, selling prices

Go-Ahead (GOG) had to dig deep after driver shortages on its London Midland line caused hundreds of cancellations and delays last year. It’s fixed the problem, which is good news for passengers as Go-Ahead will be running the route until September 2015. But the government has still ordered the operator to offer £7m of free travel as punishment. That, however, shouldn’t detract from what are likely to be decent results. Go-Ahead has already talked of "robust" trade during the second quarter with growth in commercial revenue across the board. Expect some comment on rail franchise renewal - Go-Ahead's Southern franchise was due to merge with FirstGroup's Thameslink, but, following the Brown Review, that could be years away. And check passenger revenue carefully, particularly as Southern isn’t eligible for government support until September. Some analysts still think trouble here could affect that big dividend. Still, there's progress at the core bus business where Go-Ahead wants to make underlying operating profit of £100m by 2016, that's £30m more than last year.

With so many huge decisions as yet unmade, results from BAE Systems (BA.) should be interesting. Having kicked sequestration two months down the road, American politicians look no closer to doing a fiscal deal, so the US Department of Defence is gearing up for a budget bloodbath. There's little BAE can do about sequestration and it’s already warned of "disruption" in the fourth quarter. Analysts at Espirito Santo estimate a 6 per cent hit to earnings in 2013 should the full package of cuts goes ahead. BAE's Platforms and Services US division has suffered already and revenue there could be as little as $4.3bn (£2.7bn) in 2012. There’s no agreement with the Saudis on pricing for the massive Salam Typhoon programme, either, and BAE has warned underlying EPS will drop by 3p if nothing's decided before these results. Still, a lot of bad news appears factored in and there could be grounds for optimism elsewhere. A £500m share buy-back is possible, paid for with a big advance for the recent £2.5bn jet order from Oman. If not, it will likely be the summer. Espirito Santo is looking for full-year adjusted EPS of 40.8p.

Friday 22 February

Finals: Millennium & Copthorne, Rightmove

AGMs: Armour, Brewin Dolphin

EGM: Beale

Shares going ex-dividend on 20 February

The ex-dividend date is the first day on which it is no longer possible to buy the shares and qualify for the dividend. Ex-days are almost always a Wednesday. The record date is usually two days after the ex-date. The payment day is the day on which the funds are transferred to shareholders.