Week Ahead 14-18 October

Monday 14 October

Finals: Nanoco, Tristel

Trading statements: Essentra, McBride

AGMs: Greenko, McBride

EGM: Phytopharm

Companies paying dividends: Chesnara (6.25p), Savills (3.5p), Stewart & Wight (16p)

Tuesday 15 October

Interim: Lombard Risk Management

Finals: Bellway, dotDigital, Utilitywise

Trading statements: Burberry, Carpetright, e2v Technologies, Hargreaves Lansdown, Michael Page International, Rio Tinto

EGM: LXB Retail Properties

Economics: Producer prices, ONS house prices, Consumer price index, Retail price index

Companies paying dividends: Intertek (15p), Mattioli Woods (4.67p), Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (2.9p), UTV Media (1.75p)

Bellway (BWY) full-year figures on Tuesday shouldn't hold many surprises. That's because the housebuilder's trading update in August has already revealed that completions in the year to end-July rose 8.2 per cent to 5,652, while the average selling price grew 3 per cent at £193,000. There are signs of modest cost pressure, but increased use of land acquired since the downturn and a favourable change in the product mix have also lifted the operating margin by around 200 basis points to around 11.4 per cent. Moreover, revenue from housing is expected to have risen from £975m to £1.09bn and the group has secured 3,525 forward orders - worth £679.5m, a 54 per cent rise year-on-year. Cash flow has been strong, too, so - even after spending £300m replenishing the land bank - net debt at the year-end was just £6m. Since the year-end, Bellway has increased the number of operating divisions by two to 13, which should provide a platform to increase output to around 7,500 units, according to broker Numis Securities. Numis upgraded its end-July 2014 forecasts on the back of update to pre-tax profit of £172m and EPS of 106.6p - the broker expects 86.1p for 2013. At 1,261p, the shares trade on just 12 times 2014's forecast earnings and a mere 1.2 times 2014's expected net asset value - that's too cheap given the growth potential Buy.

Wednesday 16 October

Interim: e-Therapeutics

Finals: Imperial Innovations, Smiths News

Trading statement: Hochschild Mining

Economics: Unemployment, Average earnings

Companies paying dividends: Hellermann Tyton (1.1p), Neptune Calculus Inc. & Grwth (1p)

When Smiths News (NWS) announces its full-year figures on Wednesday, investors will be looking for continued earnings growth and an update on the company’s diversification strategy away from the declining news distribution business. Recent contract renewals in news distribution provide some comfort there but, ultimately, the company’s other businesses - book supplier, Bertrams, and educational and care products distributor, The Consortium - is where Smiths' future will be found. Indeed, at the half-year stage in April, 27 per cent of group underlying pre-tax profit had been generated from activities unrelated to newspaper and magazine wholesaling - up from 17 per cent a year ago. Back in 2012, we tipped the shares as an income buy of the year (78p, 5 January 2012) and they have since soared to 202p. Indeed, that robust run led us to downgrade to a hold stance at the half-year stage. Broker N+1 Singer expects pre-tax profit of £51.6m for 2013, with EPS of 20p - leaving the shares trading on a fairly full 10 times forecast earnings. But with a tasty 4 per cent yield, the shares are still worth hanging onto for income. Hold.

Thursday 17 October

Interims: Booker, Etalon

Trading statements: British Sky Broadcasting, Britvic, Bunzl, Cairn Energy, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Diageo, Ferrexpo, Fresnillo, Jupiter Fund Management, Man Group, Mothercare, Omega Diagnostics, Polymetal International, Rank, Rathbone Brothers, Renishaw, SABMiller, Speedy Hire, Travis Perkins

AGMs: Brooks Macdonald, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, IG Group, Monitise, Rank, Renishaw

Economics: Retail sales

Companies paying dividends: Coral Products (0.5p), Melrose (2.75p), Netplay TV (0.18p), RPS (3.52p), Trifast (0.8p), Volex (1.985p)

Friday 18 October

Trading statements: Anglo American, Evraz, Provident Financial, Record, Spectris

AGM: John Swan & Sons

Companies paying dividends: Alent (2.89p), A.G. Barr (2.825p), Best Of The Best (1p), Brooks Macdonald (16p), Christie Group (0.5p), Clean Energy Brazil (3.2p), Computacenter (5.2p), Dart Group (1.33p), Esure (1.8p), Esure - Special (0.7p), Fiske (0.25p), G4S (3.42p), Highcroft Investment Trust (12.5p gross), Highland Gold (2.5p), John Laing Infrastructure (3.125p), Lavendon Group (1.15p), Personal Assets Trust (140p), Petrofac (14.1p), RIT Capital Partners (14p), Robert Walters (1.54p), Serco (3.1p), Stadium Group (0.45p), Stilo International- Special (0.1p), Stilo International (0.02p), Swan (John (5p), Total Produce (0.5209p), Treatt (5.5p), Tribal Group (0.5p), Tricorn (0.2p), Utilico (3.75p), Witan Pacific IT (2.05p).

Shares going ex-dividend on 16 October

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.

IC ONLINE

The data in the table above is a small selection of what's available on our website. Just go to www.investorschronicle.co.uk/shares and click on the dividend calendar box. You can download a full table of ex-dividend dates as an Excel spreadsheets. The dividend calendar is updated every Friday.