Week Ahead: 21-25 October

Monday 21 October

Trading statements: Informa, Senior

AGM: Renewable Energy

Economics: Rightmove house price data

Companies paying dividends: Renishaw (28.67p),

Tuesday 22 October

Interims: BP Marsh & Partners, Whitbread

Finals: Epistem, Spirit Pub Company

Trading statements: ARM Holdings, BHP Billiton, Eurasia Drilling Company, GKN, Petropavlovsk, UBM, Reckitt Benckiser

Economics: Public sector borrowing figures

Companies paying dividends: IG Group (17.5p)

Restaurant, coffee shop and budget hotel group Whitbread (WTB) looks set to report pleasing half-year figures on Tuesday. Last month’s trading update revealed that group like-for-like sales had risen 2.6 per cent in the 24 weeks to 15 August - the Costa coffee chain delivered 2.6 per cent underlying growth in that period, while the Premier Inn business grew underlying sales by 2.9 per cent. Although Costa’s strongest performance came in the first quarter as exceptionally warm weather in the second meant fewer customers visiting coffee shops. Investors should expect a growth boost from expansion efforts, too. Whitbread opened 11 hotels and thee joint venture site restaurants in the 24 weeks, while management expects to open around 300 net new stores in the full-year. Such expansion helped total sales in the period to rise 12.4 per cent. Broker Numis expects pre-tax profit of £396.9m for the year to end-February 2014, giving EPS of 158.8p. But, at 3,078p, the shares trade on 19 times forecast earnings - which thoroughly factors in Whitbread’s attractive growth characteristics. Hold.

Wednesday 23 October

Interim: Home Retail

Trading statements: ASOS, British American Tobacco, Computacenter, GlaxoSmithKline, International Personal Finance, Laird, Mecom, Sports Direct International

AGMs: Arcontech Group, Haynes Publishing

EGM: MTI Wireless Edge

Economics: Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee minutes, British Bankers Association house purchase loans data

Companies paying dividends: Assura (0.3025p), International Public Partnerships (3.075p), Interserve (6.8p), Rank Group (2.85p)

After Home Retail (HOME) - which operates Homebase and Argos - released a trading update last month, then investors shouldn’t expect too much that’s new from its half-year figures on Wednesday, although recent performance has been improving. Until this year, the group had seen underlying sales decline for the past five years, but - after adopting a five-year turnaround plan last October - that’s all changed. In fact, Argos grew first half like-for-like sales by 2.3 per cent year-on-year, while Homebase saw underlying sales jump 5.9 per cent. But shareholders shouldn’t break out the champagne just yet. That’s because profit margins remain under pressure. Argos’ half-year gross margin fell 75 basis points, for instance, and Homebase’s tumbled 100 basis points. "Margin decline reflects structural pressures," said analysts at broker Numis Securities in a recent note. "Particularly, lack of pricing power, exposure to low-growth categories and high fixed costs." The broker expects pre-tax profit of £97.5m for the year to end-February 2014, giving EPS of 9p. At 170p, that leaves the shares rated on 19 times forecast earnings - that’s quite full enough given the margin pressure facing the group. Hold.

Thursday 24 October

Interims: Bloomsbury Publishing, Stobart Group

Finals: Avacta Group, Debenhams, Tracsis

Trading statements: AZ Electronic Materials, Ensco, Go-Ahead Group, ICON, Inchcape, International Ferro Metals, Kazakhmys, Segro, Shire, St James's Place, Unilever, WPP

AGMs: Go-Ahead Group, BHP Billiton, Murgitroyd Group, Rangers International Football Club, Thorntons

EGMs: Archipelago Resources, Fiberweb, MS International

Economics: Confederation of British Industry - trends data for total orders and selling prices and business optimism data

Companies paying dividends: BlackRock Com Inc Inv (1.475p), Brainjuicer (0.9p), Brainjuicer - special (12p), Derwent London (10.75p), Finsbury Food (0.75p), Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Co's Inv (1.6p), Morgan Sindall (12p), Oxford Instruments (8.15p), Premier Farnell (4.4p)

Department store operator Debenhams (DEB) reports full-year figures on Thursday and investors can expect decent growth, driven by solid summer trading and - significantly - by the success of the group’s online offering. A trading update last month reported that online sales had soared by 46.2 per cent in the year to 31 August, giving the group a 3.7 per cent slice of the online market - analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove reckon that could reach around 5 per cent in the medium-term. While group like-for-like sales rose by a solid 2 per cent in that period. Given the discretionary nature of the group’s product categories, sales growth should improve further as UK consumer conditions continue to recover. Despite this good news, however, the shares - at 104p - trade on under 11 times JP Morgan Cazenove’s full-year earnings estimate of 9.85p (forecast pre-tax profit of £155m). That rating represents an unjustified discount to the retail sector and we reiterate our buy tip (94p, 24 August 2012). Buy.

Friday 25 October

Trading statements: APR Energy, Phoenix Group Holdings, SVG Capital, Vesuvius

AGMs: Daily Internet, Hargreaves Lansdown

Economics: Third-quarter GDP figures, index of services

Companies paying dividends: Air Partner (14p), Amati VCT 2 (2.75p), Boot (Henry) (1.95p), Charlemagne Capital (0.3133p), City of London Investment (16p), Consort Medical (12.71p), Costain (3.75p), Cranshaw (0.09p), CRH (15.8p), Development Securities (2.4p), Eco Animal Health (4p), F&C Asset Management (1p), Fairpoint (2.15p), Fortune Oil - special (2.36p), Good Energy Group (1p), Helphire (0.11p), H.R. Owen (2p), Inmarsat (11.55p), IS Solutions (0.48p), JPM Global Emerging (2.1p), JPM Income & Capital Trust (1.5p), Kentz Corporation (4.23p), Martin Currie Global Portfolio Trust (0.9p), Norish Units (1.05p), Pennant International (0.8p), Real Estate Investors (1p), Ruffer Investment (1.7p), Troy Income & Growth Trust (0.55p), Twentyfour Income Fund (1.25p), Vitec (8.9p).

Shares going ex-dividend 23 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.