Building materials group Kingspan's (KGP) 12 per cent top-line jump looks great, but 11 percentage points of that came from acquisitions. That said, as helpful as acquisitions can be for sales growth, they can cause equal damage to margins and thus profits. But, in actuality, favourable raw material prices allowed group trading margins to widen by 180 basis points last year to 11 per cent, which helped lift group trading profit by a third to €341m (£294m).
Management put these record figures down to solid performance in the UK, as well as a clear recovery across much of western Europe. But the US market was notably more subdued during the second half, especially in regard to demand for insulated panels, and the group admits this could negatively affect sales there during the first half of 2017. The forward order book is said to be "solidly ahead" of last year, but concerns are already mounting about rising input prices this year.
Analysts at Davy expect EPS of 148¢ for the year ending December 2017, on pre-tax profits of €326m, up from 144¢ in FY2016.
| KINGSPAN (KGP) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 2,952¢ | MARKET VALUE: | €5.26bn | |
| TOUCH: | 2,948-2,953¢ | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 3,002¢ | LOW: 1,738¢ |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.1% | PE RATIO: | 21 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 817¢* | NET DEBT: | 29% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (€bn) | Pre-tax profit (€m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 1.60 | 90.0 | 43.8 | 12.3 |
| 2013 | 1.80 | 102 | 51.7 | 14.0 |
| 2014 | 1.89 | 128 | 62.6 | 16.3 |
| 2015 | 2.77 | 232 | 107 | 25.0 |
| 2016 | 3.11 | 314 | 144 | 33.5 |
| % change | +12 | +35 | +35 | +34 |
Ex-div: 30 Mar Payment: 5 May *Includes intangible assets of €1.08bn, or 608¢ a share £1=€1.16 | ||||
