Howden Joinery's (HWDN) revenue from its domestic operations increased by 3.4 per cent on a same-depot basis to £625m during the first
The account base remains stable at approximately 470,000 customers, but sales per customer went up in the period. New customer spending also grew, pushing up profit per new credit account. With a £37m windfall from a price hike in January and more disciplined balance between volumes and price achieved in depots, the overall group gross margin improved by 0.6 percentage points to 61.9 per cent.
However, debtors were £17m higher than at the beginning of the period and stock levels increased by £21.3m due to the introduction of new product ranges, depots and £12m of additional inventory for ‘No-Deal’ Brexit contingency planning. Meanwhile, creditors were up by £28.5m. That was even before “period 11”, when trading activity peaks late in the second half.
Peel Hunt expects adjusted pre-tax profit of £251m and EPS of 33.4p for the full year, rising to £261m and 35.2p in 2020.
| HOWDEN JOINERY (HWDN) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 539.4p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 3.24bn | |
| TOUCH: | 539.6-540.2p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 541p | LOW: 412p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.2% | PE RATIO: | 16 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 92p | NET CASH: | £217m | |
| Half-year to 15 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2018 | 619 | 68.8 | 8.9 | 3.7 |
| 2019 | 653 | 78.1 | 10.3 | 3.9 |
| % change | +5 | +14 | +16 | +5 |
| Ex-div: | 24 Oct | |||
| Payment: | 22 Nov |
