Shares at Empiric Student Property (ESP) fell 7 per cent after the company revealed that margins and dividend cover have been adversely affected by a number of financial and operational inefficiencies within the company and its supply chain.
IC TIP:
Buy
at
90p
A full operational and financial review has now been completed and improvements are currently being implemented that management hopes will restore margins and dividend cover in 2018. The dividend target is also being reduced from 6.1p to 5.5p a share for the year to December 2017 and to 5p the following year.
Margins for the year to December 2017 are expected to be between 57 per cent and 60 per cent, although significant progress is expected next year towards a target of 70 per cent.
