Three key news stories unfolding as the UK stock market opens. Check out our companies reporting diary for upcoming results from FTSE 350 and selected international stocks.
Airline operator IAG [LON:IAG] issued full year results this morning, posting record revenues and operating profits that landed just ahead of the upper end of market forecasts. The company has also revealed generous cash return terms to investors, with dividends up 8.9% whilst the share buy back is being increased by a further EUR500m to EUR1.5bn. The outlook is for revenue growth and high margins to be sustained.
Full year results from the educational publisher Pearson [LON:PSON] are out with sales up 4% and adjusted operating profits 6% higher. A 30 basis point improvement in margins was seen, advancing to 17.2%, the full year dividend is being increased by 5%, whilst there are also expectations that sales growth can be continued at or above the current level.
The investment trust Impax Environmental Markets [LON:IEM] has thrown in the towel this morning following a battle with activist shareholders Saba. This is a troubling development as the closure of the fund takes no account of the wishes of investors who wanted to back the environmental ambitions, rather than be focused purely on maximising returns. Those investors will now be forced into a potentially expensive reallocation exercise, whilst the fund was clearly unable to justify continuing its equally expensive defence against Saba. Closer regulatory oversight of opportunistic moves like this that fail to reflect the interests of all shareholders is evidently necessary.
Today we are focusing on Rolls-Royce which has produced another set of solid results and continues to go from strength to strength.
We also take a look at The Investment Company – a Victorian era investment trust that is looking to change strategy to suit a more modern environment.
For Plus+ members, we revisit Rio Tinto following their results last week and identify three key themes that could position the business well for the future. Sign up for your free 4 week trial to read the full report.
Finally, we look ahead to next week’s earnings and feature previews for Greggs, Admiral and Taylor Wimpey. Today’s company diary features IAG, Melrose, Pearson and Rightmove.
