Friday preview: Brokers divided on dividends for Berkeley

23rd Jun 2011 16:35

London and south-east house builder Berkeley raised the bar for full-year results back in March when it said earnings would be at the high end of its expectations.Brokers responded by revising their forecasts, and expectations now are for pre-tax profit of £129.8m on sales of £694.5m. Panmure Gordon is above the median forecast with its prediction of profits of £131.2m. The broker goes for earnings per share of 70.5p (consensus: 70.71p), and thinks shareholders will have to wait a while longer for a resumption of dividend payments, as it anticipates the group will continue to focus on land investment.Not all brokers agree; consensus is for Berkeley to pay a dividend of 2.72p, its first pay-out since 2004."In terms of sector commentary, we expect the group to comment that conditions have remained pretty robust. We know that London has continued to outperform the rest of the UK and this is borne out in Berkeley Group's performance over the past couple of years, with the group maintaining a net margin in the high teens," Panmure Gordon said."When we last heard from the group it reported a 25% increase in reservations, primarily driven by more sites coming on stream, and we would have expected this momentum to have continued in the weeks since," the broker added.On the economic front, all the action is happening overseas. US durable goods orders are forecast to have risen 1.6% in May, having declined 3.6% in April. German retail sales are seen having risen 1.0% in April, following on from March's 0.3% advance.INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEGCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd., Keystone Inv Trust, London Security, Northern Venture Trust, Standard Life Equity Income TrustINTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSConsumer Confidence Indicator (FRA) (07:45)IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00)IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00)IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00)Retail Sales (GER) Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)GDP (Final) (US) (13:30)FINALSBerkeley Group Holdings ANNUAL REPORTAlpha Tiger Property Trust Ltd., Northern 3 VCTSPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATERotorkEGMSUnited Bank Ltd. GDR (Reg S)AGMSAnglo Asian Mining, Canaccord Financial Inc., Cazenove Absolute Equity Ltd., Central Rand Gold Ltd., Diamond Circle Capital, Empyrean Energy, Fubon Financial Holdings Co Ltd.GDR (Reg S), Mitsubishi Corp., Narborough Plantations, Symphony Environmental TechnologiesFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBrainJuicer Group, Dignity, Fortune Oil, JKX Oil & Gas, John Menzies, Kings Arms Yard VCT, Kings Arms Yard VCT 2, Lees Foods, Matrix Income & Growth 4 VCT, Maven Income & Growth 2 VCT, Networkers International, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Spectris, Ukrproduct Group Ltd., Witan Pacific Inv Trust, Xaar--jh