Wednesday preview: Glaxo, Mitchells & Butlers, MPC

20th Jul 2010 17:42

In GlaxoSmithKline's second quarter results on Wednesday, Charles Stanley is looking for revenues of £6.99bn and £2bn profit. 'Expect these results to show continued growth in emerging market activities and a continued positive contribution over the quarter from H1N1 pandemic 'flu preparations estimated at £125m,' says the broker. Panmure Gordon, meanwhile, thinks the second quarter will have been a difficult one for the company and predicts that nominal earnings per share will slide 9% to 28.2p. "With legal charges pre-announced last week totalling 26.5p per share, the company will be barely profitable this quarter," the broker said. Notwithstanding the above, the broker's forecasts are slightly above consensus; it is going for £7.1bn in sales and operating profit of £2.15bn."There is some expectation by some analysts that the company will provide long-term aspirational guidance to 2015, which may trigger significant upgrades. We do not share such optimism, particularly as the company barely provides outlook for the current financial year and, in any case, providing such information at the interims stage will be seen as reactionary following AstraZeneca's success since January," Panmure Gordon opines.Tuesday's results from Enterprise Inns should provide something of a read across for fellow pub operator Mitchells & Butlers, which brings out an interim management statement on Wednesday. As has been the case for the other pub groups, the company is likely to have enjoyed the FIFA World Cup somewhat more than England fans though the group has a higher proportion of restaurants disguised as pubs than its peers, so the boost from the footie might not be so noticeable.Wednesday will see the release of the minutes from the July meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and these will be the most eagerly awaited for some time now we know that one member, Andrew Sentance, voted in the June meeting for a small increase in interest rates.The market is expecting Sentance to have been the sole dissenting voice from the preservation of the status quo on interest rate policy, especially as a couple of MPC members went public with opposing views to Sentance's.The entire committee is likely to have been in favour of leaving the quantitative easing policy unchanged.INTERIMS Galiform, GlaxoSmithKline INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE Domino's Pizza UK & IRL, Heavitree, Imperial Tobacco Group, Sanderson Group QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE Merchants Trust INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30) MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00) Q2 GlaxoSmithKline GMS Intelligent Environments FINALS CSF Group, Eredene Capital, West Pioneer Properties (DI), Zetar IMSS Cable & Wireless Communications, Land Securities Group, Mitchells & Butlers, Optos EGMS Bulgarian Land Development AGMS Akers Biosciences, Inc (Reg S), Alterian, API Group, B.P. Marsh & Partners, Blacks Leisure Group, Cable & Wireless Communications, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Caledonia Investments, Experian Group, F&C Global Smaller Companies, Helical Bar, IQE, Johnson Matthey, MobilityOne, NewRiver Retail Ltd. (Reg S), Prosperity Russia Domestic Fund Ltd., RAB Special Situations Company Ltd., Rensburg AIM VCT, Sepura, UBC Media Group, Wincanton INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Cabinet Office Monthly Economic Report (JPN)UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS BoE Interest Rate Minutes (09:30) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Framlington AIM VCT 2, Hasgrove, Home Retail Group, Printing.com FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE Castings, Cropper (James), Halma, ICAP, Kewill, London Stock Exchange Group, MDM Engineering Group, Mulberry Group, ProVen VCT Q1 Optos