Wednesday preview: Reckitt and BATS to update on third-quarter trading

23rd Oct 2012 16:15

Consumer products giant Reckitt Benckiser is due to report its third-quarter results on Wednesday.The company, whose 'powerbrands' include Vanish, Harpic, Cillit Bang and Finish, is expected to report a 3.8% organic sales growth rate on the guided metric (excluding RB Pharmaceuticals and including Foods), according to consensus estimates.Investec, however, predicts a 3.1% increase - "a low-end view", it admits. "We note the one percentage point tougher comp than Q2, continuing challenges in Southern Europe and hints of a slowdown in Asia," said analyst Martin Deboo in a research report on Monday."We continue to see the impending change of CFO as a positive catalyst and are warming to the Reckitt story. But there are some difficult H2 waters to navigate," Deboo said.Meanwhile, cigarette giant British American Tobacco is also on the schedule for a third-quarter update on Wednesday, in which it is expected to reported a 5% increase in organic revenues (constant currency basis) for the nine months to September 30th, according to Panmure Gordon last week.This will be an acceleration from the 4% growth reported in the first half, driven by improved pricing, the broker said. Group volumes are forecast to fall by one billion sticks, or 0.1%, to 522bn over the nine-month period.Panmure said: "Tobacco stocks have been weak recently, impacted by negative regulatory news flow and a more general switch out of defensive names. Year to date BATS' shares have underperformed the FTSE All Share by 1.3%, recording an absolute gain of 5.9%." The broker said that the valuation - shares were trading last week at 14.3 times earnings - is undemanding "given the strength of the underlying cash flows".INTERIMS Home Retail Group, Lombard Risk Management, Volkswagen AG INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Interserve, Invesco Perpetual UK Small Companies Inv Trust INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE Capital Lease Aviation, Goals Soccer Centres, Hansteen Holdings, Harvey Nash Group, Hunting, Marshalls, Menzies(John), Octopus VCT , Old Mutual, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Senior, Tullett Prebon, Walker Greenbank, William Hill QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE Assura Group Ltd. QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE City of London Inv Trust INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30) FOMC Interest Rate (US) (17:15) House Price Index (US) (15:00) IFO Business Climate (GER) (09:00) IFO Current Assessment (GER) (09:00) IFO Expectations (GER) (09:00) MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00) New Homes Sales (US) (15:00) Q3 Lilly (Eli) & Co, Reckitt Benckiser Group, Torchmark Corp. ANNUAL REPORT Hargreaves Lansdown, K3 Business Technology Group IMSS British American Tobacco SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Bailey (C.H.) EGMS 3D Diagnostic Imaging AGMS Avingtrans, Haynes Publishing Group, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS Sportingbet UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS CBI Industrial Trends Surveys (11:00) FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Brooks Macdonald Group FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE BlackRock Greater Europe Inv Trust, British Sky Broadcasting Group, Edge Performance VCT 'D' Shares, Edge Performance VCT 'E' Shares, Edge Performance VCT 'F' Shares, Edge Performance VCT G Shares, Goldplat, Impax Asian Environmental Markets, Interior Services Group, JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust, Mcbride, Plexus Holdings, Smiths Group, Thorpe (F.W.), Wetherspoon (J.D.)