Wednesday preview: Smiths Group, Man Group

27th Sep 2011 17:49

Medical devices and airport scanners maker Smiths Group has had an up-and-down year, which started with it rejecting a bid approach, went on to include a healthy increase in interim profits, followed by a warning on order delays in Smiths Detection and then, in June, a trading update that revealed revenue growth in its John Crane division helped offset weaker sales from Smiths Detection.For its full year results, the market is expecting Smiths to announce profit before tax of £441.5m, up from £435m last year, on turnover of £2.84bn, up from £2.77bn. Earnings per share are tipped to rise 4% to 88.43p and the full-year dividend is seen rising to 36.23p from 34p last year."Divisional performance has been mixed and certain end markets continue to face headwinds," Charles Stanley notes. "Strategic focus is likely to remain on margins and cash generation. In June, SMIN [Smiths Group] announced that it would revisit divisional targets over the next 12 months (this could see lower growth targets for Detection and Interconnect and increased margin expectations for John Crane and Medical)," the broker added. Nomura, meanwhile, thinks the focus of Wednesday's results announcement will be on the group's outlook statement, as well as on pensions and the restructuring of the Detection division. It does not expect new mid-term targets to be communicated. "As we think that government spending is on a downward trend and that business disposals for Smiths look unlikely in the near term (before the group is finished with its self-help initiatives), we see a lack of catalysts to see Smiths re-rate faster than the sector," Numura said.Hedge fund manager Man Group is set to release a pre-close trading update ahead of its results for the half-year to the end of September. "We estimate that funds under management will be slightly lower than the $71.0bn reported at the end of June with our current estimate standing at $69.6bn," predicts Singer Capital Markets. "However, with global markets in turmoil, this is clearly subject to some revision. We highlight though that AHL [Man's flagship fund] has more recently been positioned short stock indices, long bonds and long metals. Given this mix, we believe that AHL will be performing extremely well, at least today," the broker added."Since AHL has seen a strong positive rebound in investment performance and has enjoyed a good level of inflows over recent months, Man is bound to encounter renewed criticism over the reliance on this strategy despite its attempts to diversify. In current market conditions, however, we consider this to be an attractive feature since the generation of significant performance fee cash flows is brought closer, underpinning a 7% yield and offering scope for further cash returns," Singer said, explaining its "buy" recommendation and 300p price target. INTERIMSHightex Group, Judges Scientific, Lees Foods, Mam Funds, Morson Group, Panmure Gordon & CoINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEBritish American Tobacco, Lancashire Holdings, Maven Income & Growth 4 VCT, Maven Income & Growth 4 VCT 'S' SharesINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEAdmiral Group, Bovis Homes Group, Braime (T.F.& J.H.) Holdings, Braime (T.F.& J.H.) Holdings (Non-Voting), Centrica, Derwent London, Development Securities, Dignity, Drax Group, Dunedin Income Growth Inv Trust, Fairpoint Group, Fiberweb, Filtrona PLC, French Connection Group, Highland Gold Mining Ltd., InterQuest Group, Invesco Perpetual UK Small Companies Inv Trust, IS Solutions, KBC Advanced Technologies, M. P. Evans Group, Mecom Group, Mitsubhi Electric Corp., Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, Nature Group, Quarto Group Inc., Rotala, Shore Capital Group Ltd., Toshiba Corp., Tullow Oil, Vitec Group, Wynnstay GroupQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEAfrica Opportunity Fund Ltd., Dow Chemical Co, Mercantile Inv Trust, Molex Inc., Real Estate Credit Investments PCC Ltd, Yamana Gold Inc.INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSGross Domestic Product (FRA) (06:30)Consumer Prices Index (GER) MBA Mortgage Applications (US) (12:00)Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)Crude Oil Inventories (US) (15:30)FINALSBoomerang Plus, Produce Investment, Regenersis, Smiths GroupANNUAL REPORTPsource Structured Debt Ltd.IMSSDomino's Pizza UK & IRL, MisysSPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEHighland Gold Mining Ltd.EGMSREA HoldingsAGMSAurora Russia Ltd., Begbies Traynor Group, Cape, Eckoh, Eros International, GTL Resources, Merchant Securities Group, Misys, Miton Worldwide Growth Inv Trust, Oil & Gas Development Company Ltd. GDR (Reg S), SPARK Ventures, Toledo Mining Corp., ZetarTRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSFuture, Liontrust Asset Managament, Man GroupFINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEMicro Focus International PlcFINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEHansard Global, JPMorgan Mid Cap Inv Trust, Oxford Instruments, Penna Consulting--jh