Wednesday tips round-up: Oxford Instruments and easyJet
16th Nov 2011 07:16
The Times's Tempus column assesses Oxford Instruments. The firm specialises in equipment that can analyse material at the molecular level. Its products are often used to test food although as Tempus mentions, the company was also involved in making sure the soil at the Olympic site in East London wa
Read moreeasyJet to pay special dividend after revenues soar
15th Nov 2011 07:49
Airline easyJet is set to pay a £195m dividend after its revenues soared 16% in the year ended 30 September. Revenue leapt from £2.97bn to £3.45bn, leading to a 60.8% rise in reported profit before tax of £248m (2010: £154m). The one-off payment, together with the ordinary dividend of 10.5p per
Read moreFTSE 250 Movers: Premier Foods drops... again
14th Nov 2011 14:19
Premier Foods was leading the way lower after UBS downgraded the stock from neutral to sell, and slashed its target from 21p to 2p, saying it's "difficult to see a way back from here". The group announced last week that it had negotiated a deferral of the next financial covenant test from December
Read moreMonday newspaper round-up: Iraq, CBI, Easy Jet, France
14th Nov 2011 06:44
The British government and former BP boss Tony Hayward yesterday waded into the legal battle over control of the oil in Kurdistan, calling on Baghdad to stop obstructing the development of the region's hydrocarbon reserves. The calls came as Baghdad renewed its threat to throw Exxon Mobil out of the
Read moreeasyJet passenger numbers up in October
4th Nov 2011 08:18
Budget airline easyJet said it increased total passenger numbers by 8% in October. Just under five million passengers bought seats on the airline, compared to 4.6m the previous year. easyJet also said it increased its 'load factor' - which measures the number of passengers as a proportion of the
Read moreUPDATE: Thursday broker round-up
6th Oct 2011 09:28
Intermediate Capital: RBS cuts target from 405p to 360p, buy rating maintained. EasyJet: Credit Suisse upgrades to overperform from neutral. RyanAir: Credit Suisse upgrades to overperform from neutral. Tesco: Credit Suisse reiterates overperform with target at 500p. Tesco: Evolution Securities
Read moreeasyJet passenger numbers up 8.5%
6th Oct 2011 08:16
Budget airline easyJet said passenger numbers in September increased 8.5% to 5.18m from 4.77m a year before. The September load factor, which measures how full each plane is, rose 0.3 percentage points to 89.6% from 89.3%. --- cj
Read moreTuesday tips round-up: Ricardo, Aggreko, Reed Elsevier
27th Sep 2011 06:48
Ricardo has never been busier turning out the sort of supercars that would seem to be out of the price range of anyone barring investment bankers and Russian oligarchs. The company's performance products division, which is the part of Ricardo that actually makes things as opposed to advising how to,
Read moreStelios airline sparks new battle with easyJet
26th Sep 2011 15:45
Airline easyJet has come out fighting following news that founder and major shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is to launch his own airline, Fastjet. Sir Stelios has a 38% stake in easyJet and will net £72m from a special dividend the company agreed to pay following strong pressure from its found
Read moreBroker snap: Power battles at easyJet, Prime Markets says sell
23rd Sep 2011 11:41
Prime Markets suggests selling easyJet into any strength despite the low-cost airline raising its profit guidance on Thursday. The group's expectation for profit before tax for the year ending 30 September 2011 is now between £240m and £250m compared with its previous expectation of £200m to £230m,
Read moreHostilities cease at easyJet
23rd Sep 2011 07:13
Peace has broken out at airline easyJet. It said this morning that easyGroup, the company owned by easyJet's founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has withdrawn its request for an extraordinary general meeting. Sir Stelios, who has a 38% in easyJet, had been unhappy with the board of easyJet's plans o
Read moreFriday tips round-up: TUI, United Utilities, Micro Focus
23rd Sep 2011 06:33
Travel group TUI is on course for pre-tax profits of about £360 million for the year to the end of September, putting the shares, off 4% at 148½p, on a little more than six times earnings, which looks cheap. They have lost about 40% of their value this year, not helped by the upheavals at rival Thom
Read moreFriday newspaper round-up: IMF, Europe banks, business buddies
23rd Sep 2011 06:06
The head of the International Monetary Fund yesterday warned world leaders that they are running out of time to prevent another global slump and urged them to rediscover a "collective momentum" in order to head off disaster. Speaking in advance of the opening of the IMF's annual conference in Washin
Read moreLondon close: Markets dive on dismal global outlook
22nd Sep 2011 16:30
Gloomy comments from the Federal Reserve last night followed by even gloomier remarks by leading economists terrified the markets on Thursday, with benchmarks in the UK, Europe and the US suffering falls of between 3% and 5% as of 16:30. The FTSE 100 in London was nearly 5% down by the end of the se
Read moreFTSE 250 Movers: easyJet is flying high
22nd Sep 2011 13:51
No-frills airline easyJet has raised full-year profits guidance, paving the way for a bumper special dividend, a move which sent the share price to the top of the FTSE 250 leaderboard. It wasn't all good news, however, as the firm warned its 2012 fuel bill will increase by around £220m compared to
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