On a busy day for reporting, temporary power provider Aggreko (AGK) dives 13% to 920.75p after reporting full year pre-tax profits of £221m, around £1m light of the £222m consensus. Aggreko also warns 2017 profits will be lower than last year due to the impact of pricing renegotiations in Argentina.
Full year pre-tax profit from builders’ merchant Grafton (GFTU) is approximately 8% better than expected, helped by a good show in Ireland and the Netherlands. The company is confident enough to open 10 new Selco stores this year and says it is also looking for new acquisition opportunities.
This bullish outlook helps to drive up Grafton’s share price by 7.7% to 653.75p. It also has positive read-across to sector peer Travis Perkins (TPK) which sees its shares rise 1.9% to £14.69.
Brickmaker Ibstock (IBST) advances 1.6% to 206.4p as its 2016 results are also ahead of expectation. It also expects developer clients in the UK to increase their activity levels.
Investors regain an appetite for online takeaway service Just Eat (JE.), which jumps 4.4% higher to 541p as full year results confirm a period of strong growth. There’s also a bullish outlook, management guiding to an EBITDA range of £157-163m, while current consensus is on £157.4m, so a touch ahead of market expectations.
Elsewhere, Direct Line (DLG) cheapens 2p to 346.4p as it reports lower 2016 profits caused by the reduction in the Ogden discount rate and raises the final dividend 5.4% to 9.7p. This takes total dividends for 2016 to 24.6p, half the 50.1p paid in 2015 and short of expectations for the year.
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) drops 3.9% to £84.45 despite posting in-line 2016 results with group EBITDA up an impressive 35% to £400m. While the Australian business delivers an earnings beat, investors are disappointed by continuing weakness in online gaming.
Total quality assurance provider Intertek (ITRK) ticks 4.8% higher to £37.65 following a strong revenue, earnings and cash performance in 2016, the latter underpinning a 19.3% increase in the dividend to 62.4p.
Embattled retailer Sports Direct (SPD) slumps 4.6% to 285.7p as it warns devaluation of the euro against the dollar will hit gross margin, since it has no euro/dollar hedging in place for next year. The news accompanies a clarification regarding Agent Provocateur, acquired by Four, a company in which Sports Direct has a 25% holding, rather than by Sports Direct itself.