Shares News

Shares in Holiday Inn owner InterContinental Hotels (IHG) are up 1.5% at £47 despite operating profit falling 22.3% to $162m in the year ending 31 December 2018. The drop in operating profit has been blamed on a $108m jump in costs associated with InterContinental’s efficiency programme and a $112m higher in-year System Fund deficit. Investors may be forgiving of the lower profits on ...

A really disappointing end to 2018 for HSBC (HSBA) adds up to full year numbers short of expectations and is putting the share price under real pressure, down 4.3% at 635.3p at the last count. That still leaves the banking giant worth around £128bn. You can read the results for yourself here but one of the key takeaways was that pre-tax profit at $19.9bn is more than $1bn short of the ...

Investors’ voracious appetites for bakery food-on-the-go retailer Greggs (GRG) show no signs of being sated, the high-flying shares bid up another 6.6% to £17.07 on news of an ‘exceptionally strong start to 2019’. In a surprise trading update, Greggs says it now expects 2019 full year underlying pre-tax profit to beat its previous expectations following a publicity boost from its ...

Dividends take centre stage in early trade on Tuesday as banking giant HSBC (HSBA) and mining group BHP Billiton (BHP) maintain payouts to investors, while hotels operator Intercontinental Hotels (IHG) ups its own shareholder hand out by 10%. HSBC continues to demonstrate what a profitable core business it has as it increasingly concentrates on Asia, posting a near 16% rise in pre-tax profit ...

FTSE 100 steam management systems specialist Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) is in exclusive negotiations to acquire French firm Thermocoax from Chequers Capital for £139m on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The deal is expected to be earnings accretive in the year to 31 December 2019, yet shares in Spirax are barely changed at £67.08. Spirax shares are roughly 9% below their one-year high of ...

Shares in global consumer-health products maker Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) top the FTSE 100 this morning, rising 4% to £62.78 after the firm reports forecast-beating fourth quarter sales. On a like-for-like basis revenues in the three months to December were up 4% compared with just 2% in the previous quarter. This takes the full year growth rate to 3%, at the top end of its target range and a ...

The dip in academic publisher Pearson’s (PSON) share price despite news of the divestment of its structurally-challenged K12 US school textbook business could reflect the fact the deal does not represent the clean break the market is looking for. Pearson shares fall 0.7% to 913.8p as the $250m sale of K12 to Nexus Capital Management involves just $25m up front with the remainder being paid ...

Convenience stores-to-newsagents operator McColl’s Retail (MCLS) rallies 12.7% to 57p on the news the start of full year 2019 has seen an improving like-for-like sales trend. The neighbourhood retailer also avoids another punishing profit warning, still expecting to deliver ‘a modest improvement’ in adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) this ...

The FTSE 100 starts the week on the back foot although it is still holding on to a position north of 7,200, down 0.37% at 7,210.16 in early trading. An uptick in the pound contributing to the weaker open. Consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser (RB.) reports a 65% drop in annual profit owing to one-off gains and expenses but underlying earnings are up as the company hit the top end of its sales ...

The industrial property boom in the UK, driven by the rapid growth of e-commerce, looks still to be in full swing judging by results from warehouse landlord Segro (SGRO). The company reports 2018 results ahead of expectations with net asset value up 17%, earnings up 18% and the dividend up 16% to 18.8p. This was underpinned by robust rental growth and low vacancy rates. Management’s ...