Shares jump to three-month highEarnings per share fall over 20%Dividend raised and new buybackInvestors gave the latest results from infrastructure firm Balfour Beatty (BBY) a fairly rapturous reception considering it reported a 20% drop in earnings for the year to December.The shares surged as much as 9% to a three-month high of 370p on a dull day for the rest of the FTSE 250 which traded just 0.

Even today?s market giants started out small. Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ) may now be the world?s largest company with a $3 trillion valuation which rivals the GDP of some major global economies but it began life as a start-up founded by Harvard College drop-out Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen. Few then would have predicted its global domination today.While we are not expecting the names

London?s FTSE 100 made a tepid start to 2024, with underwhelming manufacturing data from the UK and eurozone doing little to lift sentiment.Equities in New York are called to open lower ahead of a key week for the US interest rate outlook. The latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes are released on Wednesday, before the official US jobs report on Friday.The FTSE 100 index was down 29.34 points, 0.4

While the present-day incarnation of Currys (CURY) is a technology products specialist selling everything from whizzy gadgets to white goods, the retailer's origins can be traced back to 1884 when one Henry Curry founded the Curry Cycle Co bicycle-building business.In 1984, Dixons Retail acquired Currys and thirty years later, 'Dixons Carphone' was formed through a complex merger between Dixons an

Third quarter results beat forecastsPositive start to Christmas seasonTepid Q4 outlook weighs on sentimentOne of the athleisure industry?s star turns, yoga lifestyle giant Lululemon (LULU:NASDAQ), delivered forecast-beating results (7 December) for the third quarter to 31 October and flagged a pleasing start to the Christmas shopping season.Why then, did shares in the yoga-pants-to-belt-bags selle

If you buy Warren Buffett lore that you should only invest in companies that you're happy to own forever, you want to make sure they're up to it. One of the key things that Fundsmith Equity (B41YBW7) founder Terry Smith, and many other top investors, use to evaluate companies is a measure called return on capital employed, or ROCE for short. This looks at a company's profitability compared to how

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has floated and announced big policy changes recently from delaying a ban of the sales of new petrol and diesel cares, pulling back on phasing out gas boilers and introducing a New Zealand-style anti-smoking policy.There has also been the public discussion of abandoning or at least curtailing the zero-carbon high-speed railway to the north of England - better known as HS

The apparent resilience of the US economy has led market commentators to believe the Federal Reserve has little reason to stop raising interest rates to combat inflation. This tide might be turning, judging by the news flow from US companies.Big name businesses are saying that life is getting tougher, while economists are worried that US consumer spending levels are unsustainable.We saw a wobble o

It has been a mixed and up and down week for US stocks as AI-related excitement linked to Nvidia's (NVDA:NASDAQ) shoot the lights out performance has gradually been outweighed by concern about interest rates.It's probably not the healthiest situation for the entire market's fortunes to be so heavily tied to one stock and US stocks looked increasingly sickly as the week went on. There was real trep

Balfour Beatty CEO snaps up sharesOn The Beach chief buys on weaknessMarks & Spencer director adds to holdingLeo Quinn, chief executive of construction and infrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BBY), has bought a total of 57,269 shares in two separate tranches this week - 32,269 at 308p and 25,000 at 310p for £198,992 on the 16 and 17 August 2023 respectively.The purchases come after the company r

While there is much handwringing over the outlook for the new-build housing sector, it seems the rest of the UK construction industry is in rude health. That has helped construction to be one of the best performing sectors in the FTSE 350 index year-to-date, up 20%.The latest S&P Global/CIPS UK Construction PMI survey - which tracks changes in the total volume of construction activity in the UK by

- YouGov boss transfers shares to family firm, gifts shares to children- London Stock Exchange NED buys over £1 million of shares- Balfour Beatty chief capitalises on positive set of resultsStephan Shakespeare, the chief executive of YouGov (YOU), the international online research and data analytics group, sold 1,563,625 shares at 950p per share on 3 April for a total consideration of £14,853,43

- Contract win worth £1.2 billion- Crossing to provide a crucial link- Focus on public works pays offConstruction and infrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BBY) has added another high-profile project to its UK order book with the Lower Thames Crossing contract.The shares, which have risen more than 25% since their October low, added another 1% to 363p.BUILDING BRIDGESThe new contract, worth a tota

Thanks to a slew of major UK and US public works programmes, revenues and earnings at construction and engineering firm Balfour Beatty (BBY) are set to beat expectations in 2022, according to the company.The news sent shares in the group up 2.7% to 346p on 8 December, their highest level in more than a decade.Major UK projects include the Queen Street station in Glasgow, Whitechapel station on the

- Infrastructure market is booming- Full-year profits seen above consensus- Shares just pence away from a new highInternational infrastructure group Balfour Beatty (BBY) received the thumbs-up from investors for its latest trading update and increased full-year earnings guidance.The shares gained 3% to 342p, above their September closing high of 340p, which - assuming they stay at that level at th

US stocks made some progress during a week curtailed by the Thanksgiving holiday. All the main indices were ahead thanks to reassuring noises from the US Federal Reserve about a slowing in the pace of interest rate hikes.The minutes of the latest Fed meeting strongly hinted that the days of 75 basis point increases may now be behind us.Ahead of the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales event, there

- First half earnings beat estimates- Order book reaches £17.7 billion- Full-year margins seen topping forecastsShares in Balfour Beatty (BBY) leapt 10% to a 12-month high of 321p after the construction and infrastructure group posted a strong set of interim results and raised its full year outlook.On the back of a 42% increase in underlying first-half profits, the board now expects margins to be

At the end of November 2021, publisher Future (FUTR) had a market value of £4.5 billion and looked as if it could soon qualify for the FTSE 100 index.However, during the past six months the market has been less enthusiastic about paying a high rating for fast-growth stocks, a group which includes Future. This shift in investor behaviour has seen Future's share price fall by 49% year-to-date.Given

Balfour Beatty (BBY) chairman Charles Allen, and chief executive Leo Quinn, have both acquired shares with a combined value of £430,00.On 10 March Charles Allen acquired 100,000 shares at a price of £2.42. A day later Leo Quinn bought 78,740 shares at price of £2.39.The share purchases follow the announcement of full year results for 2021, which were materially ahead of expectations.The FTSE 25

The FTSE 100 closed lower Friday as inflation and higher interest rates came into focus on a strong US jobs report and a bounce back for major tech stocks.The unexpected surge in jobs last month, up 467,000 versus an estimate of 150,000 rise, spiked bond yields and reaffirmed to investors that the Federal Reserve would continue with its plan to raise interest rates as soon as March.At the close, t