There's been much recent talk of the continued strength of the UK housing market and investors will be keen to see what sort of take Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) has on the subject.
Midweek sees the developer - one of the biggest in the UK - report full year numbers and the general consensus appears to be that it shouldn't throw up any surprises.
"Following its July trading update, the results are expected to bring few surprises, with attention potentially focused on any accompanying current trading comments,” Hargreaves Lansdown has said.
A cursory look at the share chart in last couple of years underline's Barratt's trajectory and the stock is currently at 637p, having risen over 35% since the start of 2015 alone.
Indeed, July's trading update predicted a 45% upswing in annual profits.
Chief executive David Thomas told investors the housing market remained strong, as he revealed the business was “well on its way” to hitting its 2017 targets of 20% gross margin and 25% return on capital. In the year just gone, that latter figure was 23.8%.
Total completions for the 12 months to June 30 were up just under 11% at 16,447, while the average selling price rose 8% to £262,000, driven by a changing mix in the houses built and inflation.
Pre-tax profit for the year just gone are seen at £565mln, up from £390.6mln.
The upbeat mood was heightened on Tuesday, when two of the big players also repeated their optimism over the health of the market.
North-west based Redrow (LON:RDW) said orders were at an all-time as sales smashed through the £1bn level for the first time in the year to June just ended to £1.15bn.
London- based Berkeley Group (LON;BKR) also reported a strong start to the year.
”The combination of good demand fundamentals, the lack of supply of good quality new homes in London and the South of England, continued low interest rates and a growing economy underpin this market," it said.
The RICS housing market survey will be released on Thursday, and then July’s construction output data will be published on Friday.
Broker Investec said last week: “Taken together, we expect these releases to show continued solid growth in the household (and housing) sector, while this year’s strength in sterling (up over 5% this year, in trade-weighted terms) should mean that trade and factory output suffer (though recent trade data have been better than expected).
Announcements expected:
Final: Monitise (LON:MONI), Mattioli Woods (LON:MTW), Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV).
Interims: Futura Medical (LON:FUM), Futura Medical (LON:FUM, Advanced Medical Solutions Group (LON:AMS), Alliance Pharma (LON:APH), Martinco (LON:MCO), Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.), Dalata Hotel Group (LON:DAL)
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Economic: UK – BRC shop price index, balance of trade, manufacturing production, industrial production, US – crude oil inventories