Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.) has continued the bullish post-Brexit vote sector updates saying it expects its 2016 profits to come in at the upper end of market consensus after seeing good demand and solid trading in the second half.
The FTSE 100-listed group said its total home completions in 2016 were up 4.0% year-on-year to 13,881, compared with 13,341 completions in the previous year.
Taylor Wimpey said its average selling price increased by 11% year-on-year to £255,000, up from £230,000 a year earlier.
Pete Redfern, the housebuilder’s chief executive, said: “We are pleased to report good progress in 2016, with an increase in housing completions and robust trading despite wider macroeconomic uncertainty,"
He added: “We expect to deliver full-year profitability at the upper end of market consensus.
"Looking ahead, we remain confident that our disciplined strategy will enable us to continue to deliver value over the long term."
The group said its net private reservation rate for the year was 0.72 homes per outlet per week, compared to 0.73 homes per outlet per week in the prior year, and its cancellation rates remained low at 13%, albeit up from 12% in 2015.
The housebuilder said it ended 2016 with an order book valued at £1.68bon, down from £1.78bn a year earlier.
Taylor Wimpey said this slight decline was due to a small fall in the average selling price within its order book after a number of high-value central London completions took place in December 2016.
The housebuilder's shares just edged higher in early trading, up 0.3p to 175.2p.
Analysts at Numis Securities said, while they are increasing 2016 and 2017 pretax profit estimates from Taylor Wimpey by 3% and 4% respectively, they have trimmed their rating for the stock to 'add' from 'buy' given a strong run by the shares so far this year.
However, in a note to clients, the analysts maintained their target price for the stock at 205p, and said: “The group describe trading as robust and the increase in net cash to £365m should give a good underpinning for the 2017 dividend, which we think can rise further in 2018.“
-- Adds share price, broker comment --