Pinch punch, Wednesday is first of the month - nevertheless the stream of financial results is set to continue.
Blue-chips ITV Plc (LON:ITV), Admiral Group Plc (LON:ADM), and Man Group Plc (LON:EMG) are all in the diary with final results.
City broker Panmure Gordon is cautious about ITV ahead of the broadcaster’s results.
ITV faces more negatives than positives in the near term after a 30% recovery in its share price from initial post-Brexit lows, Panmure Gordon said in a note earlier this month.
Panmure cut its rating on ITV to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ and lowered its target price to 225p from 265p.
Risks include net advertising revenue (NAR) weakness, lacklustre trading in the Studios business, management changes and content acquisitions, the broker said.
The broker expects ITV’s full year results will reveal that NAR came under pressure in the first quarter.
“The first quarter will be adversely affected by the timing of Easter (April this year versus March in 2016) as well as the NAR boost from consolidating UTV (c1.7% per month) cycling out from March 2017 onwards,” analyst Jonathon Helliwell said.
The broker predicts a 5% drop in NAR for the year and a 7% decline in the first quarter.
Panmure also noted that its UK production business Studios reported weakness in underlying trading in the first nine months, due to programme deferrals and cancellations. ITV is investing heavily in new scripted content into 2017.
Management change has become a heightened risk, Panmure added, following reports the board has hired head hunters to replace chief executive Adam Crozier and chief financial officer Ian Griffiths.
Wednesday’s diary
Final results: International Personal Finance PLC (LON:IPF), Inchcape PLC (LON:INCH), ITV PLC (LON:ITV), Livanova Plc (LON:LIVN), Riverstone Energy Limited (LON:RSE), Capital Partners Plc (LON:RCP), Fisher (James) & Sons PLC (LON:FSJ), Evraz plc (LON:EVR), Bank Of Cyprus Holdings (LON:BOCH), BBA Aviation PLC (LON:BBA), Carillion PLC (LON:CLLN), Elementis PLC (LON:ELM), Empresaria Group plc (LON:EMR), Man Group PLC (LON:EMG), Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADM).