Shareholders in Pagegroup PLC will draw encouragement from the trading update of sector peer Robert Walters ahead of the white-collar recruiter’s update on Wednesday.
Robert Walters – not for the first time this year – raised profit guidance after a record performance in the third quarter.
Encouragingly, the UK recruitment scene, which had taken a dip following Brexit, is on the mend.
Back in July, Pagegroup was celebrating its own record quarter (Q2) for profits, but the UK recruitment market was still cited as a concern.
The UK accounts for about a fifth of the group’s total profits, so a pick-up on the domestic front would be most welcome.
Homewares seller Dunelm issues a trading update in which it will reveal whether its “encouraging start” to the current financial year (to end-June) has continued.
“Sales in the first two months of the new financial year have started positively, with good LFL [like-for-like] sales boosted by favourable weather comparatives,” the company said last month.
The first quarter of the previous financial year saw LFL sales fall 3.8% year-on-year so the retailer is not going up against particularly challenging comparatives.
Barclays is forecasting LFL sales growth of 2.5% for the first quarter, and growth of 1.5% for the year as a whole.
“Aside from LFLs, we will be looking at progress on store roll-out (we model 10 net store openings in FY18, weighted towards 1H) as well as commentary on gross margins (we model 45 bps GM decline in FY18),” Barclays said.
“The company is hosting a Capital Markets Day at its Stoke warehouse in conjunction with Q1 trading, where we hope to gain further insights on progress made in inventory management, the integration of Dunelm and WorldStores, and the continued development of the online proposition,” it added.
Significant announcements expected
Trading updates: Countryside Properties PLC (LON:CSP), Dunelm Group PLC (LON:DNLM), Hargreaves Lansdown PLC (LON:HL.), Jupiter Fund Management PLC (LON:JUP), Mondi Plc (Q3) (LON:MNDI), Pagegroup PLC (LON:PAGE), Quiz Plc (LON:QUIZ)
Finals: Proactis Holdings Plc (LON:PHD)
Interims: Vertu Motors PLC (LON:VTU)
Economic data: FOMC minutes published