Vistry Group PLC (LSE:VTY) is confident it will see a further step-up in performance in 2022 as it continues to see strong demand across its business.
The housebuilder issued a trading update covering the second half of the year ahead of its capital markets day today in which it revealed forward sales had risen to 3,008 from 2,968 back on 3 September.
The average weekly sales rate for the year to date has risen to 0.77, up from 0.76 at the halfway point of the year.
The group's forward sales position has strengthened to £3bn and it is fully sold for the current year. Housebuilding forward sales total £1.6bn, Partnerships' mixed tenure forward sales total £511m and the Partner Delivery forward order book totals £855mln, Vistry said.
Management said the group is firmly on track to deliver full-year profit before tax of around £345mln and have roughly £225mln of net cash at the end of the year.
“We are making great progress towards our targets in both Housebuilding and Partnerships, with a firm focus on maximising the strengths and opportunities from our unique combination,” said Greg Fitzgerald, the chief executive of Vistry.
“We continue to see strong demand across all our business areas and working in close partnership with our supply chain, we are actively mitigating any supply chain pressures. As a result, we are firmly on track to deliver a significant improvement in profits this year,” he added.
Liberum Capital Markets, which rates the shares a “buy”, said the trading update shows that demand remains strong.
With the shares trading at around eight times projected earnings per share for 2022 and yielding 6%, Liberum believes the current valuation “does not reflect the differentiated position from partnerships”.
Shares in Vistry were down 0.6% in mid-morning trading.