Yesterday’s FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) optimism didn’t last long — after ending last night 20 points up, the index of top UK shares is down 26 points by late morning today to 6,669, with very little in the way of FTSE 100 news and only small share price movements.
In fact, we need to look to the lower indices for news-related movements. Here are three from the FSTE 250 putting in a good day:
Mitchells & Butlers
There was Winter cheer for Mitchells & Butlers (LSE: MAB) today, after the pub operator reported a 2.2% rise in revenue to £1,895m for the year to September, with adjusted operating profit up 5.1% to £312m and adjusted earnings per share up 17% to 34.9p. There is no return to dividends yet, but the board told us that it “will continue to monitor anticipated net cash flow generation, before taking a decision on timing and quantum” — and I do like a bit of quantum with my dividends.
The share price responded with a 23p (5.9%) jump to 414p, taking it up around 27% over the past 12 months and now looking more likely to beat the FTSE by the end of the year.
Britvic
Britvic (LSE: BVIC) shares are up more than 55% over 12 months, after a 22p (3.6%) boost today to 629p, and again it was full-year results that did it.
Revenue grew 4.4% to £1,321.9m with pre-tax profit up 27% at constant exchange rates to £108.1m. Bottom-line adjusted earnings per share came in 27.5% ahead at 35.2p, and the firm lifted its dividend by 4% to 18.4p per share to yield 2.9% on the current share price.
The new year seems to have started well, with chief executive Simon Litherland saying that “…trading in the new financial year is slightly ahead of a strong first quarter performance last year and we are confident of delivering EBIT in the range of £148m to £156m for the full year“.
De La Rue
It’s about time De La Rue (LSE: DLAR) shareholders got a bit of good news, and it arrived this morning in the form of an upbeat first-half report. Revenue did drop slightly, by 5% to £234m, but pre-tax profit before exceptionals rose by 20% to £32.8m with headline earnings per share up 24% to 25.7p. And we saw a first-half dividend of 14.1p per share.
Chief executive Tim Cobbold said the improvement “…reflects the good progress made on the ongoing cost reduction programme which is on track to meet the targets for the year“.
The shares? Up 82p (9.8%) to 919p, though still around 10% down over 12 months.
