It’s another day and another minor retreat for the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE), again backing away from setting a new 14-year record. With the UK’s top index down 7 points on the day to 6,819 and down 10 points on the week, it’s now 57 points short of the 6,876 level it needs to break into new territory.
It should surely get there soon, if some of the individual share price movement we’ve been seeing of late are anything to go by. Here are three setting new records of their own:
Sage Group
Sage Group (LSE: SGE) shares ended yesterday on a 52-week closing high of 426.9p, and today the price is up a few pennies more to 430.4p, after yesterday’s interim update painted a pretty picture with strong performance across all geographic regions.
The price is now up around 35% over the past 12 months, with Sage showing an impressive earnings record over the past five years. With further growth forecast for the next two years, the shares are on a forward P/E of 18 for 2014, dropping to about 16.5 for 2015.
London Stock Exchange
The economic recovery has worked wonders for London Stock Exchange Group itself, as its shares hit a new high today of 1,889p. That takes the price up nearly 60% since this time last year, with the FTSE 100 having managed only around 10%.
Analysts are forecasting a slight fall in earnings per share for the year to March 2014, but there’s double-digit growth penciled in for the following two years. Dividends are modest, with yields of under 2%, but they’re growing.
TalkTalk Telecom
The TalkTalk Telecom Group (LSE: TALK) share price was pretty flat for most of 2013. But it picked up after November’s upbeat first-half figures and has now put on 40% over the past 12 months, touching on a new high today of 329.2p. At the halfway point, the firm told us it is the country’s fastest growing TV company and expects to have nearly a million customers by year-end in March 2014.
There’s certainly a good bit of future growth built in to today’s share price, with a P/E for this year of 40! But that’s due to an expected fall in earnings this year followed by a big rise next, and the P/E drops quite rapidly to 14 based on 2016 forecasts.
