Monday 23 September
- First-half results from Alphawave IP
- Flash purchasing managers’ indices for manufacturing and services industries from Asia, Europe, the UK and US
Tuesday 24 September
- First-half results from Mitchells & Butlers, Card Factory and Boku
- Trading statements from TUI and SThree
- Flash purchasing managers’ indices for manufacturing and services industries from Japan
- US S&P/Case-Shiller house price index
- US Conference Board consumer confidence survey
- In the USA, quarterly results from AutoZone
AG Barr Results
AG Barr will release its half-year results on Tuesday, with share prices still climbing back from a drop during the Covid pandemic.
Currently, shares are at a five-year high and the company announced a strong trading update at the end of July. Euan Sutherland took on the role of chief executive in May with first-half sales growth of 9%.
Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, and Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, said: “The firm is also having to adapt to changes in consumer tastes and trends. Since the end of lockdowns, mixers, juices and lemonade have declined in volume and value, to reflect the normalisation of home consumption, while trade volumes in bars, restaurants and hospitality venues have recovered steadily and sports and energy drinks have shown robust growth. AG Barr’s acquisitions of Boost and oat milk maker MOMA are both designed to broaden its product portfolio.”
Analysts will eye AG Barr’s top brands in the results, including BRU, Rubicon, Boost and FUNKIN, as well as watching first-half revenue. Last year, the first half recorded £210m. The company also aims to improve operating profit margins, which before Covid, reached 17.1%. The expectation for this fiscal year is 13.2%.
“After last year’s dip in profit margins, AG Barr has targeted an improvement this year, especially for the second half, thanks to a number of initiatives, including a switch to wholesale from direct sales for independent retailers, the merger of the Boost brands into Barr Soft Drinks and work on the overall supply chain, with a focus on insourcing and capacity growth,” the AJ Bell team said.
AG Barr has also been re-growing its dividend after a paused during Covid, paying out 15.05p per share in the last fiscal year. This year, analysts are looking for 16.43p per share.
European economic surveys
Germany’s monthly Ifo business climate index and Belgium’s Courbe Synthetique will be released this week as economists and stock market investors take different views on the outlook of the region.
“The soundtrack to the European economy right now, at least if economists are to be believed, is a drumbeat of doom. High labour costs, ongoing worries over energy supply, weak banks and a fragmented banking market are all concerns, as are rising interest rates, the risk of sticky inflation (especially if oil and gas prices go higher) and a weak Chinese economy, as that is a major destination for European – and especially German – exports,” The AJ Bell trio said.
“That said, stock market investors are listening to a different tune. The Stoxx Europe 600 index reached a new all-time peak in May and Germany’s forty-stock DAX benchmark set a record high early in September, despite a revival of the late 1990s mantra that the country is the sick man of Europe, at least from an economic point of view. It is also despite the uncertainty caused in the political arena by the ongoing rise of the AfD and the appalling results earned by the incumbent three-party coalition government in this month’s local elections.”
The Ifo has decreased for the past three months, with the last reading coming in at 86.6. It has not been able to recover following its 2021 heights, with the Ifo report claiming “the German economy is increasingly falling into crisis”.
The Courbe Synthetique also dipped in August, hitting a negative 12.6, though services, construction, and trade showed improvement. While the Euro Stoxx 600 and Courbe Synthetique have in the past moved generally together, since 2022, these figures have split, with investors maintaining optimism.
Wednesday 25 September
- US new homes sales
- US oil inventories
- In the US, quarterly results from Micron
Thursday 26 September
- Full-year results from CVS Group
- Trading statements from Halma and Pennon
- Interest rate decision from the Swiss National Bank
- US pending homes sales
- US durable goods orders
- US GDP growth
- US weekly initial unemployment claims
- In Europe, quarterly results from H&M
- In the US, quarterly results from CostCo, Accenture, Carnival and BestBuy
Friday 27 September
- US Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index
