Financial Trading Blog

Stock of the day 14/08/2015 – Persimmon PLC




After opening the year at £15.76 the stock quickly fell to what has so far been its 2015 nadir in the middle of January, hitting £14.28 in the market-wide tumble. Since then, however, Persimmon has been on the up and up; by the eve of its full year results at the end of February the stock had crossed £17 for the first time. And whilst the initial reaction to the results saw a bit of profit taking, Persimmon soon resumed its climb as it posted a 44% jump in pre-tax profits from £330 million to £475 million year-on-year, with a 17% increase in completions thrown in for good measure.

Persimmon PLC Chart August 2015
(Source: IT-Finance.com 14/08/2015)

However just as the stock was closing in on £18 in the middle of March Persimmon took a tumble and had fallen back to £16.50 by the start of April. A bounce back then saw Persimmon spend the rest of the month hovering around the £17.50 mark, with a mid-April trading update warning that pre-UK election jitters were having harmful effects on house-building. The week before the election then saw these nerves intensify, taking the stock back to £16.50 once again; however, as well all know, the Tory victory caused a market-wide jump, especially in the property sector, and put Persimmon back on its impressive growth track.

The post-election goodwill lifted the company to yet more all-time highs by end of June, in the process crossing £20. A preview of its half year results at the start of July showed that Persimmon has seen revenues increase by 12% over the past 6 months, jumping to £1.34 billion from £1.2 billion the year before, as well as 4% growth in the average selling price to £213,000. These figures, despite some wobbles across July, reaffirmed investors’ confidence in the stock, and after breaking its own records by reaching £21.27 on Wednesday the stock is currently trading at £20.91 (IT-Finance.com, 14/08/2015).

Persimmon has a consensus rating of ‘Hold’ with an average target price of £19.18.

 

DISCLAIMER


Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. For professional clients, spread betting and CFD trading can also result in losses larger than your initial stake or deposit.

Spreadex Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, provides an execution only service and does not provide advice in any way. Nothing within this update should be deemed to constitute the provision of investment advice, recommendations, any other professional advice in any way, or a record of our trading prices. This update does not constitute or form part of an offer of, or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract therefore. Any persons placing trades based on their interpretation of the comments or information within this update does so entirely at their own risk.  

No representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited, is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained within this update by Spreadex Ltd or any of its employees and no liability is accepted by such persons for the accuracy or completeness of any such information or opinions. As such, no reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information and opinions contained within this update.

The information contained within this update is the intellectual property of Spreadex Ltd and is protected by UK and International copyright laws. All rights reserved. Users may however freely download, distribute and reproduce extracts of the contents, subject always to accrediting Spreadex Ltd as the source and providing a hyperlink to machibet77.com.