The week ahead: Autumn Statement, Compass, utilities

Monday 21 November

Trading statement

Bonmarche Holdings, Diploma

AGM/EGM

Mineral & Financial Investments

Tuesday 22 November

Full-year numbers from £23 billion catering empire Compass Group, due on Tuesday, shouldn't stray too far from a solid third-quarter report in July, although the shares have struggled this month.

Organic revenue growth for the three months was 5.3%, down from 5.6% in the first nine months and 5.8% in the first half. Numis Securities analyst Wyn Ellis expects growth of 5.2% for the 12 months.

"New business wins have been strong in North America, Europe has moved back into growth, but Rest of World markets have generally been challenging," explains Ellis.

Such is the trend for Compass, where third-quarter organic growth of 8.3% in North America dwarfed the 3.7% in Europe and a 2.8% decline in Rest of World. By Numis' reckoning, around 58% of 2016 operating profit came from North America.

That puts it in an ideal spot to benefit from sterling's weakness versus the dollar in coming months, which is why Ellis recently upgraded pre-tax profit forecasts for 2017 from £1.56 billion to £1.67 billion. How those translation tailwinds might be affected by president-elect Donald Trump is unclear, however.

"Compass is a very high quality business, in our opinion, and we share management's view that there are promising structural growth opportunities globally with potential for further revenue and margin growth," concludes Ellis, who rates compass a 'hold' with 1,450p price target.

"We believe that this promise is captured in the FY 2017 price/earnings (PE) ratio of c.18 times."

Look for pre-tax profit up 13% this time at £1.35 billion on sales up 12% to £20 billion, giving earnings per share of 61.3p, up from 53.7p a year earlier.

Trading statement

Telecom plus, Big Yellow Group, Assura Group, Homeserve, Babcock International, Worldwide Healthcare Trust, CML Microsystems, Halma, Victoria, De La Rue, CYBG, Compass, Renew, SVG Capital, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Intertek Group, Homeserve, Spectris, Rotork, Kingfisher

AGM/EGM

Berkeley Energia

Wednesday 23 November

Chancellor Philip Hammond reads out his maiden Autumn Statement Wednesday.

Oddly, there have been few of the traditional leaks this time round, so we've put together some ideas that the former Secretary of State for transport may reveal midweek. You can read more here.

But Wednesday also kicks off a trio of first-half reports in the utilities sector, with numbers from Warrington-based water company United Utilities, closely followed by Severn Trent on Thursday and waste management specialist Pennon on Friday.

Traditionally defensive shares that deliver little growth, but remain resilient to market volatility and pay generous, reliable dividends, investors turned their backs on utilities during the furious stockmarket bull-runs that followed 23 June's Brexit vote and 8 November's election of Donald Trump as US president (see the chart from Google below).

But as investors have taken profits and sunk back into a more risk-off mindset, UU and peers have seen a healthy uptick in demand, as we reported Wednesday.

"Investors have gone all defensive today, with utilities enjoying some time in the sun after an ugly sell-off in recent weeks. Traders are taking some money off the table elsewhere, however, given ongoing speculation around the new Trump administration.

"Severn Trent and United Utilities are near the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard, and not for the first time recently, as traders buy predictable earnings and generous dividends.

"They're down 16% and 14% respectively since the beginning of October, although neither could be called cheap on around 20 times forward earnings."

And the trend continued on Thursday, with UU closing up 1.4% on the day, while Trent and Pennon gained 1.7% apiece.

Trading statement

United Utilities, Vectura, Paragon Group, Thomas Cook

AGM/EGM

Prairie Mining, Transense Technologies, Oilex, Draganfly Investments, Base Resources, Pantheon International

Thursday 24 November

Trading statement

Mothercare, Pets At Home, Helical Bar, Caledonia Investments, Charles Stanley Group, TR Property Investment Trust, PayPoint, Severn Trent, UDG Healthcare

AGM/EGM

Thor Mining, Sqn Asset Finance Income Fund, Seeing Machines, South32 Limited, Netcall, Gemfields, Doriemus, CVS Group

Friday 25 November

Trading statement

Pennon Group

AGM/EGM

Range Resources, Pan African Resources

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.