LONDON -- BT Group (LSE: BT-A) (BT +0.00%) is due to announce its annual results on Friday, May 10.
Shares in Britain's leading fixed-line telecoms company have out-performed the FTSE 100 over the past 12 months, having risen 31% compared with a 12% rise for the index.
How will BT's businesses have performed in 2012/13 compared with the previous year? And will the results justify the strong performance of the shares? Here's your cut-out-and-check results table!
|
Metric |
FY 2011/12 |
Forecast FY |
Forecast |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Revenue |
18.9 billion pounds |
18.2 billion pounds |
(3.7%) |
|
Adjusted pre-tax profit |
2.42 billion pounds |
2.53 billion pounds |
(4.5%) |
|
Adjusted earnings per share |
23.7 pence |
25 pence |
(5.5%) |
|
Dividend per share |
8.3 pence |
9.5 pence |
(14.5%) |
|
Normalized free cash flow |
2.3 billion pounds |
approximately 2.3 billion pounds |
0% |
Sales and profit
BT has guided on modestly lower revenue for the full year and the analyst consensus is for a decline of a bit less than 4%.
Despite the contraction at the top line, adjusted pre-tax profit and EPS are forecast to rise by around 5%. On the face of it, the analyst consensus appears a little stingy: At the nine-month stage, BT reported adjusted pre-tax profit of 1.86 billion pounds (+7.5%) and EPS of 18.4 pence (+8.9%).
Cash flow
In the outlook statement within last year's results, BT said it expected normalized free cash flow (which excludes pension deficit payments and related tax credits) to be "broadly level" with the 2.3 billion pounds generated in 2011/12.
Free cash flow has been trailing the 2011/12 numbers so far, but BT has announced no change to guidance for the full year, so keep an eye out for a number in the area of 2.3 billion pounds.
Dividend
BT's revenue, earnings, and cash flow forecasts for the full year aren't exactly scintillating, and are little changed from six months ago. Yet the share price has risen inexorably.
The rise has been partly due to the company's interim dividend announcement last November. At the start of the year, BT had said it intended to grow its dividend by 10%-15% a year for the next three years. The company then lifted its interim dividend by 15.4% to 3 pence from 2.6 pence. The shares jumped on the magnitude of the rise, which the board indicated was a measure of "our confidence in the future of our business."
Analysts haven't got carried away: the consensus forecast for the full-year dividend is 9.5 pence. If the consensus is on the button, look out for a final dividend of 6.5 pence (up 14% on last year's final).
A million and one
BT is one of the most widely held U.K. shares, with a million-strong army of small investors. The company is also a favorite of top City investor Neil Woodford, the man whose funds have beaten the wider market by over 300% in the last 15 years.
If you're interested in discovering Woodford's other big blue-chip bets and gaining a valuable insight into his enormously successful approach to investing, help yourself to this exclusive Motley Fool report.It's free -- simply click here.
