Results out soon in August.

Broker recos look very bullish and why not on a P/E of just over 6 to 2011.....

Thomas Cook Group PLC

FORECASTS 2010 2011
Date Rec Pre-tax (�) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (�) EPS (p) DPS (p)

Panmure Gordon
02-08-10 BUY 319.00 27.10 11.30 338.00 28.70 12.40

Exane BNP Paribas
02-08-10 BUY 116.00 26.62 10.75 319.00 28.87 11.66

Numis Securities Ltd
02-08-10 ADD 324.20 27.60 11.25 357.10 29.90 11.81

Oriel Securities
02-08-10 BUY 330.40 28.40 11.40 363.50 31.30 12.10

KBC Peel Hunt Ltd
30-07-10 BUY 301.06 25.22 10.75 313.36 26.23 10.93

WestLB
30-07-10 SELL 28.81 11.52 29.91 11.96

Shore Capital
30-07-10 HOLD 312.00 26.50 11.80 347.00 29.50 13.00

Charles Stanley Securities
15-06-10 HOLD

Evolution Securities Ltd
11-02-10 None

Investec Securities [R]
09-02-10 BUY 327.00 27.30 11.74 352.23 29.39 12.49

Fyshe Horton Finney Ltd
25-01-10 BUY

Collins Stewart
24-12-09 BUY

Nomura Research Institute
25-09-09 RED

2010 2011
Pre-tax (�) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (�) EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 316.42 26.98 11.36 342.50 29.39 11.96

1 Month Change 1.07 -0.22 0.01 3.43 -0.14 -0.14
3 Month Change -11.92 -1.09 -0.05 -11.79 -1.00 -0.44


GROWTH
2009 (A) 2010 (E) 2011 (E)

Norm. EPS 2.76% 0.38% 8.92%
DPS 14.03% 10.80% 5.26%

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2009 (A) 2010 (E) 2011 (E)

EBITDA �574.90m �589.69m �613.90m
EBIT �372.50m �420.55m �447.05m
Dividend Yield 5.38% 5.96% 6.27%
Dividend Cover 2.62x 2.38x 2.46x
PER 7.10x 7.07x 6.49x
PEG 2.57f 18.55f 0.73f
Net Asset Value PS -240.80p 224.47p 240.43p

Buy, buy, Buy,


or,

Watch, Watch, Watch?


I think I will watch.

"Thomas Cook Group has narrowed its H1 pretax loss to GBP208m, from a loss of GBP303m, commenting that it had made significant progress in the last six months. Revenue slipped to GBP2.67bn, from GBP2.74bn."


-=-=-=

Settle the ME down and it becomes interesting.

--=

Are Thomas Cook Group a stock you need to own? - By The Motley Fool May 19, 2016

Shares in travel company Thomas Cook(LSE: TCG) have fallen by around 19% today after it warned on the outlook for its full-year results. Although the company was able to record a smaller pre-tax loss in the first six months of the current financial year versus the previous year, lower demand for trips to Turkey and Belgium due to terrorism fears have caused it to become more cautious regarding its performance for the remainder of the year.

Despite this, Thomas Cook is making encouraging progress elsewhere. Bookings to destinations excluding Turkey have risen by 6% versus the previous year, which has helped the company to increase like-for-like (LFL) sales by 0.3% as it anticipated a shift in demand away from Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt. And with gross margins improving by 10 basis points, Thomas Cook appears to have a sound strategy for the long term.

With Thomas Cook trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 6.8, it seems to offer a wide margin of safety. As such, buying now could be a sound move, although its shares are likely to be volatile as the outlook for the wider airline industry remains highly uncertain.

directors purchases today

FRANK MEYSMAN buys 35,000 shares at 72.25p
MICHAEL HEALY buys 28,258 shares at 81.70p

Opening lower, despite the market well up

A change on the order book on being very strong on the bid side once it reached twice 70p on what it looks support

Citigroup Sell 71.05 85.00 62.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Neutral 71.05 100.00 90.00 Reiterates

Looks like the bounce is happening and at one time she went over 75p

Getting hammered due to the Brexit vote and also due to another terrorist bombing in Turkey today.

travel company stocks are all one-way traffic for now, as are airlines

World wide terrorism is killing this.

Held up well considering.

StockMarketWire.com
Thomas Cook Group's Q3 pretax loss has widened to £64m, from £44m, on revenue of £1.85bn, from £1.95bn.

"Trading patterns have remained broadly unchanged since the last update. Demand for Turkey has continued to suffer from geopolitical disruption and, as a result, we have further reduced capacity to Turkey and redeployed this mainly into the Western Mediterranean," the company said.

"In addition, Airlines Germany is being impacted by further pricing pressure caused by intense competition and weak demand, leading to lower yields in the short and medium haul market.

"As a result, based on recent trading, and recognising a degree of uncertainty given the current disruptive market conditions, we now expect full year underlying operating profit to be around £300 million.

"This includes the benefit of foreign exchange translation, which we now estimate to be £32 million (up from £20 million when we last reported in May).

"Despite the near-term challenges, we remain confident that the actions we are taking to better position the business for the longer term - including improving the quality of our holiday offering, investing in our online proposition, and targeting efficiencies - will lead to further profitable growth."

69.85p +3.60 (+5.43%)

Just short of 70p the highest price during the last 2 month

There was a steady rise for the last few days, culminating on today's higher rise

Full Year Results 2016

Performance in line with Q3 expectations
· Revenue maintained: Turkey impact offset by shift to alternative destinations and currency translation
· Gross margin of 23.4%, up 80 basis points, reflecting focus on our improved holiday offering
· Underlying EBIT of £308 million
· Record underlying EBIT margins in UK and Northern Europe; difficult year for Condor
· Profit after tax of £9 million
· Recommended dividend of 0.5 pence per share

Focus on quality and service delivered record customer satisfaction
· Group Net Promoter Score ('NPS') up 6 points overall in Summer 2016
· Increased focus on own brand hotels resonating: NPS up 7 points in Summer 2016
· Increasing direct contact with customers: controlled distribution up 1% pt, web share up 3 % pts

Transforming the business for sustainable growth through our New Operating Model
· Building on success of own brand hotels: 14 new hotels in pipeline so far
· Strengthening our holiday offering by streamlining portfolio of selected high-quality partner hotels
· Growing sales of personalised services for customers: sales of ancillaries up 9%
· Improving efficiency of our complementary offering through Webjet hotel sourcing partnership
· New Operating Model delivering financial benefits as planned; EBIT targets increased to FY19

Thomas Cook pays first dividend since 2011 - By Lee Wild | Wed, 23rd November 2016 - 12:44

Thomas Cook pays first dividend since 2011 Travel agents have had a terrible 2016. Both London's big players - TUI (TUI) and Thomas Cook (TCG) - are down heavily as terrorists close down previously lucrative holiday destinations.
However, Cook managed to make more money than expected this year, admittedly driven by currency gains, and says it will pay a first dividend since 2011. It's why the share price just soared 10% to a six-month high.

Warning in May that demand for trips to Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt had dried up sent Cook shares to their lowest since early 2013. That unwound three-quarters of the incredible 1,500% rally between 2012 and January 2014.

But business has clearly picked up, with the shift to alternative destinations plus currency translation benefits offsetting a lack of interest in Turkey. Demand is up in the UK, and selling more premium holidays improved profit margin here to a record 6.4% in the 12 months ended 30 September.

Group underlying operating profit fell by £2 million to £308 million, a tad better than recently lowered guidance of around £300 million, on revenue down slightly to £7.81 billion.

Despite a £22 million slump in profit from continental Europe, where Turkey was a big loser, a strong euro meant Cook was £39 million better off converting earnings there back into pounds, about £7 million more than previously thought. Strip that out and profit actually fell by £41 million.



Still, business was brisk in the Nordic region, where Cook made a record £124 million, up £22 million on last year like-for-like, giving a market-leading margin of 11%.

That helped offset a plunge into the red at Cook's German airline Condor, hit by Turkey and overcapacity on routes to the Canaries and Balearics during the peak summer period.

Demand for winter breaks is in line with our expectations, with the season already 61% sold, about 2% better than this time last year. Predictably, there's been a shift away from Turkey and North Africa to Spain and long-haul destinations.

Look for underlying operating profit of £327 million on revenue of £8.9 billion, says NumisAfter everything's been put through the wash, including the tax bill, there's £9 million left, enough to spend £7.7 million on a 0.5p per share final dividend, the first for more than five years.

Chief executive Peter Fankhauser remains bullish and predicts that profit in the current financial year should meet expectations.

Currently, Wyn Ellis at Numis Securities pencils in underlying operating profit of £327 million on revenue of £8.9 billion. That gives earnings per share (EPS) of 11.1p, putting Cook on a forward price/earnings (PE) ratio of 7.3 times.

That looks cheap, but Ellis is not buying it. "We remain unenthusiastic about the investment merits of TCG," he said Wednesday. "We believe that the basic business model continues to face structural challenges," he continued, adding that the miserly valuation was justified by "major uncertainties about future growth". His price target sticks at 74p.

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its neutral investment rating on Thomas Cook Group PLC (LON:TCG) and raised its price target to 92p (from 85p)

StockMarketWire.com
Thomas Cook says it has made a solid start to FY 2017 with Q1 revenue rising to £1.62bn, from £1.41bn. Its loss from operations for the three-month period was £67m, from £78m.

"We have delivered a solid performance for the first three months in line with our expectations, against a backdrop of continued uncertainty," said CEO Peter Fankhauser in a statement.

"We remain cautious about the rest of the year, given the uncertain political and economic outlook," he added.

"It's still relatively early in the selling cycle for summer holidays, but based on current trading, and supported by further financial benefits from implementing our strategy, we expect our full year operating results to be in line with current market expectations."

StockMarketWire.com
Thomas Cook Group has maintained its FY underlying EBIT guidance and said trading for the group was progressing in line with its expectations.

In a pre-close trading update, the company said that while it was seeing some margin pressure in parts of the business due to more competition, overall demand for summer holidays was strong.

Based on our current trading performance, and supported by further financial benefits from implementing our strategy, it continued to expect its FY underlying operating result to be in line with current market expectations.

CEO Peter Fankhauser said Thomas Cook's Winter 2016/17 programme was now 90% sold, while its summer 2017 season was now 42% sold.

"Customers' appetite to go abroad on holiday this summer is good across all our markets despite continued political and economic uncertainty," he said.

"Our decision to expand our holiday offering to Greece has helped support customer demand, with bookings to Greece up by around 40% versus last year, while smaller destinations like Cyprus, Bulgaria and Croatia are also proving popular."

Fankhauser added that after a slow start to the season and a tough year in 2016, Thomas Cook was seeing early signs that customers were beginning to go back to Turkey and Egypt.

"Following strong growth last year, bookings to the Spanish Islands have levelled off in a very competitive market. Competition is particularly intense in the airline sector, putting downward pressure on pricing."

Brussels Airlines set to become leading carrier for Thomas Cook Belgium under plans to expand existing partnership
● Thomas Cook Belgium intends to use Brussels Airlines for the majority of its flight requirements
● All 160 pilots and cabin crew, all flight slots, and two aircraft of Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium expected to transfer to Brussels Airlines on completion

Thomas Cook Belgium and Brussels Airlines today announce the intention to widen their existing partnership in a deal that will make Brussels Airlines the leading carrier for Thomas Cook Belgium. Under the terms of the proposal, Brussels Airlines will fly the majority of Thomas Cook's customers, offering them a wider choice of destinations, flights and departure days. Subject to completion of the deal, the operations of Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium (TCAB), Thomas Cook's in-house airline which currently serves the Belgian market, will be absorbed into Brussels Airlines.

The proposed deal will result in the transfer of all 160 pilots and cabin crew, all flight slots and two aircraft from TCAB to Brussels Airlines. TCAB's remaining three aircraft will be redeployed across the wider Thomas Cook Group while 40 ground staff roles with TCAB would be made redundant. A collective consultation process has been initiated with TCAB's workers' council and TCAB is committed to working constructively with them to find a successful resolution. As a result of this expanded partnership, Thomas Cook Belgium would cease using TCAB flights from November 2017.

The proposal builds upon a successful 15-year working relationship between Thomas Cook Belgium and Brussels Airlines, opening up further growth opportunities and enabling both companies to manage aircraft and personnel more efficiently and effectively.

In addition to giving Belgian customers the choice of more departure days and an expanded number of flights, the two companies will work together to assess the opportunity to launch new long-distance flights to sun and beach destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia over the next three years.

Jan Dekeyser, Managing Director of Thomas Cook Belgium, said: "Today's announcement is great news for Belgian holidaymakers. By extending our successful partnership with Brussels Airlines, Thomas Cook Belgium will offer customers from Neckermann, Thomas Cook and Pegase 20% more flights to some of the most popular sun and beach destinations. Across our brands, we will work together with Brussels Airlines to offer a tailor-made travel experience and build the most attractive holiday offering for Belgian consumers. Our extended partnership is consistent with Thomas Cook Group's strategy as we develop closer relationships with selected third parties to work with us to support profitable growth."

Bernard Gustin, Chief Executive of Brussels Airlines, said: "The combination of Brussels Airlines' network and expertise with Thomas Cook's holiday business will further improve the customer offer of Brussels Airlines. On completion, Brussels Airlines will double its sun and beach destinations to 51 with the addition of Cape Verde, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Egypt as brand new destinations on the flight schedule. We feel very optimistic about the opportunities for further expansion as we grow our business to the benefit of both customers and the Belgian economy."

StockMarketWire.com
Thomas Cook Group has narrowed its H1 loss and lifted revenue for the six-months period, and said it saw FY EBIT in line with current market expectations.

CEO Peter Fankhauser described the performance as good.
"The progress we've made on our strategy helped achieve a 3% increase in revenues, with strong customer demand for our holidays despite the competitive environment," he said.

Revenue was £2.99bn, from £2.67bn. H1 loss was £272m, from a loss of £283m.

"Importantly, the actions we've taken to improve our holiday offering, managing our portfolio of hotels more tightly for quality, are delivering good results," said Fankhauser.

"We've also made great progress in developing our own-brand hotels and resorts, which give our customers a unique Thomas Cook experience. We're planning 11 new hotel launches this summer including our new family-friendly Casa Cook in Kos, complete with its own beach club, and our first hotel in Sicily, the Sentido Acacia Marina.

"We also have a further 11 openings in the pipeline for the next 18 months, including at least two new Casa Cook hotels."

Thomas Cook was seeing strong customer demand across most of its markets.

Greece continued to be the standout destination for Summer 2017, while customers were also seeking out smaller European destinations like Cyprus and Bulgaria, as well as travelling further afield.

"In contrast, following strong growth last year, bookings to the Spanish Islands have levelled off in a very competitive market," the CEO added.

"I'm also pleased with the progress we've made in our Group airlines business.

"Bookings are up significantly for the Summer, boosted by the addition of 15 new destinations to our flight programme, further expanding the choice and value we offer our customers.

"In our German airline, Condor, the actions we've taken after the market disruption of last year have started to come through, and we are confident that Condor will return to profit for the full year.

"Despite continued overcapacity in the airline market and strong competition particularly in our UK business, based on current trading we expect underlying EBIT for the full year to be in line with current market expectations."

StockMarketWire.com
Travel agent Thomas Cook (TCG) increased its gross profit by 18.8% to £468m in the three months to 30 June, but its margin fell from 21.3% to 20.6% as a result of strong competition in Spain.

The company made a profit from operations of £6m compared with a loss of £25m a year earlier.

This was driven by strong demand for holidays across the group combined with an improved performance in its German airline.

Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said German airline Condor remains on track to return to profitability for the full year.

Group revenue rose by 14% to £2,272m.

Overall group bookings for summer 2017 rose 11% with pricing up 1%, with significant growth to Greece (up 22%), Bulgaria (up 19%), Cyprus (up 14%) and long-haul destinations.

"As we said in May, we are experiencing pressure on margins to Spain in what is a competitive environment, though this is being mitigated by our focus on our own-brand and core hotel offering and supported by strong overall demand for our summer holidays. As a result, we continue to expect our full year underlying operating result to be in line with current market expectations," said Fankhauser.