It's been a good week for WSP with 2 good contracts awarded. Anyone follow these. Does seem to be on an upward climb. Technically has now broken up through strong resistance at 55p now at 74p and up 10p on the week (17%)

I have watched this one and regret not buying- any price predictions over the next 6 months. I hope there might be a pull back in May time for me to get onboard. cheers MP

I'm happy I'm in! Looks like its not going to pull back, but keep going up up and awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ;-)


LONDON (AFX) - WSP Group PLC posted an increase in turnover and pretax profits in 2004 ahead of expectations and said its order book is at a record level, with more than 500 mln stg of secured orders for the year ahead.

'The quality of this order book in terms of prestigious projects and long term framework agreements ... underpins the sustainability of our future operations.

'I am therefore confident we will build on these good financial results to deliver continued growth, improved profit margins, strong cash flows and an increasing long-term order book,' said chairman David Turner.

For the year to the end of December 2004, WSP posted pretax profits up 71 pct at 9.6 mln stg on sales of 328.2 mln stg from 298.9 mln, and upped its final dividend to 3.2 pence per share from 3.0 pence.

newsdesk@afxnews.com

Moneyplus - its still going up! Directors have been purchasing a lot of shares
- hence todays large increase

March '07 - LONDON (AFX) - "WSP Group PLC posted increased full-year pretax profits and said its order book has grown to 700 mln stg, with a pipeline of 'attractive opportunities'.
The management and consultancy company reported pretax profits of 26.4 mln stg on revenue of 416.7 mln stg compared with 19.8 mln stg on revenue of 349.1 mln stg a year earlier.

Pretax profits, adjusted to add back certain tax and amortisation items, came to 27.5 mln stg as against 20.3 mln, on adjusted revenue of 449.4 mln stg from 374.0 mln stg.

WSP proposed a final dividend of 6 pence a share from 4 pence last time, bringing the total dividend for the year to 9 pence, up 41 pct from 6.4 pence.

The company said it continues to see particularly strong activity in the US and Middle East over the next year, and in the property and environmental sectors in general, adding that it will continue to focus on diversified, profitable growth."

This is not one I have followed at all in the past, but what an awesome graph over the last 5 years.
Is anyone still holding this stock, looking for more growth & does anyone know the ex-divi date please?

Tipped in the Mail on Sunday Midas column as a buy at 763p today. DYOR, but I can see no reason to doubt their continued long-term growth.

never heard of this company before, but from the brief look i have taken, very impressive in all respects and firmly focussed on what it does best ..... perhaps wrongly, i shall wait for a bad day - i.e. for rsi to unwind a bit and for sp to slip back to 25 dma level where it seems to find consistent support.



red = 25 dma
green = 50 dma
black = 200 dma

A pretty impressive graph.
Brokers Numis/Seymour/Altium/ABN Amro all give this a buy rating with an EPS of +/- 35p for 2007, & an EPS +/- 40p for 2008.
2006 saw a turnover of 416m & a pre-tax profit of 26m.
I still haven't been able to find the ex-divi dates, even from their website.
I have been watching this for a few months & looks good for a medium term investment imo.

Nice to see two very recent broker upgrades both putting the stock on a forward P/E of just over 5 ........... way too cheap IMHO...

WSP Group PLC

FORECASTS
2009 2010

Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Panmure Gordon
31-03-09 BUY 40.08 43.87 15.00 39.14 42.83 15.00

ABN AMRO
30-03-09 BUY 40.00 43.13 15.50 38.50 41.48 16.00

not so good to see stock being dumped then!

Cyners stock dumped!!!!!!!!, it went ex divi yesterday ......... you divi.

And here are those broker notes now in full...

WSP Group PLC

FORECASTS WIRES
2009 2010

Date Rec Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Panmure Gordon
31-03-09 BUY 40.08 43.87 15.00 39.14 42.83 15.00

ABN AMRO
30-03-09 BUY 40.00 43.13 15.50 38.50 41.48 16.00

Arbuthnot Securities
30-03-09 NEUT 43.44 49.17 15.00 44.99 49.70 15.00

W H Ireland Ltd
27-03-09 BUY 37.80 41.60 15.00 39.80 43.70 15.00

Brewin Dolphin Investment Banking
24-03-09 ADD 36.50 39.80 15.00 35.00 38.10 15.00

KBC Peel Hunt Ltd
19-03-09 HOLD 40.28 56.58 15.00 43.09 44.88 15.00

Blue Oar Securities
13-03-09 BUY 38.37 43.11 15.00 42.02 47.21 15.75

FinnCap [R]
05-03-09 HOLD 54.00 61.00 16.00

Numis Securities Ltd
02-03-09 BUY 43.00 47.00 15.00

Altium Securities
02-03-09 HOLD 40.00 43.00 15.00 43.00 45.90 15.00

2009 2010
Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 39.42 44.39 15.00 40.84 44.26 15.00
1 Month Change -0.70 -0.54 0.00 -0.40 -0.06 0.00
3 Month Change -3.10 -1.56 0.02 -3.87 -2.62 -0.11


GROWTH
2008 (A) 2009 (E) 2010 (E)

Norm. EPS 20.96% -10.22% -0.29%
DPS 30.00% 15.38% 0.00%

INVESTMENT RATIOS

2008 (A) 2009 (E) 2010 (E)

EBITDA m 54.72m 54.87m

EBIT m 44.64m 46.59m

Dividend Yield 5.83% 6.73% 6.73%

Dividend Cover 3.80x 2.96x 2.95x

PER 4.51x 5.02x 5.04x

PEG 0.22f -0.49f -17.20f

Net Asset Value PS p 318.07p 343.94p


A forward P/E of just 5.......... miserly.

Robbie (smirkey) Burns as tipped this one late fri afternoon. (hes always a week behind me)

Cant stand the leech but I suppose itl send the sp up even more come monday.

Cyners did you go in??.

no matey, i didn't for no particular reason ...... didn't even check what sort of spread the share has ..... have had a particularly good week though and even had the sense to bank a lot of profits

heavily into AFR for monday, and have also done well with WOS, KAH and LAM

not sure where you reside, but would happily meet for a pie and a pint if it suits ..... i'm between maidenhead and henley

I'm in last 10 mins this afternoon..gl all.

Cyners thats very kind of you, but not my cup of tea as 1. I live in the yorkshire area and 2. im not the type for mixing and that kind of thingy. Im not a social animal ... so to speak.

I hope you dont take that personal, its not meant to offend.

Always available for a PM though and a chat on any stock or anything.... with anyone aswell.

Good to see so many having good rewards over the last few days.

no probs .... my mother was brought up in Harrogate and now my older son (+ fiancee) live there too

These are cheap for no reason.

Heading back to 300p imo.

Its a Buy alone just on the NAV and forecast NAV never mind the cheap rating of just over P/E 5.................


Concensus Broker Figures.....

INVESTMENT RATIO

2008 (A) 2009 (E) 2010 (E)

EBITDA m 55.47m 54.87m

EBIT m 44.64m 46.59m

Dividend Yield 5.58% 6.44% 6.44%

Dividend Cover 3.80x 2.99x 2.93x

PER 4.71x 5.20x 5.30x

PEG 0.22f -0.56f -2.79f

Net Asset Value PS p 318.10p 344.01p

Attractive aswell if you like a divi play.