Help me - I bought these a month ago - when they were being tipped all over the place. Since then the sector has gone down the swannie - should cut my losses (13%) or hold on for the long haul?

Interim Management Statement

Persimmon plc ("the Company") will hold its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") at 12.00 noon today at York Racecourse when the Chairman will make the following statement regarding current trading, financial performance and the outlook for the current financial year. This statement covers the period from 1 January 2014 to date and supplements the update given with the 2013 Final Results on 25 February 2014.

The new financial year has started well with visitor levels to our sites up 10% over the prior year during the initial fifteen weeks of trading. Cancellation rates over this period of 14% continue to run at historically low levels (2013: 15%).

Our weekly private sales rate per site for the first fifteen weeks of 2014 was 25% ahead of the prior year. Together with the strong sales position brought forward into the new year, this improved rate of sale results in current total forward sales of £1.87 billion for 2014, which includes legal completions taken so far this year. Total forward sales revenue is 35% higher than in 2013 (£1.38 billion). We have c.7,200 new homes sold forward into the private sale market for 2014 which is 38% ahead of the same point last year, with an average selling price of c.£200,400 which is c.3% higher.

We currently have c.395 active sites across the UK and have successfully opened 75 of the 90 new outlets targeted for the first half of 2014 to refresh this network. Our build activity continues to support the improved rates of sale and we remain confident of delivering further growth in the number of new homes legally completed for 2014.

The Government sponsored Help to Buy shared equity scheme in England reached its first anniversary on 1 April 2014 and we have now sold c.5,000 new homes to customers using mortgages associated with this scheme, of which 2,203 legally completed in 2013. In addition, we have sold a further c.600 new homes in Scotland and Wales to customers using similar mortgage products in these regional markets.

The recently announced extension of Help to Buy from March 2016 to March 2020 provides welcome support to potential new home purchasers for this additional four year period. As a consequence, and with the support of the mortgage lending industry, housebuilders have the opportunity to continue to increase the industry's development commitments in support of increasing the number of new homes delivered to the market over the medium term.

Our strategy remains focussed on exercising capital discipline through the cycle whilst growing the business as market conditions allow. Our commitment to return c.£1.9 billion of surplus capital to shareholders over the period to 2021 is a key feature of this capital discipline. In the Final Results statement on 25 February 2014 the Directors announced a further acceleration of this programme of capital return. Subject to shareholder approval at the AGM, the second payment of the Capital Return Plan of c.£213 million, or 70p per share, will be paid to shareholders on 4 July 2014. This 70p per share payment is a part acceleration of the 115p final payment originally planned for 2021. The record date is 6.00 p.m. on 4 June 2014 and the shares trade ex-entitlement from 8.00 a.m. on 5 June 2014.

In line with the approach adopted with the first payment under the Capital Return Plan in 2013, the Directors will offer shareholders the opportunity, where possible, to choose to receive the cash either as a return of capital or as dividend income by way of a B / C share scheme. Full details of the B / C share proposal have been sent to shareholders with the notice of the Company's AGM. The closing date for elections to be made by shareholders is 11.00 a.m. on 20 June 2014.

The Directors are pleased to announce that the Company has recently concluded an amendment of its £300 million Revolving Credit Facility with the Company's five relationship banks. The new facility has been extended to a maturity date of 31 March 2019.

We will provide a further report on progress in our Trading Update on Wednesday 2 July 2014.

I wonder if this might be worth a dabble before the 70p ex-divi date (5th Jun). Looks to be a little upside in the sp with the divi safety net if the trade goes wrong.

Interim Management Statement

TRADING UPDATE - 7 JANUARY 2015

Persimmon plc announces the following update ahead of its Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2014, which will be released on 24 February 2015.

The Group delivered a strong performance in 2014 with an increase of 17% in legal completions to 13,509 new homes (2013: 11,528). The 36% increase in the number of new homes delivered to the market by Persimmon over the last two years reflects the growth of the business in line with the objectives of the Group's long term strategic plan.

The average selling price for the Group in 2014 was c. £190,500, an increase of 5% over 2013 (£180,941). Full year revenues increased 23% over the prior year to £2.6bn (2013: £2.1bn).

The Group experienced good levels of demand across the UK throughout 2014, with a return to a more traditional seasonal pattern to customer activity and we sold well right through to the end of the autumn season. The value of our forward sales at 31 December 2014 of c. £973m (2013: £908m) was 7% ahead of the prior year and provides strong momentum for the business moving into the new year.

As indicated in our Interim Management Statement on 4 November 2014 we remain confident of a further improvement in operating margins for the second half of the year which will underpin significant growth in pre-tax profits and excellent cash generation for the year ended 31 December 2014.

In line with the Group's long term strategy, during the year we identified a number of excellent opportunities for disciplined reinvestment in new sites in good locations which will generate superior returns and cashflow over the coming years. We were successful in acquiring c. 26,800 plots of new land over 156 sites with good deferred terms. Over 8,600 plots were converted from our strategic land bank embedding further excellent value in the consented land bank. Our management teams across the country remain focussed on starting construction on all our development sites at the earliest opportunity to fulfil the demands of the market and to maximise the Group's returns.

The Group held cash balances of c. £378m at 31 December 2014 (2013: £204m).

We will give a further update on our assessment of the housing market over the early weeks of 2015 when we announce our results for the year ended 31 December 2014 on Tuesday 24 February 2015.

Ex-divi 20th Mar 2015 (95p)

Trading Update

THURSDAY 2 JULY 2015

Persimmon plc announces the following update ahead of its Half Year Results to 30 June 2015, which will be released on Tuesday 18 August 2015.

The Group has traded well through the first half of 2015. Customer sentiment remained resilient through the period running up to the General Election on 7 May and confidence has improved subsequently. New home legal completion volumes increased by 7% to 6,855 units (2014: 6,408) and total revenues increased by 12% to £1.34 bn (2014: £1.20 bn). Visitor numbers to our sites across the UK have been in line with the prior year and cancellation rates have remained at low levels.

Customer demand has been supported by an increasingly competitive mortgage market over the last six months, together with continued growth in employment and some welcome improvement in disposable incomes. The opportunity to buy a newly built home remains compelling. The average selling price for the Group increased by 4% to c. £195,000 (2014: £186,970).

For the first half of the year the Group's weekly rate of sale into the private sale market was 11% ahead of the prior year. At 30 June forward sales volumes into the private sale market were 12% ahead of last year at 4,606 new homes with an average selling price of c. £213,000, 4% ahead of last year. Total forward sales value at 30 June increased by 15% to £1.36 bn (2014: £1.18 bn).

We successfully opened 122 new sites in the first half of the year despite experiencing a slow-down in the planning application process in the period running up to the General Election. As a result our outlet network at 30 June of 395 active sites was c. 5% stronger than at the start of the year. We continue to actively develop all sites where we have an implementable detailed planning consent and plan to open a further c.125 new sites during the second half of the year.

The land market continues to provide attractive opportunities for investment to support the future growth of the business. We have acquired c. 11,500 new plots of land across the UK during the first half and our consented land bank at 30 June totalled c. 92,400 plots. We continue to take advantage of profitable opportunities to strengthen the land platform for the future development of the business.

The third payment of our Capital Return Plan of £291 million, or 95p per share, was accelerated and paid on 2 April 2015 in line with the long term strategic plan adopted by management. The Group's total free net cash inflow before capital return in the first half of the year was c. £191 million (2014: £122 million). Due to this strong liquidity cash holdings at 30 June were c. £278 million ( 30 June 2014: £326 million).

We will announce our Half Year Results on Tuesday 18 August 2015 and will provide further details at that time.

Half Year Results

Highlights

· Profit before tax increased 31% to £272.8m (2014: £208.9m)
· Revenue up 11% to £1.33bn (2014: £1.20bn)
· Legal completions increased 7% to 6,855 new homes sold (2014: 6,408), average selling price increased 4% to £194,378 (2014: £186,970)
· Further expansion of underlying operating margin* to 20.5% (2014: 17.7%), an increase of 280bps
· Return on average capital employed** increased by 27% to 27.5% (2014: 21.7%)
· Strong land investment with 11,539 plots of land secured in the period bringing consented land bank to 92,404 plots
· Continued success in securing planning consent for the Group's strategic land bank with 2,974 plots converted in the period
· Net free cash generation*** of £191m in the period (2014: £122m)
· Net cash of £278m at 30 June 2015 (2014: £326m)
· Underlying basic earnings per share* increased 43% to 78.6p (2014: 54.8p)
· Current forward sales 12% ahead at over £1.71bn (2014: £1.53bn)
· Third payment of surplus capital under the Capital Return Plan of £291m (95p per share) paid 2 April 2015
* stated before goodwill impairment
** 12 month rolling average stated before goodwill impairment
*** net free cash generation stated before Capital Return Plan payments

Aug 18:
Numis: Reduce - TP: - 1850p
Davy Research: Underperform - TP: N/A
JP Morgan: Neutral - N/A

property prices to flat line, so to psn you have had the gifts, Cap gain ?
not fore some time. BB

Positive trading statement http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=5145724

PSN is in good company in having its sp squashed in recent days

i understand the argument that stock prices are now fully valued or even frothy, but there's no question that an awful lot of extra houses really are needed (nimby pleeease!), so i'ld have thought now might be a good time to add rather than sell ..... and a little dabble in MBH would not be rash either

StockMarketWire.com
Persimmon said 2015 was another year of strong growth for the Group, with legal completions increasing by 8% to 14,572 new homes, from 13,509 a year ago.

Further improvements to the company's build programmes supported the delivery of its strong carried forward sales at the mid-year stage, together with healthy sales taken through the autumn season.

Its H2 volumes of 7,717 legal completions were 13% stronger than the first half (H1: 6,855). The two new businesses opened during 2015 have made a solid start to trading, with Central delivering 160 new homes and Teesside 310 new homes during the year.

Revenues for 2015 of £2.9bn were 13% higher than the prior year (2014: £2.6bn), the Group's average selling price having increased by 4.5% to c. £199,100 (2014: £190,533).

The value of Persimmon's forward sales at 31 December 2015 of c. £1,100m is 13% ahead of the prior year (2014: £973m).

This provides a strong platform for the Group to continue to execute its long term strategy, which includes growing the business to take advantage of sustainable market opportunities.

A further two new businesses based at Launceston in Cornwall and Perth in Scotland commenced trading on 4 January 2016 and will support this disciplined growth.

During 2015, Persimmon opened over 250 new development sites across the UK. The improved land recoveries on legal completions from these new sites, and strong control over costs, will result in a further increase in operating margins for the second half of the year as reported in November's trading update.

The Group's expansion in output, together with improved operating profitability, will produce substantial growth in pre-tax profits and excellent cash generation for the year ended 31 December 2015. The Group's liquidity remains strong. The Group has continued to identify compelling reinvestment opportunities in the land market which will deliver strong returns and cashflows over future years.

It acquired c. 20,500 plots of new land over 123 sites with good deferred terms during the year. The consistent application of the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework is supporting improvements in land release for development and the additional initiatives recently announced in the Autumn Statement should help further.

The Group has an exciting pipeline of opportunities emerging from its strategic land portfolio and Persimmon remains well placed to realise its disciplined growth plans as part of the execution of its long term strategy.

The Group held cash balances of c. £570m at 31 December 2015 (2014: £378m).

Persimmon also noted that Nigel Greenaway, South Division Chief Executive has decided to retire from the Board after the conclusion of the Company's AGM on 14 April 2016. It also announced that David Jenkinson will be promoted to Group Managing Director with immediate effect, with responsibility for Group businesses and reporting directly to the Group Chief Executive, Jeff Fairburn.

Persimmon hikes underlying FY pretax profit

StockMarketWire.com

Persimmon has hiked its underlying FY pretax profit by 34% to GBP637.8m, from GBP475.0m. Revenue was up 13% to GBP2.9bn, from GBP2.6bn. It described the performance as outstanding.

Chairman Nicholas Wrigley said:

"It is now four years since we launched our long term strategy focused on growing Persimmon into a stronger, larger business while maintaining capital discipline and delivering robust free cash generation.

"The Group's ability to grow completion volumes by more than 55% through this period while simultaneously returning �733m of excess capital to shareholders underlines the strength of its operating model.

"Customer activity in the early weeks of the 2016 spring season has been encouraging and today's further �860m enhancement to the Capital Return Plan to a total of �9.00 per share is a measure of the Board's confidence in the Group's future progress."

HIGHLIGHTS

" Legal completions increased by 8% to 14,572 (2014: 13,509) and average selling price increased 4.5% to �199,127 (2014: �190,533)

" Operating margin increased to 21.9% (2014: 18.4%); with second half improvement to 23.0%

" 24% increase in cash generation pre capital returns to �483m (2014: �388m)

" Return on average capital employed* increased by 30% to 32.1% (2014: 24.6%)

" A further 20,501 plots of land acquired in the year, with 6,739 plots successfully converted from the Group's strategic land portfolio

" Underlying basic earnings per share increased by 39% to 173.0p (2014: 124.5p)

" Net cash of �570.4m at 31 December 2015 (2014: �378.4m)

" Forward sales ahead at �1.68bn (2015: �1.49bn), an increase of 12%

JP Morgan Cazenove today upgrades its investment rating on Persimmon PLC (LON:PSN) to overweight (from underweight) and cut its price target to 1950p (from 2100p).

StockMarketWire.com
Persimmon has hiked its H1 pretax profit by 29% to £352.3m, from £272.8m, the robust performance driven by a clear focus on meeting market demand.

Revenue was up 12% to £1.49bn, from£1.33bn. Legal completions rose 6% to 7238 new homes sold, from 6855. Average selling price was up 6% to £205,762.

"Persimmon's robust trading performance in the first half of 2016 was driven by our continued focus on meeting market demand to deliver controlled sustainable growth," said CEO Jeff Fairburn in a statement.

"The Group's strong cash generation has supported further disciplined land investment embedding value for the future," he said.

"While the result of the EU Referendum has created increased economic uncertainty, customer interest since then has been robust with visitor numbers to our sites around 20% ahead year on year.

"Our private sale reservation rate since 1 July is currently 17% ahead of the same period last year. The Group is now trading through the traditionally slower summer weeks but customer demand remains encouraging and we anticipate a good autumn sales season.

"We are confident that our long term strategic focus will continue to deliver strong returns for our shareholders."

HIGHLIGHTS:
- Further expansion of underlying operating margin* to 23.8% (2015: 20.5%), an increase of 330bps

- Return on average capital employed increased by 29% to 35.6% (2015: 27.5%)

- 7,108 plots of new land secured in the period bringing consented land bank to 93,519 plots

- Continued success in securing planning consent for the Group's strategic land bank with 2,856 plots converted in the period, 40% of the new plots acquired in the period

- Net free cash generation of £229.9m in the period (2015: £190.7m)

- Net cash of £462.0m at 30 June 2016 (2015: £278.0m)

- Basic earnings per share increased 19% to 92.0p (2015: 77.3p)

- Current forward sales 2% ahead at £1.75bn (2015: £1.71bn)

- Fourth payment of surplus capital under the Capital Return Plan of £338.3m (110p per share) paid 1 April 2016.

StockMarketWire.com
Persimmon said trading over the summer weeks immediately following the UK's non-binding referendum to quit the EU was encouraging, with the number of customers visiting our sites remaining well ahead of last year.

"Thereafter, with the start of the autumn selling season, customer activity strengthened in line with the traditional seasonality of the market," the company said in a trading update for the period July 1 to Nov. 1.

"Our private sales rate in the period since we reported our half year results on 23 August 2016 has been 19% ahead of last year, representing a continuation of the stronger sales rate experienced through the summer weeks.

"We are now fully sold up for the current year and have c. £757 million of forward sales reserved beyond 2016, an increase of 4% on the same point last year (2015: £726 million).

"The market has continued to benefit from resilient consumer confidence and strong lender support. The reduction in the bank base rate in August has resulted in more attractive mortgage products further supporting affordability.

"Mortgage interest rates remain compelling, especially for first time buyers utilising the Help to Buy shared equity scheme. Pricing remains firm across our regional markets."

Going like a train today

Persimmon plc announces the following update ahead of its Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2016, which will be released on 27 February 2017.

Revenues for 2016 of £3.14bn were 8% higher than the prior year (2015: £2.90bn) with legal completion volumes increasing by 599 new homes to 15,171 (2015: 14,572). The Group's average selling price increased by 4% to c. £206,700 (2015: £199,127).

Sales reservations through the autumn season were strong with healthy customer demand for new homes. Buying a new-build home remains a compelling choice supported by competitive mortgage offers which continue to make a new home purchase very affordable. The Group's private sales rate for the second half of the year was 15% ahead of the prior year and second half legal completion volumes of 7,933 were 695 stronger than for the first half of the year (H1: 7,238).

We have continued to focus on disciplined high quality growth to achieve sustainable market share in our regional markets. The two new house building businesses we opened at the start of 2016 based in Perth, Scotland and Launceston, Cornwall have made good progress delivering over 650 new homes in their first year of operation. On 2 January 2017 we launched a further new business based in Mansfield, north of Nottingham, to support the delivery of increased volumes of new homes in this regional market. The value of our forward sales at 31 December 2016 of c. £1,230m is 12% ahead of the prior year (2015: £1,103m).

The Group successfully opened 255 new development sites across the UK during the year and is building on all sites which have an implementable planning consent. We expect our gross margin in the second half will have improved further due to a combination of the continued reduction in our land cost recoveries associated with opening new sites, and the continued strong control over development costs.

During the year we acquired c. 18,700 plots of new land in 83 locations with good deferred terms. We continue to see good opportunities to acquire additional land whilst remaining mindful of the risks associated with the uncertainty arising from the UK's decision to leave the EU. We continue to work hard to bring forward opportunities from the Group's strategic land portfolio which will add to the quality of the Group's asset platform. We expect local authorities to continue to progress their plans to support growth in housing delivery in line with the National Planning Policy Framework.

The Group held cash balances of c. £913m at 31 December 2016 (2015: £570m).

Trading update.

Housebuilder Persimmon put together an excellent foundation to its financial year, reporting resilient consumer confidence and strong momentum moving into the second half. The FTSE 100 group expanded revenues 12% to £1.66bn as the volume of new homes sold grew 8% to 7,794 and it was able to hoist average selling prices 3.5% to £213,000.

StockMarketWire.com
House building company Persimmon said three of its executives had decided to cut the size of their long-term incentive payments.

Chief executive Jeff Fairburn and chief financial officer Mike Killoran decided to reduce their overall entitlement by a number of shares equal to 50% of their entitlement.

They had also decided to extend until 2021 the holding period of certain entitlements.

Managing director Dave Jenkinson, meanwhile, decided to reduce his overall entitlement by 50% of the shares subject to awards granted to him since being promoted to the board.

'These decisions by the executives have been welcomed and fully supported by the remuneration committee, which has also noted Jeff Fairburn's intention to donate a substantial proportion of his total reward to charity,' Persimmon said.

I sold my shares back in December for a good profit, when the original news about how damaging the long-term incentive payments were going to be for the company. I don't know if the 50% is going to be enough...... The news from the company is otherwise positive ahead of the final results for 2017 due out next week.

For me the jury is still out if this is a good investment or not, even long term