Having taken a plunge many house builders are now possibly on the up again.

a number of the housebuilders doing very well, inc BDEV and PSN ..... still holding former, but took defensive profits in PSN yesterday.

as a periphery, also worth having a look at PAG which is a/the leading mortgage provider

yep and.......

House builders can rise even if house prices stall in 2010

http://www.citywire.co.uk/personal/-/news/markets-companies-and-funds/content.aspx?ID=376104
Housebuilders get a welcome boost from Credit Suisse

Broker note out....

14-Jan-10 Bovis Homes Group BVS Panmure Gordon Buy 455.00p 574.00p - Reiteration

SP target 574p

Excelent trading update statement, SP should go from strength to strength going forward.....

Bovis house sales bounce back
Fri 15 Jan 2010

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Housebuilder Bovis ended last year with cash in hand and has now started to buy land again after house sales last year rose by 25% and average prices increased by 2.5%.

The group legally completed 1,803 homes in 2009 (2008: 1,817), of which 1,527 were private homes, up 25% on the prior year (2008: 1,223) and 276 were social and partnership homes (2008: 594).

At 154,600, the average sales price in 2009 was 2.5% higher than the equivalent in 2008 (150,800). This rise was heavily influenced by a falling contribution in the sales mix from lower priced social and partnership homes, which made up just 15% of the mix in 2009 versus 33% in 2008.

The average sales price of the group's private homes in 2009 was 165,500 versus 181,000 in 2008.

Pre-exceptional pre-tax profit will be in line with the board's expectations, Bovis added, while it will benefit from a net inventory provision release as land values recover.

Bovis also said it had cash at 113m at the year end and will use this and a renegotiated bank facility to re-invest in residential land, to increase the output capacity of the group. Bovis acquired four sites in late 2009, with terms agreed in principle on a further 15 sites.

The group received 1,801 private home reservations during the year, 82% ahead of the prior year's 989 private reservations, though it is still cautious over the outlook for 2010.

The group continues to expect trading conditions in 2010 to be subdued relative to historical levels, given ongoing economic uncertainty. Mortgage approval volumes are slowly rising, but mortgage providers continue to require record high levels of deposits, particularly from first-time buyers. This all said, longer-term market demand and supply trends remain positive, it said.

Final Results.

PRELIMINARY RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2009

Issued 8 March 2010



The Board of Bovis Homes Group PLC today announced its preliminary results for 2009 which have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU ('IFRS').



Pre tax profit for the year of 4.8 million (2008: pre tax loss of 78.7 million)

Basic earnings per share of 2.8p (2008: basic loss per share 49.1p)

Pre-exceptional pre tax profit of 7.5 million (2008: 14.4 million)

Pre-exceptional basic earnings per share of 4.4p (2008: 9.2p per share)

Net inventory provision release of 11.6 million in the second half year

Total exceptional charges of 2.7 million (2008: 93.1 million)

112 million of net cash at 31 December 2009 (2008: 108 million net debt pre issue costs)

Cheaper, longer term and more flexible banking facilities agreed at the end of 2009

Overheads cut by 34% versus 2008 and by circa 45% relative to base at start of 2008

Land acquisition recommenced, with four consented sites acquired and terms agreed in principle on further 15 sites at 31 December 2009

12,042 plots of land with planning consent (2008: 13,545 plots) and 16,363 potential plots of strategic land (2008: 18,972 potential plots)

Market rumour of BVS being a possible taget of Persimmon. Seems to be preferred over BDEV and others.

I don't think it was a rumour as such Harry. Last week when BDEV rose due to a rumour about it being picked-up by PSN, an analyst said it was unlikely to be true because if PSN was going to target anyone, more likely it would be BVS.

Ah, cheers for that. Was wondering if I should pick up some BVS just on bid speculation, but might hang on for a bit longer.

Might be worth a trading buy on Bovis Homes BVS. Lower indicators turning positive, housing recovery going on and market up today.

Trading well below Broker forecasts....

Date Broker name New Price Old price target New price target Broker change

19-May-10 Deutsche Buy 389.00p 507.00p 521.00p Upgrade

07-May-10 Panmure Gordon Buy 372.90p 555.00p 553.00p Reiteration

07-May-10 Goldman Sachs Neutral 372.90p 460.00p 458.00p Reiteration

14-Apr-10 Collins Stewart Buy 418.00p 575.00p - Reiteration

Trading Statement.

Sales and profits growth

In line with management expectations, the Group legally completed 1,901 homes in 2010 (2009: 1,803 homes), an increase of 5%, of which 1,592 were private homes (2009: 1,527 homes) and 309 were social homes (2009: 276 social homes). The Group's average sales price in 2010 was 160,700, 4% higher than the equivalent of 154,600 in 2009. This increase was driven by growth in the Group's average private sales price in 2010 to 172,400 from 165,500 in 2009.


Strong balance sheet; land acquisitions to fuel growth

The cash position of the Group as at 31 December 2010 remained strong, with net cash of 52 million, having started 2010 with 113 million of net cash. The overall cash outflow was contributed to by payments during the year of c.138 million relating to land investment, with strong operating cash inflows pre-land expenditure of c.93 million.


Return to dividend

The Group has delivered early success with its growth strategy and the Board is confident in its further delivery, based on current market conditions. Given this confidence, the Board has decided to recommence the payment of dividends to shareholders. Based on the anticipated 2010 profits and the Group's robust balance sheet position, the Group will declare a dividend for 2010, subject to approval by shareholders at the 2011 Annual General Meeting, which will be paid in May 2011.

Gone short here, Support at 330p gone.

Peel hunt and Investec have a outright sell on the stock.

430?

Yep sorry slip of the key board 430p.

Broker note out this morning.....

BVS Davy: downgraded to underperform from outperform

Interim Mangement Statement.

Trading progressing well and land investment continuing

Bovis - is set to strut its stuff on Monday. Northland Capital Partners is confident the group will continue the run of upbeat trading comments seen from the UK house builders in the last 10 days. "Its (Euronext: ALITS.NX - news) full year 2011 trading comments should echo the positive IMS (Xetra: 875606 - news) [interim management statement] it released on 8th November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) 2011 with a solid seven weeks to the end of December 2011," the broker said. Compared to last year, the fourth quarter of 2011 should have had fewer problems than the final quarter of 2010, when the government's comprehensive spending review was hanging over consumers' heads, and the poor weather in December was deterring site visits. "We look a little light on our unit sales for the full year as new sites continue to bolster sales rates and operating margin.

..Bovis expects further rise in house prices

By Roland Gribben | Telegraph – 14 minutes ago
.
Housebuilder Bovis Homes is forecasting another significant jump in profits this year after opening more sites, cutting costs, selling land and concentrating developments in the more prosperous south.

David Ritchie, chief executive, maintained the housebuilding sector's recovery theme in an upbeat trading view ahead of its full-year results which are expected to show pre-tax profits jumped from £18.5m in 2010 to about £31m.

Bovis expects to sell more homes this year at more sites at higher prices and improved margins to produce another significant increase in profits as the benefits from a business overhaul feed through.

The company's performance reflects the improvement being made by housebuilders in a market short of houses but where first-time buyers are continuing to struggle to secure mortgages.

Bovis says trading conditions will remain challenging this year and hopes the Government-backed mortgage indemnity scheme will provide a fillip.

Last year Bovis built 2,045 private and social homes, an increase of 8pc. The group achieved a 4.5pc rise to £180,000 in the price of private sales largely as a result of building more family homes in the south.

Cost cutting has helped raise gross margins from 17.9pc to more than 20pc and at operating level from 7.3pc to 10pc, while land sales on some of its bigger sites has helped Bovis make better use of capital employed. Four deals have raised £38m.

Bovis has started this year in a stronger cash position along with sales of 568 homes in the pipeline an increase of 35pc on the same period a year ago and is looking to maintain the momentum through an increase in the number of sales sites.

The group plans to have 85 sites producing higher margins and sales operating during the year. Another 18 sites with 2,600 plots have been added to the land bank, most of them in the south.

The shares rose 0.5 to 453.6p.

..

on Monday Bovis Homes Group should be back to its first full-year dividend since 2008. It's not going to be a big one, of course, at only around 1%, but it's heading back in the right direction.

Final Results.