UK energy services provider Wood Group said it had not received any takeover approaches and that it was not planning a bid for rival Expro International which said last week it had received an approach.

Chairman Ian Wood told a conference call with reporters that, despite considerable consolidation in the sector, Wood Group had received no bid approaches in the past two years.

bought some this morning at 403.5 .... also some WSM at 1287

About to pull away from 4 area, possible climb up to 4.4 4.5 soon !

it will have some pretty stern resistance at 440 which is the all time high

If it breaks through that the upper 4-5 area should be attainable !

all slightly puzzling .... delighted that sp has shot up today, as has WSM, but there is certainly no news out, other than riding on the back of the t/o approach to Expro, so ask myself whether or not i should bank a very quick but very nice profit.

Exon mobile are to invest $125b into new production year on year so good news for oil service companies

is that an exceptional amount for Exxon?

This is going to seesaw all the way up to 450p !

Told you so !

have banked my profit at 423.25 ..... 4-5% clear in 2 days is not to be sneezed at ..... expect to buy back in here in due course, but Dow is very jittery and could end up anywhere

Cynic, this goes exdividend on 19/3/08...many a time a share will climb before ...

it's an excellent company, as is Wellstream and Petrofac ..... however, as i trade via CFDs and Dow could easily fall below 12000 even tonight (it really can't determine a direction at the mo), then reducing exposure was no more than prudent

Very resilient today !

and flying today !

Nice bounce today up 10%.

up another 5%this am.

Looking strong again today, recent broker forecasts..

Wood Group (John) PLC

FORECASTS
2008 2009

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

Oriel Securities
12-12-08 BUY 279.95 27.40 5.20 307.34 38.10 6.90

Arden Partners
08-12-08 BUY 254.70 32.10 6.40 246.70 30.50 6.10

Evolution Securities Ltd
01-12-08 ADD 247.75 33.61 5.86 250.75 33.93 6.51

Eden Group
03-11-08 BUY

Singer Capital Markets Ltd
30-10-08 BUY 235.68 27.90 4.60 282.08 33.40 5.70

Charles Stanley Securities
14-10-08 HOLD 175.63 23.58 4.52 200.72 26.85 5.02

ABN AMRO
29-08-08 BUY 223.14 28.21 5.36 259.24 33.08 6.16

Seymour Pierce
16-05-08 UNDP 175.40 22.20 4.00 202.00 25.50 4.50


2008 2009
Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax () EPS (p) DPS (p)

Consensus 252.34 29.08 5.49 258.36 32.61 6.32
1 Month Change 16.98 1.08 0.45 -2.42 0.81 0.37
3 Month Change 38.13 1.48 0.41 11.25 0.71 0.80


GROWTH
2007 (A) 2008 (E) 2009 (E)

Norm. EPS 52.33% 62.04% 12.14%
DPS 16.81% 97.48% 15.12%

INVESTMENT RATIOS

2007 (A) 2008 (E) 2009 (E)
EBITDA 186.63m 312.92m 315.96m
EBIT 151.32m m m
Dividend Yield 1.41% 2.78% 3.20%
Dividend Cover 6.46x 5.30x 5.16x
PER 10.99x 6.78x 6.05x
PEG 0.21f 0.11f 0.50f
Net Asset Value PS 37.86p 122.83p 148.5

12/12/2008...

Goldman Sachs as a buy for Wood Group, cutting target to 250p from 330p .

Barclays have a target on this at 4.10 with a buy rating