Next week on the stock market

Among FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and selected other companies scheduled to report next week:

• Associated British Foods should let us know what the latest restrictions mean for Primark
• Avon Rubber increases its focus on defence customers after the sale of its milking business
• The focus will be on the outlook at Countryside Properties

FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and selected other stocks scheduled to report next week

30-Nov
Civitas Social Housing	Half Year Results

1-Dec
No FTSE 350 reporters

2-Dec
Avon Rubber	Full Year Results
Future	Full Year Results

3-Dec
AJ Bell	Full Year Results
Countryside Properties	Full Year Results
Paragon Banking Group	Full Year Results

4-Dec
Associated British Foods*	AGM Trading Statement

*Companies on which we will be writing research.

Associated British Foods – Sophie Lund-Yates, Equity Analyst

Associated British Foods usually offers a short trading update with its AGMs.

AGM statements are notoriously brief, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to look out for. As the owner of Primark, the group's particularly exposed to the second round of lockdowns in the UK. With no online presence to help offset store closures, we’ll be looking for commentary on cash burn in particular. ABF handled its costs incredibly well in lockdown mark 1, so we’d hope to see a repeat performance.

ABF previously said it expects Primark full year sales and profits to be higher than the respective £5.9bn and £362m reported in the financial year that ended in September 2020. We’d like to know if, and how far, those goal posts have moved.

See the latest ABF share price, charts and how to trade

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Avon Rubber – Nicholas Hyett, Equity Analyst

It’s been an eventful year so far for Avon Rubber. Having sold its milking business earlier in the year for £180m, the group is now firmly focused on Avon Protection. The division provides respiratory and ballistic protection to Military and Emergency Service clients, mostly in North America.

The move has gone down well with investors, with the shares now trading on a price to earnings ratio of 33.6, up from 21.2 times earnings at the start of the year. It helps that defence customers tend to be pretty reliable when it comes to paying, and the group’s respirators are the kind of consumable product that needs replacing reasonably frequently.

These will be the first set of results after the disposal completed. It’s an opportunity for the group to set out its vision for the long-term future – given recent acquisitions we suspect steady expansion of applications for the group’s technologies will be front and centre.

See the latest Avon Rubber share price, charts and how to trade

Countryside Properties – Sophie Lund-Yates, Equity Analyst

Countryside released a fairly comprehensive trading statement in October that covered its full year results, so there shouldn’t be too many surprises next week. Countryside’s results have broadly followed the wider housebuilding industry. Completions are down, the sales rate has recovered and the forward order book has grown. Average prices have fallen slightly, but this is likely down to the mix of houses sold as overall house price indices are up year-on-year.

A £250m capital raise has reinforced the balance sheet and provided some dry powder for land buying. This puts Countryside in a camp with other more gung ho housebuilders, and shareholders will be hoping they’ve made the right call.

However, Countryside did say it would be providing guidance in next week’s results. Investors will be hoping for bullish projections, but either way the forecasts will be a strong indicator of management’s approach to the next year.

See the latest Countryside Properties share price, charts and how to trade

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