21st Aug 2015 11:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - Barclays raises its pretax profit forecast for WH Smith after the books and stationery retailer said that results for the full year will be slightly ahead of analyst expectations when it released a trading update on Thursday.
The bank upgrades its pretax profit forecast by GBP1 million to GBP120 million and raises its earnings per share estimate by 1% to 86.9 pence, noting that while the latter is a fairly modest upgrade, it has now upgraded its financial year 2015 earnings per share forecasts by a cumulative 7% over the past year.
WH Smith reported GBP114 million in pretax profit last year. Its financial year ends August 31.
Barclays says that a strong performance in the Travel business in the second half of the year was "encouraging" and ups its Travel earnings before interest and tax estimate by GBP1 million to GBP80 million.
However, the bank leaves its Ebit estimate unchanged at GBP59 million for the High Street business.
Barclays maintains its Neutral stance on the stock and raises its price target to GBP15.60 from GBP14.55.
Shares in WH Smith are trading flat at 1,549.00p midday Friday.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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