Severn Trent Share Discussion Threads

[miata] 06/6/2011 09:25

Severn Trent dropped 1.28% or 19p to £14.61 after JP Morgan cut the company's rating to Underweight from Neutral.

[beardmore] 07/3/2011 16:22

Me too - £15.09!

[db125] 07/3/2011 14:47

Out for now at 1513.4!

[miata] 04/2/2011 13:07

Merill UPGRADE to BUY.

High RPI is beneficial for valuations, revenues, dividends and debt ratios. The Jan 2.5% VAT hike, higher commodity/food prices and utility bill hikes are expected to support 2011 RPI at high levels The next catalyst is 15th Feb 2011, when Jan 2011 RPI will be published. While 4.5-5% RPI starting Jan 2011 would be very supportive, we believe risks are probably on the upside.

[miata] 04/2/2011 13:07

Severn Trent is up 60p (4.3%) at £14.50 and United Utilities has added 21p (3.8%) to 576p following the upbeat note from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

[nellie1973] 18/1/2011 13:25

Broker upgrade

[dnevets] 02/12/2010 14:04

JTCod's thoughts might be of interest:

[5dally] 02/12/2010 10:51

Out of this for now,,,

[miata] 01/12/2010 10:41

XD today, pay 26.04p on 14/01/11.

Seems a 'risk on' day (ie miners up utilities down) with positive Chinese PMI.

[5dally] 01/12/2010 08:33

A good topping up opp. or wait ???? will we see £13 ????

[ashtongray] 23/11/2010 15:53

Except of course their pricing regime is RPI based and demand is pretty inelastic, so thet would be better placed than many other types of enterprise. not a guarantee but worth something....

I remember once in the old days having mortgage finance @ Base Rate +2.5% which for a scary couple of months until I refinanced cost 17.5%p.a. Ouch!

[beardmore] 23/11/2010 15:06

""....commitment to raising dividends by RPI+3% annually to 2015 might prove quite valuable"". Or impossible, I might add, having lived through the 17%+ inflation of the 1970s!

[ashtongray] 23/11/2010 14:15

Also if you are of the view that QE and sequel QE2 may eventually have the (intended?) result of a new inflationary era as a way of getting rid of the debt burden by effectively devaluing it, then a commitment to raising dividends by RPI+3% annually to 2015 might prove quite valuable.

[miata] 23/11/2010 10:52

I think it may be near the end of the growing season but still in bloom.

[beardmore] 23/11/2010 10:49

Well, I haven't read the latest statement but I understand that the dividend is to be re-based, to use a favoured euphemism. This must be the result of the OFWAT settlement and, as you seem to suggest MIATA, future CAPEX requirements. I'm very uncertain. Having been a convinced utilities investor for years (SVT, UU, NWG, DVW, NG, SSE ) I'm beginning to wonder whether, in the light of comment and lack-lustre performance, the bloom is off the rose.

[miata] 23/11/2010 10:30

My view was that OFWAT was fairly tough and OFGEN completely useless, but does this offset the future capital burden?

[miata] 23/11/2010 09:51

Its all relative, the water sector's future capital expenditure burden is likely to be much less than the energy utilities.

"Woodford has been beefing up his core bets in the pharmaceutical sector over the past six months. He had added to his major stakes in GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca by taking a position in Swiss firm Novartis. 'A holding in Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis was introduced during the period."

I not seeing much upward momentum in GSK.

[beardmore] 23/11/2010 09:24

Makes you wonder whether to hold on. Neil Woodford certainly saw the signs when he sold his £100 million stake a few months ago.

[miata] 23/11/2010 08:52

Severn Trent's profits have halved despite a rise in revenues, as the water firm faced a series of charges.

Half-year pre-tax profits at Severn, which serves eight million customers, have fallen from £208.2m to £101.1m.

Extra costs for restructuring and infrastructure spending held back profits, and Severn said trading conditions were challenging.

But without the charges profits fell 16%, and Severn said it was nearing the end of a major period of change.

Severn's revenues rose 1.9% to £867.9m for the six months to the end of September.

The company cut its interim dividend by 2.5% to 26.04p, and introduced a new dividend policy for the period between 2011-12 and 2014-15.

"The board has decided that the dividend policy for Severn Trent for the period should be RPI plus 3%," the company said in a statement.

[5dally] 07/11/2010 08:15

Listening to all those charty people we could have a good topping up opp. coming over the next week or two :-)IMO & DYOR

[beardmore] 02/11/2010 18:49

This is showing real strength - at last!

[beardmore] 02/11/2010 11:48

Yes, agreed. Amusing to read MIATA's report of HSBC's target - 1370p, eh?!

[5dally] 02/11/2010 11:25

Very nice rise today :-)