Wednesday preview: GlaxoSmithKline to report difficult quarter, analysts say

Healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline is expected to report 'another difficult quarter' when the company unveils its latest results Wednesday, according to analysts.

The pharmaceuticals group will post its full-year and fourth quarter financials, a day after announcing it increased its stake in its Indian consumer healthcare subsidiary by investing more than half a billion pounds in the unit.

"We expect another difficult quarter as the company experiences some tough [year on year] comparisons [Advair & Cervarix], EU austerity and a forex headwind," analysts at Credit Suisse said.

The broker expects a 3.0% fall in sales and 4.0% decline in earnings per share (EPS) in the fourth quarter.

About £50m of incremental vaccine tenders will offset some of the negatives in the quarter but many of the headwinds look set to continue into early 2013 including its products Cervarix, Vesicare, Lamictal XR, it added.

Credit Suisse said a solid dividend yield of circa 5.0% will remain an attraction for the stock along with a free cash flow generation of circa £5.0bn per annum.

"We forecast an ongoing £2.0bn per annum share buyback programme to double operational EPS growth of 3-6% [2012-16 compound annual growth rate]. However, we see limited opportunity for this to improve in the near term, in the absence of significant top line growth."

Shares were down 0.91% to €5.57 at 16:02.

GlaxoSmithKline is not to be outshone by fellow FTSE 100 firms TUI Travel and Hargreaves Lansdown which also release latest trading results on Wednesday.

INTERIMS

Hargreaves Lansdown

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Ashtead Group, Halma, Vodafone Group

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Cohort, Daejan Holdings, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 'C' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 'D' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 E Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 1 F Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2 'C' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2 'D' Shares, Ingenious Entertainment VCT 2 F Shares, Mattioli Woods, Penna Consulting, Puma High Income VCT , Puma Vct 8, Puma Vct VII, Stagecoach Group, Tricorn Group

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

IBM Corp., JPMorgan Claverhouse Inv Trust, Unilever

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

PMI Construction (GER) (08:55)

Q3

Canaccord Financial Inc.

Q4

GlaxoSmithKline, Virgin Media Inc., Wolfson Microelectronics

FINALS

GlaxoSmithKline, New Europe Property Investments, Virgin Media Inc., Wolfson Microelectronics

IMSS

Grainger

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Rensburg AIM VCT

AGMS

Blackrock Income And Growth Investment Trust, LED International Holdings Ltd (DI), Redhall Group

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

BRC Shop Price Index (00:01)

New Car Registrations (09:30)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Noble Investments (UK), Victrex

Thursday February 07

INTERIMS

Mcbride

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

FirstGroup

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Consumer Credit (US) (20:00)

ECB Interest Rate (EU) (12:45)

Industrial Production (GER) (11:00)

Productivity (US) (13:30)

Q4

Smith & Nephew

FINALS

Beazley, Smith & Nephew

IMSS

Avon Rubber, Supergroup, Vodafone Group

EGMS

Hotel Corporation (The)

AGMS

Avon Rubber, BlackRock New Energy Inv Trust, Compass Group, Downing Absolute Income VCT 1, Downing Absolute Income VCT 1 'C' Shares , Downing Income Vct, Downing Income Vct 4, Paragon Group Of Companies, Thomas Cook Group, TUI Travel, Unicorn AIM VCT

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bellway

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (09:30)

BoE Interest Rate Decision (12:00)

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Cardiff Property, JPMorgan Asian Inv Trust

Q1

TUI Travel, TUI Travel