Friday preview: Focus to be on current trading at Spectris

High flying instrumentation and controls group Spectris has already issued a detailed trading update for 2011 so Friday's full year results should contain few surprises, which means the focus will be on current trading.

For the record, market consensus is for sales of £1.1bn and profit before tax of £185.5m. Earnings per share are seen rising to 120.12p from 86.6p in 2010, paving the way for an increase in the full year dividend to 32.86p from 28p in 2010.

Asia outperformed Europe in 2011 although the latter still achieved a creditable 13% or so increase in like-for-like (LFL) sales on 2010, just behind North America's 14% growth; Asia Pacific grew LFL sales by around 17%.

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The company is likely to face tougher comparatives in 2012 and broker Investec noted last month that some of its competitors have recently issued profit warnings, so the tone is likely to be on the cautious side.

Notwithstanding the above, UBS reiterated its "buy" rating on the stock this week while upping its price target from £16.50 to £18.

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QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

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INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

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