Thursday preview: Aviva, Schroders, Morrisons, BoE

As per usual, Thursday is the busiest day of the week for company announcements, with the added excitement this week of the Bank of England making its interest rate and asset purchasing policy announcement at midday.

Not that many people are expecting the Bank to do anything other than maintain the status quo. Meanwhile, across the water, the European Central Bank will also be announcing its interest rate decision and it, too, is expected to keep its rate unchanged.

On the company front, general insurance firm Aviva releases full year results. Back in November, the insurer said that it has seen a decline in world-wide sales in the nine months to the end of September. As of the end of the third quarter, total sales stood at £30,597m down 5% on the same period of 2010.

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Not all the figures were as gloomy, however. The key "operating ratio" figure, which combines investment and underwriting figures to show whether Aviva is making a profit, stood at 96% in September, better than the 97% at the same point in 2010. A figure over 100% implies the firm is making less money from investments than it is liable for in insurance claims.

The market is expecting the full year profit before tax to be around £1.79bn, and earnings per share (EPS) to be 45.86p. The full year dividend is tipped to edge up to 26.7p from 25.5p in 2010.

Elsewhere in the financial sector, asset manager Schroders will unveil its 2011 results. Profit before tax is expected to be around £401m, while analysts have pencilled in a figure of 108.87p for EPS. The full year dividend is forecast to rise to 39.6p.

Assets under management were £182.2bn as at 30th September 2011, well down on the end-June figure of £204.8bn.

Supermarket outfit Morrison (William) issues results and it will be interesting to see whether it has been suffering some of the same travails as sector leader Tesco or whether, as some pundits suggest, it is the instigator of some of those travails.

Sales for the year to the end of January are expected to advance to £17.57bn, while profit before tax is set to continue its steady advance towards the £1bn mark, with analysts expecting a number around £922m. EPS are forecast to rise to 25.19p and the full year dividend to be bumped upto 10.72p.

"With updates on the Fresh/Liberate trials and other elements of self help we think the prelims on 8 Mar will be a positive event," notes Nomura Securities.

"However, (1) trade press also points to a 300 store (c.0.9m sq.ft.) 'M Local' convenience portfolio by 2015. With only 3 trials open, and with a differentiated, and as such largely untested, model, we would expect a much more measured approach. (2) We see headroom within the c. £1bn capex [capital expenditure] run rate, but the Fresh/Liberate re-models and a c-store roll-out may lead to capex creeping higher," the broker added.

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Canadian General Investments Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Bloomberg Consumer Confidence (US) (14:45)

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Industrial Production (GER) (11:00)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q2

Elringklinger AG

FINALS

Alpha UK Multi Property Trust, Aviva, Balfour Beatty, Cineworld Group, Clarkson, Corin Group, H&T Group, Hunting, Irish Continental Group Units, Jcdecaux SA, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, Schroders, Schroders (Non-Voting), Spirax-Sarco Engineering

ANNUAL REPORT

Alpha UK Multi Property Trust

IMSS

Smith (DS)

EGMS

MDY Healthcare

AGMS

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. GDR (Reg S), Henderson Diversified Income Ltd.

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Balance of Trade (Trade Balance) (09:30)

Bank of England rate decision (12:00)