Thursday's results from electrical goods retailer Dixons will be the first on the watch of new Chief Executive Officer, Seb James.
"Consensus expects pretax profits to be in the range £65m to £70m and we are at the top end," notes Panmure Gordon.
"We expect that the numbers and accompanying presentation will provide significant support for the UK profit recovery story. This means that the focus will shift towards the underperforming businesses (Southern Europe and PIXmania), which are major contributors to our forecast of £100m profit improvement over the next three years," the broker added.
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All eyes will be on guidance for 2013 when rental equipment firm Ashtead releases its full year results, according to US broker Jefferies.
The broker is expecting Ashtead to report a pre-tax profit of £121.1m for the year ended March 31st 2012, based on the fourth-quarter assumptions of US rental revenue growth of 13% year-on-year. "Given sector peer United Rentals reported April 2012 rental revenues up 19.2% year-on-year, we believe these Ashtead 4Q12 assumptions are conservatively set," analysts said.
"We see upside risk to FY13 forecasts from 1) ongoing structural shift to increased rental & less equipment ownership in North America 2) Pricing recovery in rental rates and 3) Ashtead gaining market share from smaller, more financially constrained peers."
The market consensus is for Ashtead to unveil profit before tax of £122.4m on revenue of £1.12bn.
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