Financial Trading Blog

Stock of the day 13/05/2016 – Royal Mail PLC




After a rather rocky end to 2015 Royal Mail managed to navigate January’s jerky trading to hit a near month high of £4.60 by the start of February, largely thanks to a solid post-Christmas trading statement. That update saw Royal Mail reveal group revenue rose 1% for the 9 months to the end of 2015, whilst parcel volumes jumped 4% over Christmas and 6% in December as a whole when compared to 2014.

Royal Mail PLC Chart May 2016 Spreadex Financial Spread Betting
(Source: IT-Finance.com 13/05/2016)

For all its self-fuelled growth at the start of the year Royal Mail couldn’t help but come unstuck in the torrid trading that plagued the first half of February, the stock plunging to a 13th month low of £4.13 as the global markets went haywire. Yet the company did manage a swift recovery, and by the beginning of March it was back to £4.60.

Since then the stock has seen a fairly uninterrupted rise. By April Royal Mail was trading at £4.80, whilst a burst of energy at the start of May saw the company cross the £5 mark for the first time since last year July. From that peak the stock has fallen slightly, though not by much, Royal Mail sitting at a current trading price of £4.92 (IT-Finance.com, 13/05/2016).

In terms of the company’s full year figures analysts are expecting a 10% drop in underlying earnings to £387 million, something that may be compensated for with a 0.72p increase in its dividend to 21.72p. Investors will also be keen to see the latest developments in the internal war between parcel and letter volumes, the former having to compensate for the latter’s increasing decline.

Royal Mail PLC has a consensus rating of ‘Hold’ with an average target price of £5.09.


DISCLAIMER


Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. For professional clients, spread betting and CFD trading can also result in losses larger than your initial stake or deposit.

Spreadex Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, provides an execution only service and does not provide advice in any way. Nothing within this update should be deemed to constitute the provision of investment advice, recommendations, any other professional advice in any way, or a record of our trading prices. This update does not constitute or form part of an offer of, or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract therefore. Any persons placing trades based on their interpretation of the comments or information within this update does so entirely at their own risk.

No representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited, is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained within this update by Spreadex Ltd or any of its employees and no liability is accepted by such persons for the accuracy or completeness of any such information or opinions. As such, no reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information and opinions contained within this update.

The information contained within this update is the intellectual property of Spreadex Ltd and is protected by UK and International copyright laws. All rights reserved. Users may however freely download, distribute and reproduce extracts of the contents, subject always to accrediting Spreadex Ltd as the source and providing a hyperlink to www.spreadex.com.