We’re almost halfway through April but there’s still plenty of time for the following few stocks to surge before the month expires. Come take a look.
Hastings Group
Car insurance giant colossus Hastings Group is all set to release quarter one trading numbers on Friday, April 26. It’s a share I’ve liked for a long time as, despite the problem of intense competition, the company’s ability to snag market share from its customers is driving profits ever higher.
This was apparent in the full-year results unpackaged in February, a release in which Hastings declared that the number of live policies rose by 70,000 in 2018 to 2.71m and that consequently gross written premiums rose 3% year-on-year to £958.3m. I’m expecting another sunny release in the coming days.
The strength of last year’s performance prompted the FTSE 250 firm to raise its payout ratio goal to between 65% and 75%, up from 50% to 60% previously, and this means that City analysts are expecting the full-year dividend to rise to 14.6p per share from 13.5p last year. This means that the yield sits at an enormous 6.8%.
Taylor Wimpey
If you’re feeling greedy, though, and are seeking even larger yields than those of Hastings, then you might want to head over to Taylor Wimpey. As part of the housebuilder’s vow to return shedloads of cash to its shareholders it’s pledged an 18.3p per share total reward in 2019, and this creates a gigantic 10.1% yield.
In fact, I reckon it’s a good idea to buy the business ahead of its next trading statement on Thursday, April 25, a release I reckon could provide its share price with an extra dose of jet fuel. Because of a slew of positive market updates across the sector, Taylor Wimpey has swelled 33% in value since the turn of the year, and I’m expecting another brilliant set of numbers from the builder to boost investor appetite still further.
The FTSE 100 company announced in February that a combination of margin improvements and higher completions drove pre-tax profit 19% higher in 2018 to £810.7m. News that its forward order book had risen to 8,304 as of December from 7,136 a year earlier illustrated the ongoing resilience of the market, too.
Greene King
The final dividend share I’m looking at today is Greene King. The pub operator’s resilience in spite of the mounting pressure on Britons’ spending power is something to behold, and I’m expecting to hear that the booze has kept on flowing when its pre-close trading statement is released on Tuesday, April 30.
The FTSE 250 business certainly impressed last time out, advising in the first few days of the year that like for-like sales were up 3.2% in the 36 weeks to January 6 and that takings on Christmas Day has stormed to a record peak of £7.7m.
Like Taylor Wimpey’s, the share price of Greene King has also gone gangbusters in 2019 and so far it’s up around a quarter more expensive than it was on New Year’s Eve. I fully expect it to gain more ground in end-of-month trading.
