BP
On the face of it, shares in BP (LSE: BP) (NYSE: BP.US) appear to be incredibly cheap.
The shares are currently priced at 8.5 times forecast earnings for 2013. Last year, BP’s dividend payout came through at $0.33. At today’s share price, that equates to a yield of 4.7%. The dividend is expected to reach $0.37 this year, equivalent to a yield of 5.1%.
Earnings at BP have been increasing quickly as the company recovers from the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Yet fears still remain about the eventual cost to the company.
Analyst expectations are for BP to make $0.83 of earnings per share (EPS) this year, rising to $0.92 the year after. That’s a 2014 price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 7.7.
SABMiller
Brewer SABMiller (LSE: SAB) (NASDAQOTH: SBMRY.US) is one of the FTSE 100’s great growth stories.
In the last five years, the company has grown net profit at an average rate of 10.1% a year. In that time, the dividend has increased at an average rate of 11.7% a year.
This year, analysts are forecasting that SAB will grow earnings by 39%, followed by another 11% next year. The dividend is expected to grow by around 10% this year and next.
This growth puts SABMiller shares on a 2015 P/E of 17.3 at today’s share price, with a forecast yield of 2.5%.
That seems a small premium for a company whose earnings are of higher quality than many companies in the FTSE 100.
Aberdeen Asset Management
A fund management company like Aberdeen Asset Management (LSE: ADN) should always fare well in strong stock markets.
This time last year, analysts were expecting Aberdeen to make EPS of 23.4p. The FTSE’s 15% rise since then has inspired analysts to increase their forecasts for 2013 EPS to 30.3p per share. That would represent an 86% profit increase on the amount achieved last year.
Today’s share price of 414p puts Aberdeen on a 2013 P/E of 13.5, with an anticipated yield of 3.7%. Both figures are expected to rise further in 2014, pushing the shares to a P/E of 11.9 and a yield of 4.4%.
However robust Aberdeen’s business model is, I do not expect that the 2014 forecast will be met if markets fall significantly from here.
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> David does not own shares in any of the above companies.