3 FTSE Shares Hitting New Highs: BT Group plc, NEXT plc and Meggitt plc

BT Group plc (LON:BT.A), NEXT plc (LON: NXT) and Meggitt plc (LON: MGGT) are flying.

| More on:

The content of this article was relevant at the time of publishing. Circumstances change continuously and caution should therefore be exercised when relying upon any content contained within this article.

You’re reading a free article with opinions that may differ from The Motley Fool’s Premium Investing Services. Become a Motley Fool member today to get instant access to our top analyst recommendations, in-depth research, investing resources, and more. Learn More.

RISK WARNING: should you invest, the value of your investment may rise or fall and your capital is at risk. Before investing, your individual circumstances should be assessed. Consider taking independent financial advice. The Motley Fool believes in building wealth through long-term investing and so we do not promote or encourage high-risk activities including day trading, CFDs, spread betting, cryptocurrencies, and forex. Where we promote an affiliate partner’s brokerage products, these are focused on the trading of readily releasable securities.

After a run of five positive daily sessions, the FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE) fell back a little this morning, losing 30 points to 6,748, with Royal Dutch Shell losing 5% after Q3 figures disappointed the markets. But sentiment generally seems to be bullish, and the index of top UK shares is still only 128 points below May’s 13-year high of 6,876 — anyone for 7,000 by Christmas?

Even if a few big shares are down, there are plenty breaking new ground. Here are three records that have just been set:

BT

BT Group shares have been soaring, gaining 75% over the past 12 months, and this morning reached a new 52-week high of 376.3p — as I write, the price is down a bit on that to 366p and actually down 3.6p on the day.

The slightly erratic share price path this morning is due to BT’s somewhat mixed first-half results. Revenue for the six months fell 1% to £8,940m, and reported profit before tax is down 13% to £499m — but on an underlying basis, BT says pre-tax profit is up 3%.

Reported earnings per share (EPS) rose just 1%, though adjusted EPS is up 3% to 11.9p, and the interim dividend has been lifted 13% to 3.4p.

NEXT

High street fashion retailer NEXT (LSE: NXT) has had a great year too, with its shares up more than 50%. And again, the price reached a 52-week high this morning, of 5,550p, this time following on from yesterday’s strong set of Q3 figures.

In the third quarter, NEXT saw total sales rise 4.3%, with 3% year-to-date growth. NEXT Directory made up the lion’s share of that with a 10.7% gain, once again showing the vital importance of multi-channel sales these days.

For the full year, NEXT now expects to see pre-tax profit of £650-680m for a rise of between 4.6% and 9.4%, with basic EPS expected to gain between 15% and 21%.

Meggitt

Meggitt (LSE: MGGT) shares finished on a 52-week closing high of 566.5p yesterday, and are now up 45% over the past 12 months.

The aerospace and defence firm’s most recent good news, on 23 October, was of a major contract win. Meggitt is set to supply Dassault with braking, gear extension, steering and hydraulics for its new Falcon 5X business jet.

The price of the deal was not disclosed, but just said to be of “multi-million dollar” proportions, and it extends Meggitt’s association with the French plane maker — it’s braking systems are already used on a range of Dassault aircraft.

RISK WARNING: should you invest, the value of your investment may rise or fall and your capital is at risk. Before investing, your individual circumstances should be assessed. Consider taking independent financial advice. The Motley Fool believes in building wealth through long-term investing and so we do not promote or encourage high-risk activities including day trading, CFDs, spread betting, cryptocurrencies, and forex. Where we promote an affiliate partner’s brokerage products, these are focused on the trading of readily releasable securities.

> Alan does not own any shares mentioned in this article.

More on Investing Articles

Investing Articles

Publish Test

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut…

Read more »

Investing Articles

JP P-Press Update Test

Read more »

Investing Articles

JP Test as Author

Test content.

Read more »

Investing Articles

KM Test Post 2

Read more »

Investing Articles

JP Test PP Status

Test content. Test headline

Read more »

Investing Articles

KM Test Post

This is my content.

Read more »

Investing Articles

JP Tag Test

Read more »

Investing Articles

Testing testing one two three

Sample paragraph here, testing, test duplicate

Read more »