January was a month that saw the FTSE 100 crash 9.6% before recovering at the end to reach 6,084 points. Now, that was still more than 1,000 points down on its 52-week high so you’d expect to be able to pick up some bargains, wouldn’t you?
Bargain BAE?
With its full-year results due on 18 February, I think BAE Systems (LSE: BA) could be one of them. The City is predicting a 1% drop in EPS for the year ended in December 2015, and that puts the shares on a forward P/E of 13.8, based on today’s share price of 515p. That’s perhaps not an obvious bargain rating, but with dividend yields of better than 4% on the cards, it does look good to me.
In the firm’s most recent update, we heard that BAE “…expects good sales growth in 2015 and a robust order backlog at the half year of £37.3 billion underpins confidence in the future prospects for the business“.
With a return to EPS growth forecast for 2016, I see BAE as a well-run company whose shares are cheap enough to qualify for the description ‘bargain’ right now.
Top insurer?
RSA Insurance (LSE: RSA) should be bringing us its 2015 results on 25 February, which will bring to and end a dramatic year. How so? Well, we saw the firm’s share price spiking upwards but then it crashed back to earth back to earth when hopes of a takeover by Zurich Insurance Group were first mooted and then finally dashed.
Despite that, I reckon a 12-month share price fall of 8% to 418p makes RSA look like a decent enough bargain, giving us a forward P/E of around 12.5 and with a forecast 2016 dividend yield of 3.4% on the cards.
It’s been a year of reorganisation for RA with its chief executive Stephen Hester telling us at Q3 time that “if we can keep the improvements coming, the future is bright for RSA as a high quality, high performing leader in its markets“. He could well be right.
Oily recovery?
Now how about Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW)? The company’s shares have crashed by a hefty 57% over the past 12 months to drop to 170p. And they’ve fallen by 88% over five years too. Am I mad to suggest it?
Well, we’re due Tullow’s full-year results on 10 February. We don’t know what we’ll get — analysts have been expecting a very small profit to be announced but the recent further slide in oil prices could easily have put paid to that.
Still, with Brent Crude back up from below $30 in the past few days to $35, the Tullow price has ticked up a little too. And there surely will be a bottom some day, when it will be a perfect time to buy. Could we already have reached that point?