It’s been an eventful few months for the Morgan Sindall Group (LSE: MGNS) share price. A further surge in Thursday business means that the construction giant is up almost 40% since the beginning of 2021.
Morgan Sindall’s share price has spiked 13% today thanks to the release of yet another positive trading statement. And at £21.15 per share, the FTSE 250 company has taken out January 2020’s record peaks.
Strength across the board
Today’s update is the second in as many months in which Morgan Sindall has impressed the market. Back in February the construction firm had said that it was “well set for strong growth in 2021”. And today the business said that “all divisions have made further positive operational and strategic progress in their markets” since then.
As a consequence, the business said that it expected results this year would “significantly” beat its prior projections. It noted that this is based on “the performance to date, the group’s operational delivery capabilities and the current visibility of future workload for delivery in the remainder of the year”.
In other cheery news, Morgan Sindall said that “[our] strong cash position has also further improved”. And consequently it predicted that the average daily net cash figure for the full year will be “in excess of £180m”. This compares with a prediction of average daily net cash of above £100m it made back in February.
Morgan Sindall continues to make headway
“Since the start of the year, the positive momentum across the group has continued to accelerate,” chief executive John Sindall commented today. “With the group geared towards demand for affordable housing, urban regeneration and infrastructure and construction investment, I am excited by the significant opportunities ahead,” he added.
At Morgan Sindall’s core Construction and Infrastructure division — a unit responsible for almost 55% of group revenues — the company said that its infrastructure operation “is continuing to trade strongly, with operational delivery and work mix driving further margin growth”. Its construction business, meanwhile, has enjoyed a strong start to the year too, the company said. The order book here is 10% higher than it was at the end of 2020.
The firm’s Partnership Housing arm has continued to see “high levels of market demand,” the company said. And this, along with operational delivery improvements, “is driving good margin and profit growth”. Furthermore, its Fit Out division has enjoyed “a very strong trading period,” Morgan Sindall said. The secured order book here is 18% higher than it was at the end of 2020, too. This led the firm to comment that the unit “is materially ahead of its medium-term target”.
Total secured workload for the group stands at £8.1bn. This is up 8% from the same point in 2020, but down 2% from the end of last year.