Exploding demand for cheap airline tickets has underpinned unbelievable earnings growth at Wizz Air Holdings (LSE: WIZZ) in recent times.
The Hungary-based flyer is expected to have recorded an additional 24% profits advance in the year to March 2018. And City boffins are expecting the bottom line to keep tearing higher by double-digit percentages — a 20% rise forecast for fiscal 2019 is expected to be followed by a 19% advance next year.
Despite its bright earnings credentials, Wizz Air can be picked up on a scandalously low forward P/E ratio of 10.3 times, as well as a corresponding PEG readout of 0.4.
Flying high
Some would argue that these low multiples reflect the increasingly competitive landscape for Europe’s cut-price flyers, as the likes of Wizz Air battles with easyJet and Ryanair among others by increasing its fleet size and steadily expanding the number of routes it operates.
The subsequent negative impact on air fares is causing many to stress out over the prospect of subdued revenues expansion in the years ahead.
On balance, I would argue that Wizz Air’s low valuations are unfathomably bearish. For one, the FTSE 250 airline is concentrating on the sweet spot of Central and Eastern Europe, territories where rapidly-improving economic conditions are helping to drive traveller numbers through the roof.
Indeed, the company moved a whopping 2.48m passengers in March, up 25.2% year-on-year and helped by capacity additions as well as fresh routes being added to its schedule. There is clearly a lot of pent-up demand in its emerging economies and, with Wizz Air planning to add up to 300 aircraft over the next decade, I am expecting profits to keep on surging beyond the medium term.
Ted talk
Ted Baker (LSE: TED) is another hot growth stock in great shape to keep profits expanding at an unbelievable pace.
As its global expansion scheme has taken off, the FTSE 250 fashion star has seen earnings leap 85% during the course of the past five years. And the City is expecting the mid-market clothier to keep growing annual profits at a dizzy pace — rises of 11% and 12% are anticipated for the years concluding January 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Now Ted Baker may not be packing the same sort of value as Wizz Air, the company dealing on a prospective P/E rating of 18.4 times. Still, this would not be enough to discourage me from investing as I consider this to be a premium worth paying given the rate at which the retailer continues to grow sales. It saw group revenues leap 11.4% last year to £591.7m.
Besides, what Ted Baker lacks in conventional value it more than makes up for with the promise of supercharged dividend growth. Last year’s reward jumped more than 12% to 60.1p per share. Further terrific expansion, to 68.1p this year and to 76.3p in the following period, is anticipated by the number crunchers too.
This means that Ted Baker also carries chubby yields of 2.6% and 2.9% for fiscal 2019 and 2020 respectively. And I expect dividends to keep on detonating along with profits.