Proactive Investors - Shares in Galliford Try Holdings PLC (LON:GFRD) have hit their highest level since 2009, allowing for stock splits, with the shares up 13% to 232.92p since the posting of final results yesterday.
Earnings per share were ahead of forecasts and analysts were impressed.
The "key news" in the results is the reduction in dividend cover to 1.8x from 2.0x, said Peel Hunt (LON:PEEL).
Reducing cover meant the dividend of 10.5p was declared versus the 8.5p the broker had forecast.
The past year contained no other major surprises, Peel analyst Andrew Nussey added, but noted that the new financial year has started well with trading at the upper end of expectations and that management has increased confidence in the delivery of FY26 objectives.
Nussey "confidently" increased his PBT forecasts for the new year from £24.0 million to £26.0 million to result in EPS rising to 18.2p from 16.6p, with the 10% increase flowing into outer years too.
As well as 2026 forecast PBT of £34.7 million representing circa 50% growth on the past year, he noted that 2024 net cash of £232 million and investments £45 million is greater than the current market cap, with the shares are trading for 10 times 2025 earnings and eight times those for 2026.
At Liberum, analyst Joe Brent said EPS was 6% ahead of its estimates despite the £2 million expected loss on small acquisitions.
He increased his 2024 and 2025 EPS estimates by 2% despite already being top of the consensus range, though average cash estimates for the current year were nudged down from £171 million to £155 million as the business invests in growth.
Liberum maintained its target price of 270p, also noting that investments and average cash equal 196p compared to the latest share price of 208p.