Daily Mail share tips: Shed & BSS

By JAMES ASHTON
Updated:

 

Read the Daily Mail City team's analysis of the prospects for a chosen company's shares. This week: Shed Productions & BSS

VITAL STATISTICS (half year)
Pretax profits: £2.3m (-18%)
Dividend: 0.25p (flat)
One-year share performance: -22%

Shed Productions' programme stable is still looking a little empty after the loss of Footballers' Wives and prison drama Bad Girls last year.

The two formats were financial cornerstones, and attempts to transfer Wives to the American football arena have thus far yielded no fruit. The TV production company managed to deliver a 10% rise in revenues, but a dip in operating margins helped contribute to lower profits.

That's not to say the pipeline is empty. Shed is working hard to build up drama commissions, and it has high hopes for talent show Rock Rivals on ITV. Across the pond, its Ricochet division has won another series for Supernanny USA.

And the shares aren't expensive, trading at just over 10 times this year's earnings. The stock advanced one penny to 96p. But Shed is still on the hunt for that key US breakthrough, and the loss of two key UK programmes is holding the stock close to its float price. The firm gave positive guidance for the full year, but this remains a risky business.

Verdict: Switch on to something else

VITAL STATISTICS (full year)
Pretax profits: £347.3m (+28%)
Dividend: 6.2p (+25%)
One-year share performance: +52%

Anything to do with construction seems to be flavour of the month following German group HeidelbergCement's £8bn deal to buy gravel supplier Hanson.

Plumbing and heating firm BSS appears well placed to benefit from the renewed focus. Far from waiting around to be swallowed up by the highest bidder, BSS has expansionist ideas of its own. It plans to grow the business both in Britain and Ireland.

BSS delivered a 28% rise in profits of £47.3m, built on the back of recent acquisitions AHED, Spendlove C.Jebb and BuckHickman.

Both its divisions - domestic and industrial --which is the biggest supplier of copper tubing in Britain - performed well, as the company is benefiting from higher government spending on schools and hospitals.

Trading at 18 times this year's earnings and with a hike in the dividend, BSS is based on solid foundations.

Verdict: Worth warming to.

Most watched Money videos