Liams Last Post : Ireland misses the boat as afternoon rally moves markets

Good Afternoon,

 

It was a miserable day in Dublin and regardless of the tone which improved internationally during the day , sentiment in Ireland never got any better.

 

It was a quiet day for corporate newsflow , we had pleasing Kerry figures yesterday and a management telling a very confident story guiding double digit growth again. Kerry was up 1% today , I believe that this management team were so confident with their guidance that there has to be some scope for upside surprise but it is early days to get overly optimistic,

 

Travis Perkins ended the day down -5.5% but the stock revered from its lows which had the stock down nearly double this amount.  The cautious tone of the statement was striking and punctured any remaining optimism about a recovery in the UK . It did say though that the market had stabilised. The ripple effect hit the Irish companies such as CRH -1.3% , Grafton -4% and Kingspan -3.6%.

 

The Financials were hit again on no specific news , the uk financials were up +3% and the European financials were also up.

 

The Strikes in Greece were a highlight on TV today , the Greek police seen firing teargas certainly does not help sentiment or suggest that Greece will find it easy to get away the much talked about Bond fund raisings…

 

Tomorrow ICON is due to release Q4 and FY earnings on Thursday 25th February 2010. We are forecasting Q4 revenue of $224.5m (consensus $225.3m), an operating margin of 13.4% and adjusted EPS of 39.4c (consensus 38c). Focus will be on new business wins and the book-to-bill. The market is factoring some level of improvement from the Q3 new business result and we would see anything above the 1.10x level as encouraging signs that the large level of RFPs reported at Q3 is starting to be converted to contract wins. FY2010 guidance will be provided for the first time. Fallout from, and the company's response to, the recently received FDA letter will also be of interest.

Have a good evening.

 

Liam

 

 

___________________________________________

Liam Boggan

　

Merrion Stockbrokers

Tel.: 353-1-2404171

Mob:353-87-2313505

www.merrion-capital.com

Disclaimer www.merrion-capital.com/disclaimer.html

Merrion Stockbrokers Limited (registration no. 307878) is a limited liability company whose registered office is at Block C, The Sweepstakes Centre, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland.