Coca-Cola shares fizzing on plan to boost profits

SOFT drinks bottler Coca-Cola HBC has been frothing up since an investor visit on Monday. Yesterday shares were among the top risers on the

FTSE 100 (up 0.27pc, or 16.99 points to 6301.52) for the third day in a row, climbing 3.3pc, or 46p, to 1456p.

It wants to bump its margins up to 11pc – they were 7.5pc in 2015. It also plans to deliver average annual revenue growth of 4-5pc – in 2015 it was 2.9pc – and cut operating expenses to 26-27pc of net sales.

Analysts at Citigroup rate the stock a buy, saying its mid-term targets for 2020 are ambitious but credible. In a note, Deutsche Bank said: ‘With the right tailwinds, this vision might just survive and be accomplished.’ It has a target price of 1500p for the stock. Real estate investment trust

Workspace provides commercial property to let in London. The group has around 4,000 tenants in 4.5m square feet of space in the capital. Shares climbed yesterday after it reported pre-tax profits for the year had increased 8.7pc to £391m. Investors are set to receive a total payout of 15.1p a share after the dividend rose by 25pc.

Occupancy rates slipped 1.1 percentage points to 90.7pc but total net rental income grew more than a quarter to £74.1m.

After buying five properties, selling 11 industrial properties and undergoing three refurbishments and one redevelopment in the year, the underlying value of the group’s portfolio grew 21pc to £1.8bn. Workspace has also got consent for another three redevelopments and two major refurbishments in East London.

Yesterday, it towered up 3.9pc, or 32.5p, to 865p.

Henry Boot was another property investment company having a good day after it announced two land sales for 275 house units.

In a trading update the firm said one of the sales was ahead of schedule and that it now expected profits for the current year to be comfortably ahead of expectations.

Numis raised the stock to a buy saying the firm, with a dividend yield of 3.8pc, looked undervalued. The broker said the fact that one of the land sales was for a higher total profit than previously expected indicated that housebuilders are willing to pay a good price for ‘oven-ready’ land in the right location. Shares kicked up 7pc, or 14.3p, to 216.5p.

Infrastructure investment company 3i rallied 5.7pc, or 9.5p, to 176.5p after it exceeded its capital raising target of £350m, securing a total of £385m.

Around £230m will be used to fund investments in Wireless Infrastructure Group and TCR (a leader in ground support equipment in the aviation industry in Europe) which are expected to conclude in June and August respectively.

WH Smith fell back 4pc, or 70p, to 1670p on a mixed trading update. While like-for-like sales in the travel side of the business grew 3pc in the 14 weeks to June 4, overall sales for the group were flat.

Sales in high street stores retreated 3pc. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald said the stock had been an outstanding, consistent performer over the past seven years but the latest update fell a little short of expectations. The broker has a hold rating on the stock and a target price of 1800p.

Liberum – also with a hold rating – said new openings in the travel business and cost savings on the high street meant the business was still on track.

Croma, which provides security services including manned guarding, CCTV and fire and alarm systems, slumped yesterday on a profit warning.

Croma said an administration error meant its 2015 results had been overstated by £142,250.

The mistake had also occurred in the results for the six months to the end of December, where profits were overstated by £47,216.

The group said underlying trading is robust and turnover is likely to be above expectations, but adjusting the figures downwards to account for the mistake is going to hit this year’s results.

As the alarm bells rang, shares plunged 14.8pc, or 6.5p, to 37.5p.