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“The FTSE 100 was treading water in early trading ahead of the widely followed US non-farm payrolls release later,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.
BT
“The market appears slightly sceptical of telecoms business BT’s confidence in the full year outlook after a 3% dip in third quarter revenue. Pre-tax profit for the nine months to the end of December was down 9% year-on-year on revenue down 1%. Concerningly for a company which has pinned much of its hope for future growth on a sports rights led TV strategy the company lost 5,000 TV customers in the last three months of 2017.
“Further clouds on the horizon include mounting competition for sports rights from the likes of Amazon plus the triennial valuation of a massive pension scheme.”
AstraZeneca
“Drugs giant AstraZeneca posted a 2% dip in revenue for 2017 to $22.46bn on product sales down 5%. The performance is starkly at odds with a target set by chief executive Pascal Soriot to start growing revenue again in 2017 and makes a pledge to lift them to $45bn a year by 2023 look a real stretch.
“Like many of the big global pharmaceutical companies, AstraZeneca faces a real challenge in replenishing its pipeline of new drugs and last year it suffered a high-profile setback with a flagship immunology treatment.”
Cobham
“Aerospace and defence business Cobham has announced the $455m sale of its AvComm and Wireless test and measurement business to US firm Viavi Solutions. The divestment is the latest attempt to remedy problems which can be traced back to the $1.5bn takeover of Aeroflex in 2014.
“Since this deal completed the company, famous for its air-to-air refuelling technology, has seen several profit warnings, a change of management and two separate £500m rights issues. The proceeds from these latest transactions will be used to pay down debt.”
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