Card Factory, HomeServe and Cranswick

“The FTSE 100 was boosted by a flurry of full-year year results, an absence of profit warnings and a new opinion poll which showed a lead for the Remain campaign ahead of next month’s EU referendum,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Sales at greetings card retailer Card Factory continue to rise but the group has shown it is not completely immune to weaker consumer confidence with the rate of growth slowly in the first quarter.

“The group has been hit by the slowdown in the high street but has offset the reduction in footfall by seeing continuing growth in average spend. Card Factory figures are coming off the back of strong comparatives as it had a record performance last year and it continues to target full year like-for-like growth within its historic range of 1.4%-3.2%. Card Factory’s shares were down 4.3% in early afternoon trading.

“Home repairs group HomeServe beat estimates with pre-tax profits rising by 9% to £93m for the year to the end of March. Prospects for its US business are particularly exciting where customer numbers jumped by 17%. Investors will be further encouraged by HomeServe’s agreement to acquire Utility Service Partners. This will provide a significant boost to future profits, increase the number of US affinity partner households by 9 million to 42 million and enable it to accelerate growth. HomeServe’s shares were up by over 1.5%.

“Food manufacturer Cranswick’s full year pre-tax profits rose 11% as sales topped £1bn for the first time. Export volumes grew strongly particularly those for non-European markets. Cranswick has invested heavily in projects to increase capacity and made strategic acquisitions to complement organic growth.”

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