PZ Cussons (#PZC) – FY adj. EPS +8%, DPS +5%
- 2021-09-22 07:22:15
UK 20:05 Friday, 18 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
After being a fool who bought some Rolls-Royce (RR) stock a year and change ago and then again when it raised money at a significant discount in the early Autumn to make sure it would survive, I will write a longer piece about its full-year numbers in March when the reality about making and looking after plane engines will be a little more straightforward. Instead, today it is time to revisit my old pal PZ Cussons (PZC) which I last wrote up here in September when the shares were about 210p.
Only a week or so until the start of October and the formal start of the fourth quarter of a certainly different year. In the narrow commercial world of stock market investment, many of the thoughts in the institutional world will be about how year-to-date performance against both benchmarks and absolute terms is looking – and whether there are a few tweaks needed in the last few months of the year. For my personal pension fund such considerations should not really matter as - unless I fancy talking to myself - I don't have to rock up early next year to talk to a much of dusty trustees, excitable intermediaries or comedy line managers about how well or badly my portfolios have done. However, all those years taking the institutional shilling continues to influence and - like the investment sad-o I am - on my monitoring spreadsheet I do have a year-to-date performance column. I have been a fan of PZ Cussons (PZC) for a while...
One of the better performing U.K. stocks in my portfolio since the start of the elevated market volatility has unsurprisingly been PZ Cussons (PZC). Naturally, I looked towards a range of its Carex and Imperial Leather products to supplement the health and hygiene resilience of my own household…and more often than not my local supermarket was sold out. The company reflects this unsurprising reality today with an observation in its trading update statement that it experienced 'exceptionally high demand' for such products. However, this was not a complete home run...
I criticised PZ Cussons (PZC) last month for not saying enough to investors and explaining why its long-standing CFO has left, but today it is making a bit more of an effort with full-year numbers. I have been a buyer of the Carex, Imperial Leather and St Tropez brand owner for a while but I must admit I so far have failed to pop down to Nigeria to check out its current large corporate malaise on the ground…
I imagine many readers are thinking about holidays at the moment, be it planned Christmas breaks or something in 2019. I see that TUI (TUI) shares are up 5% today as the company not only confirms a 10% rise in 2018 earnings but also gives guidance for 2019 for a similar proportional increase. Well...
It is no huge surprise that today's set of numbers from PZ Cussons (PZC) are not the finest ever seen because it told us so forty days ago as I wrote up at the time HERE. Of course the actual publication of a set of full year numbers always provides further insights and information...but it is hard to sugar coat a 15% odd fall in profits, a nudging down of overall revenues, debt pushing out a bit and the c. 4% dividend yield only held.
Three months ago I wrote about the St Tropez tan and Imperial Leather soap producer PZ Cussons (PZC) that the share price back down to 2010 levels had piqued my interest. Today's trading update is a mix of good and bad and the share has fallen back down to the levels it was at in my previous piece. However, it is no disaster statement. Sure, bottom of the range chat is never taken well - hence the move today - but there is a group-wide stabilisation here which bodes better for the future...and this is why the share (remains) a buy.
