LONDON (ShareCast) - Property company Henry Boot was given a ‘buy’ rating from WH Ireland Research after reporting a hike in first half earnings.

Operating profit rose to £7.8m from the prior year’s £5.9m and pre-tax profit jumped to £7.4m from £5.5m as earnings per share increased to 3.6p from 2.2p.

“Following a good set of first half results recently, we still view Henry Boot as attractively valued, and reiterate our 'buy' recommendation with a raised 245p price target (+28%),” WH Ireland said in a note Monday.

“Results were well ahead year-on-year in terms of the headline numbers and showed good progress across the divisions.”

White trading is “lumpy”, the momentum is “good and improving”, the broker added.

The analyst said it believes the value in the portfolio is being effectively exploited and sees the uptick in the sector and the economy as being likely to provide many more opportunities to exploit these assets.

“Gearing remains modest and we note the 4% increase in net asset value highlighted by Henry Boot last month.”

Shares rose 0.91% to 188.70p at 10:06 on Monday.

RD

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