Cranswick upgrades medium-term targets; Prudential hikes dividend
By Josh White
Date: Thursday 20 Mar 2025
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 10 points lower on Thursday, having closed up 0.02% on Wednesday at 8,706.66.
Stocks to watch
Food company Cranswick on Thursday upgraded medium-term targets and said the current year outlook was unchanged, with robust demand for its core pork and poultry products continuing throughout the fourth quarter. The company said it was now aiming for mid single-digit organic revenue growth, 7.5% adjusted operating margin, increased from 6% and upper teens return on capital employed, up from mid-teens. Cranswick is still targeting mid single digit adjusted EPS growth.
Prudential has hiked its dividend by 13% and accelerated its share buyback plan after profits rose by a tenth in 2024, with financial results in line with group guidance. The insurance and asset management company returned $785m to shareholders in 2024, as part of its $2bn repurchase plan that will now complete by the end of 2025, ahead of the original mid-2026 schedule. The firm reported an adjusted operating profit before tax of $3.13bn for 2024, up 10% on a constant currency basis.
Energean reported a strong set of results for 2024 on Thursday, with group revenue rising 25% to $1.78bn and adjusted EBITDAX increasing to $1.16bn, driven primarily by its Israel operations, despite a $241m impairment charge related to exploration and asset write-downs. The FTSE 250 firm said operationally, production grew 24% to 153,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, as it secured new gas sales contracts worth over $2bn while progressing on key projects, including the Katlan development and Prinos CO2 initiative. It said the planned sale of its Egypt, Italy, and Croatia portfolio to Carlyle remained uncertain due to regulatory hurdles, but that it was committed to its dividend program and strategic growth in the Mediterranean and wider EMEA region.
Newspaper round-up
The UK's high streets are expected to empty out at a faster pace this year as extra costs imposed on businesses by Rachel Reeves are blamed for shops closing and a slowdown in chain store openings. The rate of store closures is forecast to rise again as a result of the chancellor's tax-raising budget last October, after a slowdown to 10 a day last year from 13 a day in 2023, according to research. - Guardian
The UK's cybersecurity agency is urging organisations to guard their systems against quantum hackers by 2035, as the prospect of breakthroughs in powerful computing threaten digital encryption. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued new guidance recommending large entities including energy and transport providers introduce "post-quantum cryptography" in order to prevent quantum technology being deployed to break into their systems. - Guardian
Scotland's last remaining oil refinery could be used to turn pine trees into petrol under a £225m taxpayer-funded plan proposed by Ed Miliband. Under the scheme, timber harvested in Scotland would be taken to the site of the Grangemouth refinery to be "fermented" into bioethanol for blending into fuel, or used to produce chemicals and cosmetics. Grangemouth is scheduled to be shut down this summer by owners including Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a move expected to trigger the loss of 500 jobs at the plant and an estimated 2,500 more in related industries. - Telegraph
The Federal Reserve has cut its outlook for growth in the world's largest economy this year on the back of President Trump's tariff policies which are expected to push inflation higher, limiting scope for rate cuts. Jerome Powell, chairman of the Fed, which kept its benchmark borrowing costs unchanged in a range of 4.25-4.5 per cent, said yesterday that households and businesses are braced for higher inflation due to US trade levies, adding that survey respondents "are mentioning tariffs as a decisive factor". - The Times
US close
Dovish signals from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell pushed US stocks higher in afternoon trade, with the S&P 500 rising to its highest in nearly two weeks.
The Dow gained 0.9%, the Nasdaq jumped 1.4% while the S&P 500 rose 1.1% to finish at 5,675.29 - its highest close since 7 March.
Markets have been volatile over recent weeks on fears that Donald Trump's trade policies could weaken economic growth prospects and stoke inflation.
As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee left interest rates unchanged at its meeting on Wednesday.
But while the Fed's macroeconomic projections were for slower growth and higher inflation due to the Trump administration's tariff policies, Powell said his base case was that the resulting upwards pressure on prices would be "transitory".
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