Woolworths FY HEPS up 9%

Retailer Woolworths (WHL) on Thursday, 28 August 2014, reported that group sales for the 52 weeks to 29 June 2014 increased 14.4% and adjusted profit before tax rose 20.1%.

By Evan Pickworth

29 Aug 2014

This helped pull headline earnings per share (HEPS) up by 9% to 365.2c‚ while adjusted HEPS grew 17.1% to 398.0c per share.

A final dividend 150.5c bought the total dividend to 251.5c per share.

Adjusted HEPS excludes transaction costs of R182m relating to the acquisition of David Jones and the minority interest in Country Road‚ and the net effect of unrealised foreign-exchange losses of R139m.

Food sales grew at 14.8%‚ which the company said was ahead of the market.

"Our bigger store 'supermarket' strategy continues to perform well and is encouraging our customers to complete their shop and spend more with us‚" the board said in a statement.

The company's share price closed at R77.53 on Wednesday and has been on a downward run after starting the week at around R80. The BDpro consensus for the stock‚ however‚ is a buy‚ with earnings per share forecasts among leading analysts predicting 447c next year.

Source: Business Day