(Boursier.com) — Down sharply yesterday with the rest of the market, Saint Gobain rose 0.7% to 53.55 euros on Tuesday, in a slightly more relaxed atmosphere after the latest US inflation figures for February which have (slightly) settled down. Among the latest brokers’ opinions, Société Générale has nevertheless downgraded the glass buying group to ‘keep’ with a price target reduced from 65 to 61 euros. On the contrary, Jefferies had raised its target price from 65 to 75 euros, while the group finalized the sale announced on December 12 of all its trading brands in the United Kingdom, including the building materials and wood distributor Jewson, in Stark group. Saint-Gobain therefore no longer has any distribution activity in the United Kingdom. The divested business is expected to generate revenue of around €2.7 billion in 2022 and an operating margin of around 2%. It has 600 points of sale and employs 8,900 people. As a reminder, the operation is carried out on the basis of an enterprise value of 740 million pounds sterling, or approximately 850 million euros.
These disposals are part of Saint-Gobain’s strategy to continue optimizing its portfolio aimed at improving the Group’s growth and profitability profile, in line with its “Grow & Impact” plan.
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Among other brokers’ opinions, HSBC raised its target price to 85 euros, JP Morgan had previously raised the target from 70 to 72 euros with an opinion to ‘overweight’, while BNP Paribas Exane had adjusted the cursor from 65 to 67 euros (‘outperform’). The French building materials giant generated an operating profit of 5.33 billion euros in 2022, up 18.4%, for a turnover of 51.19 billion euros, up 15.9%. The operating margin reached the historic level of 10.4% (+20bp).
The group attributed this solid performance to the strong momentum of all segments worldwide, despite an “unstable geopolitical, energy and macroeconomic environment in 2022”.
A dividend of 2 euros per share
For 2023, Saint-Gobain expects the operating margin to remain in a range between 9% and 11%. The group is also proposing a dividend of 2 euros per share, up 23% compared to last year, adding that it will allocate at least 400 million euros for share buybacks in 2023 to further reduce the number of its outstanding shares.
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