3 Shares Set to Beat the FTSE Today

Updated

LONDON -- The FTSE 100 (INDEX: ^FTSE) rose just a few points in early trading, up 14 points to 5,734 at the time of writing, as trading in the U.K.'s top companies continues to be weak. In fact, the index has barely moved in the last month.

But there are individual companies in the various FSTE indexes gaining ground every day. Here are three whose prices rose on good news today.

Lavendon (ISE: LVD.L)
Lavendon Group
spiked up 7.3% to 130 pence on the day the work platform rental company released expectation-busting interim results. With underlying revenue up 8% to 114.5 million pounds, underlying pre-tax profit more than doubled to 7.3 million pounds, leading the company to more than double its interim dividend to 0.75 pence per share.


And it sounds like the second half has started well, with chief executive Don Kenny saying, "Trading since the half year end has been in line with our expectations and we are well positioned to deliver another year of financial progress."

Redrow (ISE: RDW.L) Are homebuilders cheap? Well, the group of investment companies who yesterday evening made an offer for Redrow seem to think so. The approach, regarding a possible offer of 152 pence per share, pushed the shares up 2.6% to 155 pence this morning, presumably on the expectation that an eventually higher price would be needed for a buyout to be successful. The board will consider the approach, and there is nothing for shareholders to do at the moment.

Redrow shares have done exceptionally well recently, putting on 45% in the past few months as the homebuilding sector continues its recovery.

EMIS (ISE: EMIS.L) If you want another share that's soaring, look no further than EMIS Group, which put on another 5% to 715 pence this morning after releasing strong half-time results. The health care software and services provider enjoyed a 19% rise in revenue to 42.3 million pounds, leading to bottom-line earnings per share up 25% to 16.3 pence. That enabled the firm to lift its interim dividend by 15% to 7.1 pence per share.

EMIS shares have climbed 87% since January, and though they're on a fairly high forward price-to-earnings ratio of more than 20, they're still showing growth characteristics with decent, if not stratospheric, forecasts for this year and next.

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