Friday tips round-up: Renishaw, John Laing

Renishaw caught the proverbial falling Apple in its first half. The precision machinery-maker saw its pre-tax profits more than double over those six months to £56.6m as orders from cell-phone makers piled up. While it is well-known that it supplies smartphone manufacturers with its precision measuring equipment, the company is very discrete about its dealings. Nevertheless, if one follows the trail of Apple’s supply chain that inevitably leads one to Renishaw’s doorstep. Just over 1% of the world’s population purchased an iPhone in quarter four of 2014.

Little surprise then that over the last three weeks Renishaw has upgraded its estimates for its full-year revenues not once, but twice. Yes, the recent run-up in the shares has left them at the top of their recent share price range – changing hands at about 14 times’ earnings.

Next year’s outlook is also more uncertain. The healthcare division has been hit by the troubles brewing over on the Continent. Nonetheless, “that does not look excessive and its orders from smartphone makers can only grow,” says The Times’s Tempus. “Buy for the long-term,” Tempus adds.

The flotation of infrastructure investment business John Laing offers retail investors the opportunity to cash in on the pressing need for infrastructure across the UK, US and Middle East while protecting themselves from inflation. The firm invests in those projects alongside governments and then exits the investment without assuming the underlying risks linked to those works of engineering. It is more of a project manager.

Between ordinary and special dividends the infrastructure investor is promising to pay-out up to about £32.8m for the full-year. That equates to a maximum dividend yield of approximately 3.8%. The firm has pledged to raise its dividend payments at least in line with inflation going forward.

Working out a valuation is tricky but the stock is trading on about 1.1 times’ net assets. A similar outfit, 3i, does so at about 1.2 times. On balance, across different valuation methods, the stock seems reasonably priced, The Daily Telegraph’s Questor says.