John Wood Group PLC, Costain PLC, CRH PLC and Jackson Hole marked in

In the coming week, the volume of company news in the diary will be much reduced but there are still a number of companies reporting that are well followed by investors, including Costain, CRH, Hays and John Wood Group.

In the macroeconomic diary, the Jackson Hole central bank symposium dominates the schedule, with the potential to create volatility in the financial markets, some analysts think.

Wood regroups

John Wood Group PLC last year swung to a pre-tax loss as the pandemic hit the global engineering and consultancy market and oil prices were volatile.

But a half-year update has already revealed that interim results on Tuesday will show the profit pendulum back in the black, on an underlying basis at least. 

Although revenue is down 21% to around US$3.2bn, momentum was said to be improving in the second quarter, so more detail may be provided on how the first six months of the third quarter are going.

Adjusted profits (EBITDA) will be $255-265mln, the company said, with an operating profit before exceptionals of $85-95mln as around US$20m of “efficiencies” were delivered in the half.

Chief executive Robin Watson said margin improvement had been “strong” compared to a year ago, with a greater weighting of high margin consulting activity and margin improvement across all business units.

He said the full-year outlook was unchanged with confidence of a return to growth in the second half taken from trading momentum and 6% growth in the order book.

Costain’s devil in the detail 

The last time we heard from Costain PLC, Costain, the infrastructure company, it was trading profitably with good cash generation.

That brief update was back in the middle of last month, so it’s unlikely a lot will have changed though there will be a lot more flesh on the bones.

When it reports interims on Wednesday, analysts will be looking at the size of the order book, which had slipped slightly to £4bn at the end of June, down from £4.2bn a year earlier. Of that £4bn, around £1.2bn was secured for 2021.

Another focus, reckons broker Peel Hunt, will be the Peterborough & Huntingdon (P&H) contract, amid an ongoing legal tussle with National Grid (LSE:NG.), with Costain recording a £49.3mln charge to the income statement in its interim results a year ago and believing it “has a strong entitlement” to suffer no further cash outflow.

Construction view with CRH

Half-year numbers from CRH PLC (LSE:CRH) on Thursday will provide an insight into the US economy, as the Irish-headquartered building materials group derives more than half of its business there.

Back in April the FTSE 100 group said first half underlying profits would be “well ahead” of the previous year, as demand generally is returning and prices are rising.

First quarter like-for-like sales increased 3% year-on-year as a strong performance in…