Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (RBS), British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (BSY) & Three FTSE 100 Shares for the Week Ahead

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LONDON: We’re firmly into reporting season for the quarter ending March 31, and we’ll be learning how the three months went for a number of important FTSE 100 companies. We took a look yesterday at three companies in the news next week, and here are three more:

Legal & General (LON:LGEN)
Thursday will bring us a first-quarter update from Legal & General Group, and if shareholders get another year like last year, they’ll be in for a treat. The share price has gained 40% over the past 12 months, to 167 pence, as the whole insurance sector has recovered.

Legal & General reported a 12% rise in earnings per share, or EPS, for the year to December 2012, and paid a full-year dividend of 7.65 pence per share, which represented a yield of 5.3% on the end-of-year share price. In fact, even with a small dip in 2009, the life insurer has been paying decent dividends all along.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group plcThere’s a rise in the dividend of around 10% currently forecast for this year, which would provide a 5% yield on the current share price. And even after the past year’s appreciation, the shares are still on a prospective price-to-earnings, or PE, ratio of a fairly modest 11.

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc (LON:BSY)
Also on Thursday, we should get third-quarter figures from British Sky Broadcasting Group, and that’s another company that’s had a good year — this time, there’s been a gain of a little under 30% over 12 months.

Results for the six months to December showed a 5% rise in revenue to 3.36 billion pounds, leading to an 18% jump in adjusted EPS to 24 pence per share. And that allowed the TV and telecoms provider to lift its interim dividend by 20%, to 9.2 pence per share.

A similar rise in the company’s final dividend would see a full-year payment of around 30 pence, for a yield of 3.5% on the current share price of 850 pence. Current earnings forecasts suggest a 12% rise, to 57 pence per share, putting the shares on a P/E of 15.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (ADR) (LON:RBS)
Then, on Friday, it will be first-quarter time for Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Although the share price ended 2012 on a high, it has fallen back since the start of 2013 to today’s 300 pence — that’s still a rise of around 25% since this time last year, but the price did hit a rise of more than 50% at one point.

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