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(Sharecast News) - Wednesday will see the release of half-year results from Legal & General, Glencore and Hiscox, among others.
Broker Peel Hunt, which rates Legal & General at 'add', said it will be focusing on management's comments on the competitive UK annuity environment and margin pressure.
"Within Asset Management, we will look for evidence of a sustainable improvement in margins and whether operating leverage has kicked in during H1 26," it said. "We have pencilled in flat core operating profit for H1 26E of 858m, largely driven by our assumption of an increase in Retirement results (647m), offset by slightly lower Asset Management results (187m) and Retail results (223m)."
Peel Hunt said it was keeping its 2026 earnings per share estimate unchanged and modestly reducing its 2027 and 2028 estimates by around 4%. "Our headline EPS falls by 9% in 2026E to 36.9p, driven by higher restructuring charges and negative variances," it said. "This feeds through into 2027E, where our EPS falls by 11% to 21.1p, and 2028E, where it falls by 12% to 22.7p."
The broker lifted its price target to 320p from 290p, valuing LGEN at 1.4x NAV, including the contractual service margin (CSM), versus the current trading level of 1.3x. "We continue to see share price support from an attractive 7% basic dividend yield," it said.
Half-year results from Beazley, Ibstock, 4Imprint, a second-quarter trading statement from Next, and Q2 earnings from Flutter Entertainment will also be released.
Across the pond, Eli Lilly, Walt Disney and Sandisk are slated to report quarterly results, while on the macroeconomic front, the latest UK and eurozone PMIs will be out.
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