While most ASX companies are currently preparing to report their interim results for the half-year ending 31 December 2015, there are a handful of companies that are preparing their full year results for the 12 months ending 31 December 2015.
Amongst the latter group is leading wealth management and insurance group AMP Limited (ASX: AMP). AMP is scheduled to release its full year results on February 18 at which time shareholders should also learn the size of the final dividend declared by the board.
AMP reported a 12% rise in underlying interim profit of $570 million in August 2015, which equated to underlying earnings per share of 19.3 cents per share.
At the time, the CEO highlighted that AMP's divisions were performing well including a solid 26% improvement in earnings from AMP Capital, a 16% rise in Assets under Management within North, a 19% improvement in performance by AMP Bank and an 11% increase in earnings from the group's New Zealand business.
Interestingly, despite a seemingly solid half-year result AMP's share price has slumped by around 16% since August. That decline is significantly more than the 9% fall experienced by the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) over the same period.
Given there was little in the way of formal guidance provided by management it could be reasonable to explain the share price weakness as investor concern regarding the inherent operating leverage that equity market levels can have on AMP's earnings.
What's next?
With the full year results set to be released later this month one poll of analysts is expecting full year EPS to climb to 38.4 cps with total dividends paid of 28.6 cps. Having already paid a partially franked interim dividend of 14 cents per share (cps), this consensus (data from Morningstar) is suggesting a final dividend of 14.6 cps will be paid. Meanwhile, with the share price at $5.28, the implied price-to-earnings multiple is a seemingly undemanding 13.8x.