Broker rates Anglo Irish shares a buy

ANGLO Irish Bank shares have been rated a buy by stockbrokers Dolmen Securities in advance of the bank’s publication of results for the six months to the end of March Anglo was Dolmen analyst Stuart Draper’s banking pick of 2002 and he expects the good news to continue.

In a note to clients, Mr Draper said strong results are likely to demonstrate Anglo is on course to deliver full year earnings growth of between 15% and 17%.

“Our forecast for earnings per share for the year ending September 30, 2003 is 67c. As this forecast is 3% higher than the current consensus 2003 eps forecast of 65c, strong interim results may result in some earnings forecasts for Anglo being nudged up further.”

Mr Draper was highly confident of price gains for the bank’s shares:

“Given that Anglo is likely to continue to deliver at least 15% earnings growth in 2003 and 2004, and has a low risk provisioning policy, a multiple of 11x earnings is very achievable,” he said.