Tesco (LON: TSCO)
Tesco shares are up 19% to 312.6p this year and remain worth watching. So far, the supermarket giant has been seen to hold a winning formula in the battle for customers amid the ongoing cost of living crisis. At the recent full year results, the company grew total group sales from continuing operations by 7% to £61.5 billion and said that it had enjoyed market share gains and was seeing positive market growth. Pre-tax profits increased by 160% to £2.3 billion.
Chief executive Ken Murphy said inflationary pressures are easing and that revenues rose due to lower retail prices. The company is also returning a further £1 billion this year to shareholders via a share buyback scheme.
Tesco also announced that it is selling its banking division to Barclays for £700 million, although this will ultimately result in a £628 million post-tax loss. The deal creates a partnership with the bank which should generate operating profits of £80 million to £100 million this year.
Meanwhile, for the current financial year, Tesco expects to deliver retail adjusted operating profit of at least £2.8 billion and retail free cash flow of between £1.4 billion to £1.8 billion.
Analysts at broker Barclays have a price target of 335p on the shares, which trade on a price earnings ratio of around 12.6 and currently yield 3.9%.
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Top large cap shares to watch summed up
The above five companies are just a small selection of top stocks to watch among the large capitalised companies. Remember that big companies can also fail and always do your own research.
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