More positive updates from Housing related stocks.

We have unsurprisingly had strong updates from housing and property related stocks recently, with Taylor Wimpey (TW) reporting today being the latest house builder to report strong trading.

Meanwhile we have also seen a trading update from Savills (SVS) the global estate agents, facilities management and property investment manager which has been in the Compound Income Scores portfolio since inception in April last year. In the update they said that the Group experienced a strong finish to the year with the completion of some significant commercial transactions in several of their businesses around the world. In addition they also flagged a stronger than expected year for their investment management operation on the back of some disposals occurring sooner than expected.

As a result they said that they expect underlying results for the year to 31 December 2015 will be ahead of their previous expectations, so this may lead to some upgrades to this years numbers in the short term. However they sounded a note of caution about the current year on the back of heightened uncertainty over global economic prospects and rising interest rates. Consequently they said that they expect a tempering of the strong transaction volumes seen recently in certain markets, but nevertheless they felt that market fundamentals remain sound. Accordingly they retained their original expectations for 2016 suggesting no changes to forecasts for next year despite the strong performance this year.

The shares are up modestly by around 1.5% today at pixel time and by just over 5% from the price last April when they were purchased for the portfolio. They now trade on 14x with a 3% yield for the year just ended which falls to around 13x with a 3.3% yield on the back of forecast dividend growth of 11%. This seems fair enough and they currently score 81 on the Compound Income Scores which therefore leaves them close to the automatic sell zone between 75 and 80, but we'll have to see where they sit when it comes to the next quarterly review due at the end of March. On the chart the shares had come back toward their lows of last Spring recently, while on the upside, moving averages and price peaks between 900p and just shy of 1000p look like they may provide some resistance. So like the update not too much to get excited or worried about either way for now, hold.