Thursday brief...

....round up as there are lots of results and updates out today, but I'll cover briefly those that I have mentioned in the past or those that currently score well on the Compound Income Scores as they may be worthy of further research. So in no particular order we have had:

• Mondi (MNDI) the large (£7bn), well managed, global packaging group announced a positive looking IMS at the 9 month stage. The shares look fairish value on around 14x with a near 3% yield but do have a Compound Income Score (CIS) of 95. It is as I say a well managed group and continues to trade well at the moment, although it is worth remembering that it is cyclical and would be vulnerable in an economic downturn.
  
• Norcros (NXR) which I wrote up recently had an in line H1 trading update with some organic growth and benefits as expected from their recent Croydex acquisition. Post a reverse consolidation the shares are now 210p or so which equates to 21p when I originally wrote them up. Thus they are still quite lowly rated on around 10x with a 3% or so yield while they have a CIS of 63. They refer to mixed markets with benefits from strong housebuilding but weaker consumer demand, but otherwise it seem steady as she goes.
  
• Victrex (VCT) the world leader in high performance polymer solutions which it supplies to industrial, electronic and medical markets announced an in line full year pre close update. This is just as well as it is relatively highly rated on around 19x this years expected earnings but does offer a decent growing yield of nearly 3%. Growth in the business this year has been constrained by weaker demand in the oil & gas and medical areas but they seem to have been able to offset this. It is a good quality business which is also well managed, but therefore does not tend to come cheap although like Mondi it can be vulnerable in an economic downturn, It currently has a CIS of 92.
  
• Empiric Student Property (ESP) as its name suggests this is a property company which specialises in student property and it has been pretty active in acquiring and building out a portfolio since it listed last year. As a result they are raising more money from an on going placing programme. They also confirmed a quarterly dividend of 1.5p and their plans for a 6p full year dividend in the year to next July which at the current 108p level would give a yield of 5.5% or maybe a bit less as some of it will be paid as property income dividends which attract a 20% tax charge unless held in an ISA or SIPP. This seems like an attractive niche in the property market and this one has certainly been active in building up a portfolio to deliver the income which is the main attraction and they expect to increase this in line with RPI after next July.
  

That's it for today as I'm trying to get a more in depth look at another stock done, hopefully might have that ready for you tomorrow or over the weekend.