Shares digital

James Greenbury, a non-executive director at Holidaybreak (HBR), has invested £75,000 in acquiring 11,000 shares. He is the third director to buy shares since the announcement of the 2006/07 results in November, which were slightly ahead of forecasts. The company then reported that orders across the group were 6% up on the previous year. Following these results the house broker increased its forecast for the current year.

The company has four main areas of activity – hotel breaks,adventure travel, camping holidays and education holidays. The camping division has reduced capacity in line with falling demand. As a result capacity utilisation is being maintained. However, the other activities are all enjoying strong demand. Hotel breaks saw 13% growth last year and are well up so far this year. Similarly, adventure holidays enjoyed strong sales last year (up 18%). Demand has remained firm. The company believes that the education division should enjoy good medium-term growth. Orders this year are encouraging (up 9%).

The group has a record of consistent profits growth and brokers are optimistic about the prospects for both this year and 2008/09. The market is forecasting earnings of 57.3p this year, rising to 63.7p in 2008/09. placing the shares, at 676p, on a PE of 11.8 falling to 10.6 next year.

The shares also offer an above-average prospective yield of 4.8%. Citigroup, an independent broker, has an 870p price target on the stock, while house broker Dresdner Kleinwort has a target price of 860p.

Shares says: Prospects look encouraging and the rating is undemanding.