The FTSE 100 may have bounced from the 10-year lows below 5,000 points that it hit in early March. Right now it sits around the 6,130-point marker. But there remain plenty of British blue chips that remain too cheap to miss after the stock market crash.
Whether you’re on the hunt for low earnings multiples or big dividend yields, the FTSE 100 is a great place to go shopping today.
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Persimmon (LSE: PSN) is one FTSE 100 stock I like the look of at current prices. The UK’s housing shortage means that the builder’s newbuild homes should keep on rocketing for some years yet. And right now the business trades on a reasonable forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15 times and boasts a dividend yield a shade off 4%.
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Fresh trading details released today raise hopes that Persimmon’s profits might not fall off a cliff in the more immediate term, too, due to the economic distress caused by the coronavirus crisis. The company said that forward sales were up 15% as of June compared with the same period in 2019. It added that it had witnessed “resilient selling prices” despite the destruction caused by Covid-19 lockdowns during the first six months of 2020, too.
The supply and demand imbalance in the UK is so great that I reckon it should continue to drive home prices skywards over the long term. The boffins over at Savills reckon the average UK property price will still rise 15.1% in the five years to 2024. And this bodes well for Persimmon and its peers.
More huge FTSE 100 dividend yields
BAE Systems (LSE: BA) is another FTSE 100 share I think’s too cheap to miss at current prices. Today it trades on a prospective P/E multiple of 11 times, a figure that fails to reflect the bright outlook for global defence spending. The weapons giant carries a chunky 4.6% dividend yield for 2020, too.
Recent lockdown measures have damaged hardware production at BAE Systems. But it has not seen interest in its defence products plummet despite the tough year. In a recent trading statement it said that “demand for our capabilities remains high with order intake in line with our original expectations for the year”.
The company received an extra boost this week with news that Britain is about to resume arms shipments to Saudi Arabia. These were temporarily stopped over concerns about their possible use in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s biggest defence spenders and a major buyer of BAE Systems’s revenues-spinning Typhoon fighter jets.
I fully expect that BAE Systems’s sales to critical US and UK customers are likely to remain strong as geopolitical tensions rise. The defence play can also expect sales to its emerging market customers like India to continue rising as wealth levels steadily grow. This is a FTSE 100 stock that, like Persimmon, I’d be happy to buy this July and hold for many years.
