Reckitt Benckiser shares a "buy" ahead of full year trading update

The household goods and pharmaceutical company reported a strong set of results in the third quarter last October, with profit ahead of expectations at £469 million, up 12 per cent.

Tomorrow the company is expected to announce a full year pre-tax profit of around £1.83 billion, up 24.4 per cent from all of 2008.

Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreave’s Lansdown, said, “The company has built a reputation for consistent and progressive growth in recent years, with their late October third quarter results again confirming the reputation.

“On the downside, uncertainty continues to surround the group’s pharmaceutical operations with the company’s heroin substitute drug Suboxone facing strong competition in the US after recently losing its patent there.

“Market consensus opinion denotes a buy ahead of the results”.

By 14:38 shares in Reckitt Benckiser were down 0.22 per cent to 3,147.00 pence per share.