BUZZ-Balfour Beatty: building up to a possible miss

Weaker-than-expected earnings could catch up with Balfour Beatty (Other OTC: BAFYY - news) shares which marched steadily to a 14-month high last Friday even as analysts were cutting EPS forecasts.

** The last seven EPS revisions for the construction firm from the Street have been cuts. Over the past month the mean EPS forecast is down nearly 3%.

** Shares are still up over 6% this year despite Monday's 3.2% drop on relatively healthy volumes. The FTSE is up 0.8% this year.

** Balfour reports March 10 and StarMine's smart estimate is 5.4% below the consensus which suggests a high probability that the company may miss expectations.

** One concern is declining ROE even as the price/book multiple has expanded. http://link.reuters.com/myc27v

** Margin pressure in the U.S. and exposure to Australia could put further pressure on the near-term outlook.

** A top-ranked analyst from Deutsche Bank (Xetra: DBK.DE - news) (4 stars on StarMine) cut the stock from "outperform" to "hold" after the stock price closed in on the broker's target. (Stocks Buzz is a pilot project. Please send any feedback or suggestions to vikram.subhedar@thomsonreuters.com) (RM (LSE: RM.L - news) : vikram.subhedar.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)