AIB, CRH, Kerry Group, Jurys Doyle and Glanbia are among the companies feeling the effects of recent dollar weakness against the euro, according to Merrion Stockbrokers.
The broker has pared its 2005 forecasts for these firms, all of which have significant US interests, while also reducing their forecasts for companies with large sterling exposure such as Grafton and Abbey.
The euro has strengthened sharply against the dollar in recent months. Since September, it has risen from around $1.20 to as high as $1.346 in recent days.
Merrion Stockbrokers said that it was using a dollar rate of $1.33 to update its forecasts for the 2005 financial year and a sterling rate of 0.70 pence.
It has reduced its earnings per share (EPS) forecast for Kerry Group, which has extensive ingredients interests in the US and Latin America, by 2.6 per cent to 134.1 cent, which would represent a forecast year-on-year growth rate of 7.6 per cent.
It has also cut its Glanbia EPS estimate by 3.8 per cent to 21.6 cent, reflecting both euro strength and a slight downgrade in forecast pig meat profits.
In the construction sector, it has reduced its 2005 EPS forecast for CRH, which derives around half of its turnover from its US operations, by 2.8 per cent to 171 cent. This still represents a growth rate of 8 per cent over Merrion's 2004 forecast.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)