Why JD Sports Fashion, Micro Focus International, and The Berkeley Group Should Beat the FTSE 100 To

The FTSE 100 (FTSEINDICES: ^FTSE  ) has given up a little of yesterday's gain so far today down 30 points, or 0.47%, as of 8 a.m. EDT. There's really no news behind today's movement as the markets await the conclusion of the ongoing U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.

But while the overall market is going nowhere, there are individual shares on the up. Here are three from the indexes that look likely to beat the FTSE today.

JD Sports (LSE: JD  )
An update from JD Sports Fashion this morning sent the shares up a modest 0.6%. The firm told us performance for the 18 weeks to June 8 is in line with market expectations, with like-for-like sales in the U.K. and Ireland up 7%, but that has come at the cost of an impact on margins.

First-half results to Aug. 3 are due on Sept. 18, with City analysts predicting 15% growth in earnings per share for the full year to January 2014 after a couple of years of falling earnings. With the shares on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of less than nine, could there be a bargain here?

Micro Focus
Micro Focus International shares were boosted by the software firm's annual results, picking up 9.7% to 710 pence. The price had been falling back a bit recently, but this rise takes it back up to a gain of 55% over the past 12 months.

Like-for-like sales were down 3.2% on a constant-currency basis, but that was in line with expectations, and pre-tax profit was up 5.1% to $153.4 million (again at constant currency). Adjusted diluted EPS gained 20% to $0.86, and there will be a total dividend of $0.40 per share, up 27%.

Berkeley Group (LSE: BKG  )
The Berkeley Group Holdings share price was also boosted by full-year results this morning, perking up 2.4% -- over the past year, that brings in a gain of almost 75%. The property development group reported a 32% rise in revenue for the year to April 30, leading to a 26% jump in pre-tax profit to £270.7 million. Diluted EPS was up 24% to 140.3 pence.

A dividend of 59 pence per share will be paid in September to add to the 15 pence per share already paid in April. The total of 74 pence per share represents a yield of 3.3% on the current share price.

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