The beginning of September is a very busy time for the reporting of first-half results by companies in Ireland and Britain. Over the past two weeks, investors and investment analysts have had to absorb results from a long list of companies including CRH, Kerry, FBD, Paddy Power, Kingspan and Jurys Doyle.

The market's heavyweight industrial, CRH, reported growth in its earnings per share (EPS) of 17.3 per cent compared with the first half of 2004. The group's underlying performance was a tale of two continents: growth in the Americas was very strong across all divisions with operating profits up 67 per cent, while operating profits in Europe barely budged.

However, the American performance was sufficiently strong to deliver satisfactory earnings and dividend growth to the group. CRH said that it expected to continue to benefit from strong markets in the US in the second half of the year.

Kerry reported a 6.5 per cent rise in first-half adjusted EPS that was in line with market expectations and the dividend was raised by 11 per cent. The company's ingredients division was the key driver of profit growth given flat operating profit in the food division.

Post the results, the Kerry share price has been weak with, many analysts focusing on a relatively small decline in profit margins. Higher energy costs in particular have put the squeeze on profit margins. After a good run so far this year the Kerry share price lost significant ground after these results.

Paddy Power's interim results were also a little disappointing as profits dipped marginally. However, the first half of 2004 was very strong and the company still expects a strong outcome for the full year. The share price had been strong in the run-up to these results so it was not surprising to see some profit-taking.

By contrast, Kingspan announced a set of results that met very demanding market expectations. Everything seems to be going right for Kingspan at the moment and this was reflected in a 56 per cent increase in first-half EPS.

All of Kingspan's construction markets are growing strongly and its acquisition of Century Homes opens up another avenue of medium-term growth.

Kingspan's profit margins improved from 9.9 per cent to 11.5 per cent and brokers are forecasting growth in EPS of approximately 40 per cent for the year 2005.

Kingspan's shares have traded very strongly all year and its half-year results were sufficiently positive to give a further boost to the share price.

Jury's Doyle, which is the subject of an unfolding takeover battle, also reported results during the week.

In the circumstances it was not surprising that the share price proved to be immune to the details of these figures, which were in fact somewhat mixed. Pretax profit increased by 8 per cent compared with the first half of 2004 due to good results from the UK Inns business and its London and Washington properties.

The performance of the Dublin hotels was disappointing and highlights the commercial logic behind the decision to sell the Ballsbridge properties. In the absence of the intense takeover battle, it is highly likely that the Jury's share price would have reacted badly to these results.

The current batch of interim company results confirms that quoted corporate Ireland is in very good shape. In general, companies have met or exceeded profit expectations.

Where performance has disappointed, it has been in the context of expectations that were already very high.

Just as important as actual results are the outlook statements from company chairmen. The general tone of most statements was positive indicating that senior managements in most companies remain optimistic for the balance of this year and into 2006.