Australian Earnings Results – ASX200 Hits Record High

It was another busy day for the Australian share market with a series of corporate results;  namely for Asaleo Care, Crown, Cleanaway, Domino’s Pizza, Fletcher Building, Fortescue Metals, Lovisa, McPherson’s, Mount Gibson, McMillan Shakespeare, Nearmap, Seven Group, Sonic Healthcare, St Barbara, Stockland, Vicinity Centres, Wesfarmers, and WiseTech Global.

We have seen big moves in the markets after the earnings reports on Wednesday, which drove the Australian equity benchmark to record highs.

The Index added 31 points or 0.43% to 7,145 points. Cleanaway Waste Management, Domino’s Pizza, Netwealth Group, Webjet and Cochlear led gains and offset the huge losses that were seen in technology stocks like EML Payments and Wisetech Global.

Source: Bloomberg Terminal

Cleanaway Waste Management (CWY), a leader in sustainable total waste management solutions in Australia rose by more than 15% on upbeat results and emerged as the best performer of the ASX200:

• Underlying NPAT (pre AASB161) at $76.2m was up 13.7% 
• Underlying EBIT (pre AASB161) at $125.2m up 6.8% and margin expansion by 70bps to 11.7% 
• Underlying EBITDA (pre AASB161) at $234.6m up 2.5% and margin expansion by 40bps to 21.9% 
• Net revenue up 0.5% with organic growth offsetting the impact of lower commodities revenue and the introduction of Queensland landfill levies 
• Footprint  2025  Progress:  Integration  of  Toxfree  on  track;  completed  SKM  acquisition  and  integration commenced; Plastic Pelletizing MOU confirmed; announced EfW project in Sydney
• FY20 underlying EBITDA guidance post AASB16 of ~$515m to $525m

Wisetech Global (WTC) share price plummeted by more than 25% despite strong growth, as the company warns of the effect of the COVID19 on the logistic activities.

• Total 1H20 revenue of $205.9m, up 31%
• NPATA1 of $33.5m, up 22%
• Net profit attributable to equity holders of $59.9m, up 160%
• EBITDA $62.5m, up 29%
• A fully franked interim dividend of 1.70 cents per share

After last year’s reports alleging that the company was manipulating its accounts, the downgrade of its forecast for the full year from a range of between $440 million and $460 million to between $420 million and $450 million has spooked investors.