Stock Takes

Macquarie has released first half-year earnings this morning which have fallen short of expectations. The results are not terrible but not great. We are hardly dazzled but won’t go against the market. Buying in the One Stock Portfolio with a watchful eye.

Endeavour Group (EDV) released its first Q trading update on Monday followed by the AGM yesterday. The key take-away was an overall Sales growth number of 2.1%, below consensus of 3.1% and a fairly positive short-medium term outlook.

Woolworths released first-quarter sales results on Wednesday and hosted its AGM yesterday. The results were mixed with Australian grocery sales outperforming while Big W and NZ underperformed.

JB HI-FI updated the market yesterday with its first-quarter sales and AGM. A similar story to Woolworths almost with JB Australia performing well, the Good Guys flat and JB NZ disappointing.

PLS has released September Quarter earnings this morning – Key points from the release are:

Revenue has fallen 42% compared to Q2, coming in at $493m. 
144kT of Spodumene Concentrate was produced (down 11% from prior Q).
A similar amount was sold at a realised price of US$2240/T.

Alumina (AWC) released Q3 earnings last week, had a few broker upgrades and has hit an 11-Yr low. Results highlights include:

Higher aluminium production compared to previous Q.
Lower costs in the Q primarily from cheaper Caustic Soda (used to purify Bauxite).

ASX fell 2.7% yesterday after holding its AGM, not necessarily on the news alone as the market had a bad day also. Plenty of information conveyed during the meeting with most of it concerning the massive $250 million chess replacement right off.

Lynas (LYC) is down 1.8% today as it releases its Q1 activity report. The highlights include:

Quarterly revenue falling from $143m to $228m and Neodymium (NdPr) production falling from 1864 tonnes to 1526 tonnes.

A quick update from Northern Star – NST is up 3.5% today after posting well received Q3 activities report this morning. We hold in the Idea’s portfolio and is performing well (the gold price rose overnight again on more Middle East conflict concerns).

TPG popped 5.6% yesterday on news Vocus Group had commenced debt talks for the acquisition of TPG’s Fibre assets. Macquarie and Aware Super (the owners), are looking to finance ~$6bn in debt for their non-binding indicative bid announced at the start of August.