ASX Update 12/02/24 - Stocks Under The Hood

ASX Update 12/02/24 – AFTER THE OPEN

Here’s how the stocks with significant announcements today are trading.

ASX Update 12/02/24 - watchlist of stocks featured today

Here’s the market heatmap as at 10:40am. I probably should have CSL (ASX:CSL) in that list above. One of their drug trials hasn’t gone to plan. They were down over 5% at one point which had wiped $7B off the market cap. I highly doubt the drug in question was worth that much. Neuren Pharma (ASX:NEU) has a drug that’s producing substantial profits and a few others in the pipeline yet the entire market cap of that company is $2.9B.

ASX Update 12/02/24 - market map

ASX Update 12/02/24 – BEFORE THE OPEN

The Us Market had a strong night on Friday night. However our market is expected to only open flat today.

ASX Update 12/02/24 - US market sector performance

The main story this month is company earnings. I’ll switch my focus to that.

Audinate (ASX:AD8)

Earnings are out. Everything is moving in the right direction for this company. Of course the market will have its own set of numbers and how these numbers compare will determine what happens with this company today. Nevertheless, companies with this sort of growth profile are the ones you want to own for the medium to long term in my view if you consider yourself a growth investor.

ASX Update 12/02/24 - AD8 1H24 key financial highlights

Now to the all important outlook. Sounds a bit cautious and may temper any enthusiasm from the very strong headline result.

ASX Update 12/02/24 - AD8 outlook for remainder of FY24

Probably should go and look at what they said in their full year results.
First thing I notice is that their EBTIDA this half ($10.1M) is almost the same their EBITDA for the full year 2023 ($11M)
Gross margin this half (71.8%) continues a trend of falling gross margin (of course it’s still fantastically high though).
“Growth in gross profit dollars for FY24 consistent with historical performance” – here is that historical performance. Bit cryptic that one. Clearly recent performance has been better than previous. Perhaps they’ll shed some more light during the briefing which starts at 9.30am.
AD8:ASX is in the model portfolio and this result ensures it remains there until they next update the market.

What was the market expecting? Not sure about half-year numbers but from what I can see 26% revenue growth this year. With 47.7% already banked this half-year. EBTIDA full year of $17.8M with $10.1 already achieved in this half.

Turners Auto (ASX:TRA)

A profit upgrade.. My favourite type of announcement. Not a stock I follow. Maybe I should. Very, very illiquid though.

Synlait Milk (ASX:SM1).

Profit guidance. Opposite news to Turners. Looks a very challenged company in a challenged industry.

Car Group (ASX:CAR)

Strong numbers. Stock has been going well so no doubt the market was expecting good numbers.
Outlook doesn’t contain any numbers but suggests more of the same or maybe a bit less? “Good growth, very strong growth, solid revenue growth”. Bit like the weather report.

JB HiFi (ASX:JBH)

Results out. Revenues and Profits down which is a turn-off for me so I won’t go into it too much here. We’ve seen that in other retailers though like Nick Scali so they could easily rise in anticipation that this is the worst of it. Puts it in a downgrade cycle for me though and will need to prove otherwise until I become interested.

Disclaimer: This information is provided purely for educational purposes. It takes no account of an individual’s personal financial circumstances and hence can in no way constitute financial advice. The above data may be subject to errors or inconsistencies for which the author takes no liability. It is imperative that all investors do their own research or if they need advice, seek it from a qualified financial adviser.

ASX Update 12/02/24