ASX recap: All the latest news from company reporting season on the Australian market
It’s here! The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Reporting season is drawing to a close.
It’s been a roller coaster .... and if you were a lithium miner, it was more spills than thrills.
On Friday Austal reported earnings before interest and tax for the year to June 30 more than doubled to $113.4 million — exceeding guidance of “at least $100m” provided just three weeks ago — off the back of the group’s mainstay building programs in the US for the US Navy and the US Coast Guard.
Net profit rose to $89.7m from $14.9m, with revenue increasing 24 per cent to $1.82b, including $1.4b from Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard.
The Australian share market edged modestly lower to round out the most volatile earning season in recent memory, AAP reported.
The benchmark ASX200 index on Friday lost 6.9 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 8,973.1, while the broader All Ordinaries gained 1.9 points, or 0.02 per cent, to 9,243.
The Australian dollar was buying 65.35 US cents, from 65.10 US cents on Thursday.
Key Events
Austal ready and waiting for more work
Austal says it is well positioned to take on more defence projects in Australia and US as it eyes a 10-year horizon on an order book topping a near record $13 billion.
The shipbuilder today reported a 24 per cent jump in full-year revenue to $1.82 billion, driven by new programs in US and Australia.
Austal achieved upwardly revised earnings before interest and tax guidance, doubling the previous year’s result with $113.4 million. It noted a “significant turnaround” in Australasian earnings.
It deliver a profit of $87.7m - up 503 per cent on FY24.
CEO Paddy Gregg said the “significantly improved financial result” came during a transformational year for the Andrew Forrest-backed company.
“We have seen important inflection points on earnings performance, the balance sheet repositioned for a major expansion in manufacturing capacity, and further growth potential in our near record order book following the recent approval of Austal as Australia’s strategic shipbuilder,” he said.
“This has the potential to significantly grow our near record order book over the coming decade as the Australian Government executes its defence objectives.”
The long-awaited strategic agreement stands to transform the Henderson complex, south of Perth, into Australia’s biggest and busiest shipyard to support contracts to build landing craft and warships for the Australian Defence Force.
During FY25, Austal delivered seven vessels from its Australian, US and Philippines shipyards, and was awarded contracts for a further seven vessels that will be delivered by the group’s shipyards over the coming years.
A total of 49 vessels were under construction (or scheduled) during the year, with a further 73 vessels under sustainment by the Austal group worldwide.
While you were sleeping ..
Here’s what happened on the US markets overnight.
The S&P500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average have notched record high closes after Nvidia’s quarterly report fell short of investors’ high expectations but confirmed that spending related to artificial intelligence infrastructure remains strong.
Shares of Nvidia dipped 0.8 per cent after Chinese-US trade uncertainties prompted the leading AI chip designer to exclude potential China sales from its quarterly forecast late on Wednesday.
Investors viewed Nvidia’s report, including a 56 per cent surge in quarterly revenue, as confirmation that demand related to AI technology remains strong, supporting a rally in AI-related stocks that has propelled Wall Street to record highs in recent years.
Other AI heavyweights gained, with Alphabet adding 2.0 per cent, Amazon up 1.0 per cent and chipmaker Broadcom rising almost 3.0 per cent.
“Nvidia is such an outlier that to say it was a disappointing print is only against the bar of borderline impossible expectations,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird.
“It’s clear that the primary structural driver of this market, which is AI, is not going anywhere or cooling down.”
The S&P500 climbed 0.32 per cent to end the session at 6,501.86 points, reaching a record high close for a second straight day.
The Nasdaq gained 0.5 per cent to 21,705.16 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 per cent to 45,636.90 points, exceeding its previous record high close on August 22.
Read the full market wrap-up here.
Originally published on The West Australian
