Only two relatively minor results from earnings season today – an avalanche tomorrow and Thursday. Keep up to date as I will update the weekly summary posts on the sidebar throughout the day and note special/unusual results (alongside the ASX8) as separate posts.
GWA Group (GWA)
GWA Group, a manufacturer and distributor of commercial and household fittings, reported a 60% fall in net profit for the first half of FY12, mainly as a result of restructuring costs and losses from its discontinued Sebel office furniture business.
The underlying reason is the ongoing disleveraging in Australian houses, with lower building and renovation activity mainly because of lower dwelling completions:
Another business facing an earnings vice, GWA reported that it reduced its workforce by 7% and another 2% losing their jobs in the second half – or around 170 potential FIFO workers….
Revenue of $315 million was similar to last year with downbeat guidance of reduced sales of 3-6% for the second half of FY12 expected. This would translate into a 10-15% reduction in earnings (before interest and tax).
GWA declared a fully franked interim dividend of 9.5 cents a share, unchanged. This equates to a 7.8% dividend yield on today’s closing price. Don’t get too excited because it fell 6.8% today to $2.31 a share – here is the 12 month share performance:
Paladin (PDN)
The uranium miner Paladin Energy reported its first half FY12 results today, with a net loss of US$120.2 million.
The loss was mainly due to a US$133 million write down of the Kayelekera Mine assets that occurred last year.
Revenues were up some 50% to US$173.4 million, whilst costs were cut alongside deferred exploration expenditure. Uranium spot prices continued to feel the impact of the Fukushima disaster, with average price at $52.50 per pound in the October-December quarter:
No dividend was declared and production guidance of uranium oxide was downgraded from 7.4-7.9 million pounds to 7.1-7.4 million pounds.
Here is Paladin’s 12 month share price performance – one for the not so faint hearted, it fell over 5% today on the result:
