Earnings season: Winners and losers on the ASX today

S&P/ASX 200 drops 0.5% as a slew of companies report

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published February 11, 2015 11:47 am AEDT

A slew of companies have reported interim and full year results on the ASX today, hasn't managed to stop the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) from sliding into the red. In mid-morning trading, the index has dropped 0.5% to 5,780.4

Here's a round-up of the biggest winners and losers so far.

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP) has surged more than 20% to $32.82, after reporting a 44% jump in net profit, compared to the previous year. At current prices – the stock is trading at an eye-watering P/E ratio above 40, suggesting the company will need to continue growing at these rates for some years.

Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Ltd (ASX: GMA) is up around 7% at $4.21, after the provider of Lender's Mortgage Insurance (LMI) reported a 52% increase in net profit, and declared a special fully franked dividend of 11.5 cents. Genworth is profiting from the housing boom.

Skilled Group Ltd (ASX: SKE) has jumped 7.4% to $1.56 after reporting a 2.6% rise in underlying net profit, although net debt has soared 66% to $220.6 million. Revenues for the first half rose 10.6%.

K2 Asset Management Holdings Ltd (ASX: KAM) is up 4.7% to 67 cents, despite the fund manager reporting a 44% fall in net profit for the half ending December 2014, compared to the previous year. That was due to a substantial decrease in performance fees.

Academies Australasia Group Ltd (ASX: AKG) has sunk more than 23% to 90 cents, after the education provider saw net profit fall 64%, despite revenues rising 36%, mainly thanks to acquisitions. Substantial refunds and reduced enrollments were to blame according to the company.

Blood plasma company CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) has seen its shares hammered down 9.3% to $81.67, after the company lowered its full-year net profit growth forecast from 12% to 10%, thanks to strong competition.

Oz Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL) is down 6.1% at $3.83, despite beating analyst's expectations and posting its first profit in two years, even with copper prices down 20% recently. It seems investors weren't happy the copper and gold miner declined to pay a dividend to shareholders.

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