August is an exciting time for investors.
During that month, most companies on the ASX report their full-year – or interim – earnings results, shedding light on how they have performed as a business and sometimes providing guidance for the year ahead.
Those updates can spark either delight or heartache for investors, depending on how the results go compared to the market's expectations, with shares often soaring or plunging in the days and weeks that follow.
However, given the multitude of businesses that report, the best, and worst results can be (very) difficult to keep track of. Here are three earnings hits and misses that you may have missed over the last few weeks.
Earnings Hits
Sometimes, beating earnings expectations is an expectation in itself. That happened for both Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) and Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT) this August.
Starting with Catapult Group, the company provided investors with a quarterly update as opposed to a full-year update. Still, the company reported a new all-time record quarterly sales result, and even exceeded management's guidance at the end of the financial year. The shares experienced a marginal pop, but it seems investors were already expecting a very strong result from the business.
Kogan.com only listed its shares on the ASX recently, but reported revenue and earnings (and margins) that were considerably better than that guided for in the recent prospectus. The shares only rose marginally which suggests investors were expecting a strong result – perhaps after its rival JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX: JBH) also posted a strong result recently.
Meanwhile, Credit Corp Group Limited (ASX: CCP) shares skyrocketed after the group reported a 20% lift in net profit and a 19% improvement in revenue. Strong growth was also forecast for the current 2017 financial year, suggesting there could be more gains to come for existing shareholders.
Earnings Misses
Outdoor advertising business APN Outdoor Group Ltd (ASX: APO) left investors stunned as it downgraded its full-year earnings guidance on Monday.
The share price ended the day more than 35% lower when it said an extended national election process, together with the Olympics, could see full-year EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) in the range of $79 million to $84 million. That compares to previous guidance of $84 million to $88 million. The shares were priced for solid growth, so a downgrade was always going to ruin the party.
Interestingly, APN Outdoor's rival oOh!Media Ltd (ASX: OML) kept its full-year guidance unchanged and didn't mention any impact from the election or Olympics.
Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) has attracted plenty of attention – both good and bad – since it went public late in 2014. While the shares peaked at $3.32 in May this year, they have since trended back to $2.72 and have fallen almost 9% since they released their results last week.
The health insurer recorded a lift in health insurance premium revenues, but there were also signs of a loss of market share which has been a risk facing Medibank Private for some time.
Mining services business Monadelphous Group Limited (ASX: MND) also disappointed investors on Tuesday with an earnings result that sent its shares plummeting in price. Revenues fell almost 27% while group net profit after tax (NPAT) also plunged nearly 37%, with further pain expected in the foreseeable future.
