The Ansell Limited (ASX: ANN) share price climbed 5% in early morning trade. This comes after the company announced a trading update and upgraded guidance for FY21.
At the time of writing, the safety products company's shares have retreated slightly, trading for $41.18, up 4.7%.
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What did Ansell announce?
Investors are driving Ansell shares higher after digesting the company's latest positive announcement.
According to its release, Ansell advised that it's continuing to see strong global demand for its personal protection equipment (PPE). Key capacity expansions remain on track to meet the increasing need for PPE as COVID-19 still dominates the world today.
The company revealed that since January 2021, financial metrics have been better than expected. As a result, Ansell highlighted its operational performance for the period as:
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Successful management of COVID-19 at all manufacturing locations resulting in limited downtime or employee disruption to date.
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Increases in raw material and outsourced supplier costs for Exam/SU has been well managed.
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Mechanical and Surgical SBUs continuing to recover faster than previously foreseen, and Chemical and Life Sciences are performing well.
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Customers receiving products despite constraints in raw material supply and disruptions in ocean freight capacity, resulting in delayed transportation transit times.
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Lower than anticipated travel and marketing spend due to travel restrictions remaining in place.
Based on the above developments, the company is projecting the second-half of FY21 year-on-year sales growth to be robust. Current estimates put the business to record a 24.5% growth in sales over the prior period (H1 FY21).
In addition, full-year earnings per share (EPS) is predicted to be in the range of US$1.92 to US$2.02. This is a significant lift from the previous guidance of US$1.60 to US$1.70 announced in mid-February.
Ansell will release its full-year results along with its FY22 guidance on 24 August 2021.
About the share price
The Ansell share price has been a stellar performer in the last 12 months, rising 34%. While most of these gains are attributed to the early part of May 2020, year-to-date gains sit at around 13%.
Based on the current share price, Ansell presides a market capitalisation of approximately $5.05 billion, with 128.5 million shares outstanding.
