Earnings Wrap: Wisetech's guidance miss, Iluka pauses production, Domino's profits tumble

WiseTech (ASX: WTC): Double beat but guidance misses

One liner: Double beat but FY24 guidance missed analyst expectations.

• Revenue of $816.8m, up 29% and ahead of analyst expectations of $811m

• EBITDA of $412.1m, up 28%

• Underlying net profit of $247.6m, up 30% and beat expectations of $245m

• Final dividend of 8.4 cents per share, up 31% and representing a payout ratio of 20% of underlying net profit

FY24 Outlook

• EBITDA between $455-490m vs. consensus $550m

• Revenue of $1.04bn to $1.095bn vs. consensus $1.1bn

IDP Education (ASX: IDP): Profit beat on record student placement volumes

One liner: Net profit beat, record revenue of $981.9 million but slightly below analyst expectations of $983 million, record student placement volumes and a final dividend of 20 cps.

• Record revenue of $982m(+24%) vs FY22; driven by strong student placement revenue growth of 63 per cent

• Adjusted EBIT of $228m (+40%)

• Adjusted NPAT of $154m (+45%)

• Record student placement volumes of 84,600 (+53%) vs FY22, driven by the Australian market growing 77% vs FY22, and other study destinations growing at 39%.

• Final dividend declared of 20 cents per share taking full-year declared dividends to 41 cents per share, which is an increase of 52% vs FY22.

Tennealle O’Shannessy, IDP Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director said that FY23 demonstrated the strength of IDP’s leading market position, large and structurally growing markets, and its diversified business model.

“This strong performance reflects IDP’s position as a leader in the growing global education services sector. This year, we helped more students and test takers than ever before as our customers realised their global ambitions for study, career and migration,” Ms O’Shannessy said.

Iluka Resources (ASX: ILU): Profit miss, pauses rutile production

One liner: Revenue in-line but net profit miss as "macroeconomic uncertainty and subdued levels of demand impacting volumes", announced a four-month production pause at SR1 (enables SR1 workforce to work on SR2 maintenance).

• Revenue of $712m, down 10% but in-line with analyst expectations

• Net profit of $204m, down 45% and below analyst expectations of $217m

• Cash outflow of $55 million versus inflows of $350 million a year ago

• Interim dividend of 3 cents per share, down 88%

"In keeping with the company’s track record over many years, Iluka will continue to focus on optimising the value of what we produce, coupled with market discipline and a deliberate approach to reinforcing the positive supply-side fundamentals for high quality zircon and high grade titanium feedstocks," said Managing Director Tom O'Leary.

APA (ASX: APA): Misses but maintains dividend, more growth capex

One liner: Dual misses and higher stay-in-business capex but maintained dividend and also growth capex in multiple projects.

• NPAT A$287M vs StreetAccount A$342.8M

• Revenue A$2.40B, +7% vs year-ago A$2.24B

• Net interest expense A$459M vs SA A$475.1M

• Final distribution of 29 cents a security brings full year to 55 cents, in line with guidance and up 3.8% on FY22

“APA is well positioned to create long-term securityholder value as we pursue key growth opportunities created by the energy transition in select markets where we have a competitive advantage,” said CEO and managing director Adam Watson

• Outlook FY24 distribution guidance of 56.0 cents per security, forecast to be up 1.8% on FY23

• APA will continue to invest across the business in corporate capability, progress on our sustainability initiatives and focus on our growth markets

Santos (ASX: STO): Misses 1H23

One liner: A comprehensive “miss” from the oil and gas producer in first-half 2023 saw NPAT, sales and EBITDAX undercut analyst expectations.

• H1 underlying NPAT $801m was down 37% versus a year-ago $1.27B (A$7.81)

• Product sales $2.97bn vs $3.12bn forecast by analysts.

• EBITDAX $2.11bn was down 23% from $2.73bn a year ago, and further below consensus of $2.24bn

• Interim dividend of US 8.7 cents per share unfranked (US$283 million), 14% up on the the previous interim dividend paid last year.

“We remain focused on executing our strategy to backfill and sustain our existing infrastructure, decarbonise and develop our Santos Energy Solutions division. Our goal is to strike the right balance between disciplined and phased major project spend,” said MD and CEO Kevin Gallagher.

Management highlighted ongoing work on building new revenue sources through decarbonisation, including the Moomba CCS project, which will be one of the world’s largest when it begins operation, as expected, in FY2024.

Outlook

• Production 89-93mmboe

• Sales 90-100mmboe

Domino’s Pizza (ASX: DMP): Double miss, short squeeze at play

One liner: Double miss, sales rose 2.2% but EBIT fell 23.3%, management said it does not expect customers to pay for higher prices in FY24.

• Network sales $4.01bn

• Revenue $2.37bn

• Adjusted EBITDA A$347.2m

• Net CAPEX of A$159.1M higher than 3-5 year outlook and primarily due to expansion in Malaysia and Singapore and lower store sales proceeds

• H2 dividend 42.6cps, unfranked

Group CEO and MD Do Meij, ‘We are still actively working to ‘rebalance’ the value equation – this means getting the right products, service and image for our customers, not simply reversing price increases – we believe we can deliver both great value for customers and great profitability for franchisee partners.’

Outlook

• Network savings from streamlining operations announced in June 2023 anticipated to delivery savings of A$50M-$60M in FY24 rising to A$80M-$94M in FY25 with one-third to be shared with franchisee partners

• Growing customer volumes and frequency a key focus for management

• Sales growth beginning to rebound in the first 7 weeks of FY24, up 12.6% year-on-year

Woolworths (ASX:WOW): In-line and rebounding from Tuesday's Coles-driven selloff

One liner: FY23 results in-line with expectations, NPAT $1.72B up 4.6% on the pcp; sales to date in FY24 grow in food but decline in BIG W, reflecting cost-of-living pressures

• Revenue $64.29bn up 5.7%

• Net profit $1.61bn, up 4.6%

• Final dividend A$0.58/share (fully franked)

Current trading and outlook:

• Woolworths Food Retail sales up ~+6.5% with inflation moderating and low single digit item growth; FY24 EBIT growth needs to be viewed in the context of cost inflation and a strong focus on delivering value for our customers

• New Zealand Food sales up ~+4.5%; short-term outlook remains challenging

• BIG W sales down (~6%); the outlook for the remainder of the year is uncertain but trading in Q2 will be key to the full year results

• Continuing to invest to deliver value for our customers including actively helping them to Spend Less this Spring

• Group CEO Brad Banducci, ‘Looking ahead to FY24, we expect food inflation in Australia and New Zealand to continue to moderate but will likely remain elevated in some packaged categories. We also expect the consumer environment to remain challenging with customers continuing to cut back o non-essential items.’