These are the ASX companies and sectors making headlines in afternoon trade.
Red Hawk Mining (ASX: RHK) – Shares in the small cap miner soared 45.7% after the company received a takeover offer from Fortescue Metals. Red Hawk is focused on developing its 100% owned Blacksmith Iron Ore Project in the Pilbara region. The project has a mineral resource estimate of 243 million tonnes at iron ore grades of 59.3%. The key terms of the takeover include:
Fortescue to acquire Red Hawk for cash consideration of $1.05 per share, increasing to $1.20 per share if Fortescue acquires a 75% or greater interest in Red Hawk within seven days of the offer
The Red Hawk board unanimously recommends that shareholders accept the offer at both the initial and, if applicable, the increased offer price
Fortescue and Red Hawk have entered into a bid implementation deed (BID) which governs the terms and conditions of the Offer
Dropsuite (ASX: DSE) – Shares in the cloud software platform surged 29.6% after NinjaOne offered to acquire the company for $5.90 per share in cash. The company's largest shareholder, Topline Capital Management (31.0% ownership) intends to vote in favour of the scheme.
US Masters Residential Property Fund (ASX: URF) – Shares rallied 7.1% after the company provided a strategic review update, which included:
Reaffirmed CY25 sales target of $200-225 million
Review of US business structure to ensure repatriations of net proceeds from the sales program are undertaken in the most tax efficient manner
Sigma Healthcare (ASX: SIG) – Shares rallied 7.7% after the company provided a trading update for the combined Chemist Warehouse Group. The key numbers for 1H25 include:
Total Chemist Warehouse retail network sales up 13% to $5.15 billion
Total like-for-like network sales growth of 10.3%
Group EBIT up 35% to $437.9 million
Group EBIT margin up 400 bps to 22.3%
The Chemist Warehouse retail network added 36 new stores, bringing the total to 658
Monadelphous Group (ASX: MND) – Shares rallied 3.8% after Macquarie upgraded the stock from Neutral to Outperform and raised their target price to $15.93 (previously $14.80). Last Friday, Monadelphous announced preliminary 1H25 earnings, with expectations to deliver net profit between $40-43 million compared to market expectations of $33 million. This outperformance was primarily attributed to $7 million in non-operating items
Aristocrat Leisure (ASX: ALL) – Shares gained 2.5% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy, with a $78.00 target price. "Our positive view is predicated on our preference for high quality companies that have a track record of delivering strong and certain earnings growth," the report said.
Nuix (ASX: NXL) – Shares tumbled 13% after the company guided to weaker-than-expected 1H25 numbers, including:
Annualised contract value up 8-9% to $215-217 million
Statutory revenue up 6-8% to $104-106 million
Cash EBITDA up 7-26% to $11-13 million
Underlying EBITDA down 1-8% to $26-28 million
Cash position up 25-29% to $30-31 million
ASX (ASX: ASX) – Shares in the exchange operator dipped 4.5% after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underweight, with a $55.05 target price. While the company's earnings outlook is stabilising, the analysts believe its forecasted ~3% annual EPS growth between FY24-27 makes it less compelling than peers. "ASX's capital market peers (CPU and MQG) are on track for mid- to high-single-digit or better EPS growth. Our entire general insurer coverage (five stocks) is on track for double-digit earnings growth in FY25E whilst trading on sub-20x P/Es," the report said.
Viva Energy (ASX: VEA) – Shares dipped 3.3% after the company guided to weaker-than-expected full-year earnings, including:
FY24 EBITDA (RC) of "approximately $750 million", which represents a year-on-year increase of 5.3%
This reflects solid growth from the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment, offset by challenging conditions in the retail and refining businesses.
The EBITDA performance missed consensus expectations of $827 million (9.3% miss)
Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL) – Shares fell 4.3% after the company's December quarter update included a downgrade to its full-year guidance.
Production guidance of 150-165koz vs. prior 165-180koz, representing a downgrade of 8.7% at the midpoint
All-in sustaining costs between A$1,900-2,100 an ounce vs. prior A$1,750-1,850, representing an increase of 11.1% at the midpoint
AI and data centre stocks suffered broad-based selling amid the DeepSeek news. Leading the declines were Brainchip (-15.3%), Weebit (-10.4%), Digico Infrastructure REIT (-10.1%), Goodman Group (-7.0%), NextDC (-5.7%), and Megaport (-4.6%).
Uranium sector also faced steep selling after the DeepSeek developments raised concerns about future power consumption in the AI sector. Bannerman Energy (-19.9%), Lotus Resources (-17.6%) and Deep Yellow (-16.4%) are leading the declines.
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