Bellamy’s Australia (BAL):
Comeback kid Bellamy's Australia's astonishing share price run has further to go, with the company's turnaround happening faster than expected. That's the call from Citi analysts on Thursday morning, who upgraded their target price to $14.40 a share from $7.90, and upgraded the stock to "buy" from "sell". "Given the turnaround progress, we consider many of the reasons to sell the stock as becoming stale, such as i) brand damage, ii) excess inventory, iii) CNCA licence issues, iv) balance sheet," Citi told clients. "Further, the recent approval of 5 new Australian CNCA licences should ease concerns that foreign brands could be pushed out of China over time." The analysts upgraded Bellamy's earnings forecasts by up to 25 per cent over the next three years. Bellamy's shares have been on a tear this month. The stock started at October at less than $8 each and last closed at $11.40.
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (DMP):
Domino's Pizza Enterprises will spend up to $63 million to buy Germany's Hallo Pizza chain, taking its store numbers in Europe's biggest economy to over 300. Domino's German joint venture, in which it has a two-thirds stake, will pay €32 million ($48 million) for the chain, with an additional €20 million to €30 millon to be spend on converting the Hallo Pizza stores to Domino's stores.The total cost to Domino's in Australia will be between €35 million ($52.6 million) and €42 million ($63 million). Hallo Pizza has 170 stores, meaning Domino's Pizza Deutschland will go from 209 stores to between 300 and 340 stores, depending on how the brand conversion process goes. "The acquisition of Hallo Pizza strengthens our leading market position and assists Domino's to accelerate towards achieving its target of operating 1000 stores in Germany," chief executive Don Meij said.
HealthScope Limited (HSO):
New Healthscope boss Gordon Ballantyne has reaffirmed prior guidance that 2018 operating earnings for its main hospitals division will be flat and in line with fiscal 2017, while speaking at the annual meeting in Melbourne. Mr Ballantyne said softer conditions in the private hospitals sector are putting pressure on margins and he expects current market volatility to continue in the short term. Repeating his comments made in August, first-half hospitals earnings will decline year-on-year, then pick up again in the second half.
Peel Mining Limited (PEX):
Cobar in NSW could be home to a big new high-grade zinc discovery after junior explorer Peel Mining released eyecatching exploration results this morning. Shares in Peel last traded 45.5 per cent higher on the back of the results from drilling at its Southern Nights prospect, which the company said suggested a potential “major high-grade mineral system”. The eye-catching results included a 21-metre intersection grading 24.5 per cent zinc. The drill hole ended in mineralisation, and Peel now plans to extend the hole deeper. The drilling also returned a broader 70m intersection grading 4.8 per cent zinc. Peel has been exploring around the region for years with mixed success. The grades of the mineralisation were determined using a handheld XRF device, so will need to be formally assayed in a lab before the grades are confirmed, but investors clearly like what they see.
Santos Limited (STO):
Better than expected sales during the September quarter has allowed Santos to deliver small upgrades to its full-year production and sales forecasts, with chief executive Kevin Gallagher promising the company would continue to work to help solve the east coast gas crisis. Revenue rose to $793 million in the quarter from $650 million a year earlier, underpinned by a rise in prices of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG); the price of Brent Crude hit its highest in more than two years last month. Santos produced 15 million barrels of oil equivalent during the quarter, down 3 per cent from a year earlier but up 2 per cent from the previous quarter. The results, which RBC Capital described as strong, has allowed Santos nudge the bottom end of its forecast ranges for production and sales for the full year a little higher.
South32 Limited (S32):
South32 is sticking to its annual production guidance after a weak first quarter for many of its commodities, but cautioned it may face higher costs. Stronger commodity markets bolstered the company’s balance sheet in the latest quarter, but the Australian miner said industry cost curves continued to steepen as the US dollar weakened and raw-material prices increased. Unit costs are tracking to plan, but South32 (S32) said it would face headwinds if these pressures persisted through the remainder of the fiscal year.
Westfarmers Limited (WES):
Wesfarmers’ incoming chief executive Rob Scott has signalled plans to take a fresh look at the portfolio of businesses owned by the Perth based conglomerate, which could see a “very different” company in 10 years’ time. “The expectation of the board is that I look at everything with a fresh perspective,” Scott said in an interview with The Deal magazine in tomorrow’s Australian. “I will be quite agnostic about what businesses we are in,” he said. Scott takes over next month as chief executive from the long-serving Richard Goyder, whose time at the top included the controversial $19 billion takeover of Coles group in 2007 — launched two years after he took over as chief executive — and the $1bn sale of its insurance arm in 2014.
Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC):
Westpac is refunding $65 million to about 200,000 customers after it failed to pass on benefits they should have received under package deals offered by the bank. The bank on Thursday said an internal review had detected problems whereby it failed to automatically pay consumers all the benefits they were entitled to under packages sold through Westpac, St George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne. Under the packages, customers were meant to get discounts on products including home loans, credit cards and transaction accounts, but the bank said it had not given the discounts on "ancillary" products including home and contents insurance. The chief executive of Westpac's consumer bank, George Frazis, apologised and said all affected customers would receive refunds.
Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL):
Woodside has trimmed the upper end of its production forecast for 2017 due to the late start up of the giant Wheatsone LNG project in Western Australia. First production from Wheastsone, which is operated by Chevron, was announced on October 9; Chevron had hoped to get the project up and running by August. The later than expected start means Woodside now expects to produce between 84 and 86 million barrels of oil equivalent during calendar 2017, slightly down on its previous forecast of between 84 and 90mmboe. Production in three months to September 30 fell slightly on the previous quarter to 20.3mmboe, but Woodside hit daily, weekly and monthly production records at its Pluto LNG project.
Xero Limited( (XRO):
Chief executive of accounting software firm Xero Rod Drury, has said he has no interest in buying rival firm Reckon, and said any bid from its chief rival MYOB would demonstrate a lack of long-term growth options. Mr Drury was responding to a report in Street Talk, which suggested early stage investigations are under way for $2.2 billion MYOB to hoover up Reckon as a bolt-on acquisition. However, Mr Drury told The Australian Financial Review that he believed there was little value in buying Reckon from a market share perspective and believed MYOB was pursuing a strategy designed to keep up its share price and enable majority shareholder Bain Capital to sell out.
(Source: AIMS)
Comeback kid Bellamy's Australia's astonishing share price run has further to go, with the company's turnaround happening faster than expected. That's the call from Citi analysts on Thursday morning, who upgraded their target price to $14.40 a share from $7.90, and upgraded the stock to "buy" from "sell". "Given the turnaround progress, we consider many of the reasons to sell the stock as becoming stale, such as i) brand damage, ii) excess inventory, iii) CNCA licence issues, iv) balance sheet," Citi told clients. "Further, the recent approval of 5 new Australian CNCA licences should ease concerns that foreign brands could be pushed out of China over time." The analysts upgraded Bellamy's earnings forecasts by up to 25 per cent over the next three years. Bellamy's shares have been on a tear this month. The stock started at October at less than $8 each and last closed at $11.40.
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (DMP):
Domino's Pizza Enterprises will spend up to $63 million to buy Germany's Hallo Pizza chain, taking its store numbers in Europe's biggest economy to over 300. Domino's German joint venture, in which it has a two-thirds stake, will pay €32 million ($48 million) for the chain, with an additional €20 million to €30 millon to be spend on converting the Hallo Pizza stores to Domino's stores.The total cost to Domino's in Australia will be between €35 million ($52.6 million) and €42 million ($63 million). Hallo Pizza has 170 stores, meaning Domino's Pizza Deutschland will go from 209 stores to between 300 and 340 stores, depending on how the brand conversion process goes. "The acquisition of Hallo Pizza strengthens our leading market position and assists Domino's to accelerate towards achieving its target of operating 1000 stores in Germany," chief executive Don Meij said.
HealthScope Limited (HSO):
New Healthscope boss Gordon Ballantyne has reaffirmed prior guidance that 2018 operating earnings for its main hospitals division will be flat and in line with fiscal 2017, while speaking at the annual meeting in Melbourne. Mr Ballantyne said softer conditions in the private hospitals sector are putting pressure on margins and he expects current market volatility to continue in the short term. Repeating his comments made in August, first-half hospitals earnings will decline year-on-year, then pick up again in the second half.
Peel Mining Limited (PEX):
Cobar in NSW could be home to a big new high-grade zinc discovery after junior explorer Peel Mining released eyecatching exploration results this morning. Shares in Peel last traded 45.5 per cent higher on the back of the results from drilling at its Southern Nights prospect, which the company said suggested a potential “major high-grade mineral system”. The eye-catching results included a 21-metre intersection grading 24.5 per cent zinc. The drill hole ended in mineralisation, and Peel now plans to extend the hole deeper. The drilling also returned a broader 70m intersection grading 4.8 per cent zinc. Peel has been exploring around the region for years with mixed success. The grades of the mineralisation were determined using a handheld XRF device, so will need to be formally assayed in a lab before the grades are confirmed, but investors clearly like what they see.
Santos Limited (STO):
Better than expected sales during the September quarter has allowed Santos to deliver small upgrades to its full-year production and sales forecasts, with chief executive Kevin Gallagher promising the company would continue to work to help solve the east coast gas crisis. Revenue rose to $793 million in the quarter from $650 million a year earlier, underpinned by a rise in prices of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG); the price of Brent Crude hit its highest in more than two years last month. Santos produced 15 million barrels of oil equivalent during the quarter, down 3 per cent from a year earlier but up 2 per cent from the previous quarter. The results, which RBC Capital described as strong, has allowed Santos nudge the bottom end of its forecast ranges for production and sales for the full year a little higher.
South32 Limited (S32):
South32 is sticking to its annual production guidance after a weak first quarter for many of its commodities, but cautioned it may face higher costs. Stronger commodity markets bolstered the company’s balance sheet in the latest quarter, but the Australian miner said industry cost curves continued to steepen as the US dollar weakened and raw-material prices increased. Unit costs are tracking to plan, but South32 (S32) said it would face headwinds if these pressures persisted through the remainder of the fiscal year.
Westfarmers Limited (WES):
Wesfarmers’ incoming chief executive Rob Scott has signalled plans to take a fresh look at the portfolio of businesses owned by the Perth based conglomerate, which could see a “very different” company in 10 years’ time. “The expectation of the board is that I look at everything with a fresh perspective,” Scott said in an interview with The Deal magazine in tomorrow’s Australian. “I will be quite agnostic about what businesses we are in,” he said. Scott takes over next month as chief executive from the long-serving Richard Goyder, whose time at the top included the controversial $19 billion takeover of Coles group in 2007 — launched two years after he took over as chief executive — and the $1bn sale of its insurance arm in 2014.
Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC):
Westpac is refunding $65 million to about 200,000 customers after it failed to pass on benefits they should have received under package deals offered by the bank. The bank on Thursday said an internal review had detected problems whereby it failed to automatically pay consumers all the benefits they were entitled to under packages sold through Westpac, St George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne. Under the packages, customers were meant to get discounts on products including home loans, credit cards and transaction accounts, but the bank said it had not given the discounts on "ancillary" products including home and contents insurance. The chief executive of Westpac's consumer bank, George Frazis, apologised and said all affected customers would receive refunds.
Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL):
Woodside has trimmed the upper end of its production forecast for 2017 due to the late start up of the giant Wheatsone LNG project in Western Australia. First production from Wheastsone, which is operated by Chevron, was announced on October 9; Chevron had hoped to get the project up and running by August. The later than expected start means Woodside now expects to produce between 84 and 86 million barrels of oil equivalent during calendar 2017, slightly down on its previous forecast of between 84 and 90mmboe. Production in three months to September 30 fell slightly on the previous quarter to 20.3mmboe, but Woodside hit daily, weekly and monthly production records at its Pluto LNG project.
Xero Limited( (XRO):
Chief executive of accounting software firm Xero Rod Drury, has said he has no interest in buying rival firm Reckon, and said any bid from its chief rival MYOB would demonstrate a lack of long-term growth options. Mr Drury was responding to a report in Street Talk, which suggested early stage investigations are under way for $2.2 billion MYOB to hoover up Reckon as a bolt-on acquisition. However, Mr Drury told The Australian Financial Review that he believed there was little value in buying Reckon from a market share perspective and believed MYOB was pursuing a strategy designed to keep up its share price and enable majority shareholder Bain Capital to sell out.
(Source: AIMS)
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