QIWI December-quarter adjusted EPS were $0.33, which compared with our $0.22 estimate and the consensus estimate of $0.27, with upside driven by better-than-expected revenue and adjusted EBITDA margins. Revenue rose 35% year-overyear and adjusted EBITDA rose 30% year-over-year as QIWI incurred heavy investments. High-margin inactivity fees continue to buoy results and will create a modest headwind as fees normalize in 2014. During the quarter, QIWI benefited from RUB 137 million of inactivity fees, which compares with the RUB 224 million booked in the June quarter and RUB 134 million booked in the September quarter. Excluding inactivity fees in the quarter,…
Author: Daniel Curran
Oil giant BP (BP) was as much as 1% higher on Friday after BP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency resolved all suspension and debarment actions against BP that barred the company from doing business with the federal government following the company’s guilty plea in the Deepwater Horizon disaster of April 2010. Under the agreement, which will be in place for five years, BP is required to retain an independent auditor approved by the EPA who will conduct an annual review and report on BP’s compliance with the agreement. Since November 2012, the EPA has suspended 25 BP entities and…
Zygo Corporation (ZIGO) is a Monday gainer after detailing a new order. The global supplier of optical metrology instruments said its Optical Systems division was awarded a $1.4 million contract for meter class Laser Fusion Amplifiers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ZIGO traded up to $16.90 so far Monday, within a few cents of a test of its $16.92 52-week high. Suggested Reading: Most Popular Subreddits
APA’s fiscal 2013 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased 25% to AUD 667 million, in line with guidance and expectations. All divisions reported organic growth, but the biggest contributor to growth was the Hastings Diversified Utilities Fund (HDUF) acquisition. Adjusted operating cash flow per security increased 7% to 56 cents, a solid underlying result. Actual cash flows were hurt by one-offs relating to HDUF. Distributions increased just 1% to 35.5 cents per security (cps). Fiscal 2014 guidance is for EBITDA of AUD 715 million to AUD 730 million. This represents a roughly 12% increase on last…
On Tuesday, after the markets closed, Artisan Partners reported January 31 assets under management (AUM) of $103.0 billion, representing a 2.4% decline from December 31. This compares with the $104.0 billion we forecast for quarter-end. We estimate markets contributed about negative $3.5 billion, while net client inflows were about $0.9 billion, above recent trends and equating to an 11% annualized organic growth rate. For reference, we forecast $1.8 billion of inflows for the quarter, so Artisan is pacing ahead of our estimate thus far. Inflows appear to have been led by the non-U.S. growth strategy at $0.5 billion, while we…
Corning, the world’s leading glass manufacturing firm, has seen its fortunes rise and fall over the past decade. Huge demand for fiber-optic cable during the telecom bubble pushed sales up rapidly, but Corning never benefited: Investments in new capacity and the end of the telecom boom caused the firm to burn cash until 2004. More recently, rapidly growing demand for glass used in liquid crystal displays has fueled sales and another round of capacity expansion. We expect demand will prove more lasting this time around. Corning has already seen the benefits of display demand, with free cash flow hitting a…
Ansell Limited delivered a respectable result on Tuesday, with net profit after tax, or NPAT, growing 5%. While earnings per share, or EPS, were around 5% below our forecast and at the bottom of the firm’s forecast range, the company did well to recover from a 14% fall in first-half profit. The second half benefited from new product launches combined with increased marketing investment, and contribution from acquisitions. Guidance is for fiscal 2014 earnings before interest and tax, or EBIT, growth in high single-digits to low teens and EPS growth of 5% to 11%. Sales grew 9% and earnings before…
Cerner reported a strong, second-quarter result in bookings and earnings. The company continues to see strength across the majority of its businesses, and it reflects Cerner’s enviable competitive position in the healthcare information technology industry. In light of the results, Morningstar is maintaining its $50-per-share fair value estimate. On a year-over-year basis, revenue rose 11% to $707.6 million, adjusted net income increased 16% to $119.6 million, and adjusted diluted earnings per share grew 17% to $0.34. Revenue came in at the lower end of expectations due to lower technology resale. The variability of this resale is expected to continue for…
Chinese search engine Baidu BIDU announced Monday that it signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a $1.9 billion offer for 91 Wireless, a subsidiary of Hong Konglisted NetDragon. Clearly, Baidu’s interest lies in the huge mobile traffic on 91 Wireless, which operates two popular mobile app distribution platforms, 91 Assistant and HiMarket, which market research firm iResearch ranks as the top third-party app platforms in China in terms of active users and cumulative app downloads. Baidu’s press release cites that more than 10 billion mobile apps have been downloaded from 91’s platforms. While rumors of a Baidu acquisition of UCWeb,…
Stoneridge, an electronics and electrical supplier, reported second-quarter 2013 earnings per share of $0.21, $0.03 better than the Street consensus of $0.18. However, EPS was substantially higher than the second quarter of 2012, when the company reported a loss of $0.13 per share on a major customer’s production issues. Management reconfirmed 2013 guidance for EPS within a range of $0.75 to $0.95. In response to the better-than-expected second-quarter results, Morningstar raised its full-year EPS estimate to $0.75 from $0.70. However, Navistar production and PST, the company’s South American subsidiary, remain concerns for investors. This 2-star stock currently trades at a…
BWP Trust reported solid fiscal 2013 results, with distributable profit up 7% to AUD 75.8 million on acquisitions, developments and modest like-for-like rental growth of 2.1%. Earnings and distributions per unit increased 5% to AUD 14.24 cents and AUD 14.14 cents, respectively. BWP also announced an equity raising at AUD 2.30 per unit to help fund the acquisition of 11 properties and three redevelopments. The acquisitions and upgrades increase portfolio value by 24%. Management expects the transactions to be earningsper- unit neutral in 2014 and guided to distributions of AUD 14.6 cents per unit, in line with our prior expectations.…
As part of a market update, Lend Lease advised fiscal 2013 net profit after tax would be in line with analyst consensus estimates of AUD 540 to AUD 547 million. However, guidance for the 2013 tax rate reduced from low to midteens to an unusually low 4% to 8% range. This update is effectively an earnings downgrade, given the lower tax rate adds AUD 40 to AUD 60 million to earnings. Key areas of weakness are the U.K. construction market, which is suffering ‘unsustainable margins’ and Australia, where engineering volumes and margins are deteriorating. Declines in commodities have led to…