Insurance Australia Group upgraded its fiscal 2013 insurance margin guidance from a 12.5% to 14.5% range to 16.8% to 17.2% driven by favorable natural perils claims experience, reserve releases and credit spreads. This is ahead of the insurance margin forecast of 16% and broadly consistent with the earnings upgrade implemented a few days ago. The increased fiscal 2013 earnings forecast is 2.4% to AUD 49.8 cents per share and now forecast an insurance margin of 17%. Our full-year dividend forecast increases from AUD 27 cents per share to AUD 28 cents per share. This is in line with Insurance Australia…
Author: Daniel Curran
Wynn Resorts reported second-quarter results that were consistent with analyst’s outlook for the company to continue to lose market share in China. Revenue increased 6.3% to $1.33 billion (compared with consensus of $1.34 billion), and adjusted property EBITDA increased 10.8% to $425.7 million (compared with consensus of $413.9 million). Management provided a brief update on its Cotai Strip casino, which is in the early stages of construction, and indicated that the budget for the project had been capped at $4 billion. Wynn currently offers investors a relatively attractive regular dividend yield of over 3%, and the company, which ended the…
Core Labs reported strong second-quarter results, thanks to deep-water growth. Revenue increased 7% year over year to $263 million while operating income increased 10% to $83.5 million. On a segment level, the reservoir description segment was a bit weak. Reservoir description reported 2% year-over year revenue growth and revenue of $129 million, while operating income fell slightly from last year’s levels to $38 million due to an unusually harsh breakup period in Canada and weather issues in the Bakken. Core highlighted growth in reservoir fluid phase behavior studies, which are taking place in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, and West…
Nordea Bank reported net income of EUR 800 million for second quarter 2013 or EUR 0.19 per diluted share, representing a decline of 6.1% from the EUR 821 million or EUR 0.21 per diluted share earned a year ago. Net interest income declined to EUR 1.39 billion for second quarter 2013 from EUR 1.46 billion a year ago and EUR 1.40 billion last quarter. Overall, return on equity was 11.5% for the quarter as a result of weaker net interest income while fee and commission income improved and operating expenses declined. Focus continues to be on Nordea’s credit quality, which…
Although a tempered 2013 outlook and near-term macroeconomic caution in Europe and Korea are garnering most of the headlines from eBay’s EBAY second-quarter update, the company’s core businesses remain in a position of strength while key growth initiatives and technologies are gaining consumer and merchant acceptance. We remain impressed by user growth for Marketplaces (up 14.2% to 120 million users, the eighth consecutive quarter of accelerating growth) and PayPal (up 17% to 132 million active accounts, the sixth straight quarter of accelerating growth), and believe increased engagement from these consumers (many of which are younger mobile users with lower discretionary…
Paychex reported accelerating improvement for the fiscal fourth quarter. All service operations experienced solid top-line expansion, as the confluence of a healing small business market, improved sales execution, and record client retention helped spur the firm’s strong performance. Year over year, total revenue grew 6.1% with operating margin expanding 67 basis points to 36.19%. Service revenue–revenue excluding float income– increased 6.4% with service operating margins expanding a solid 84 basis points to 35.08%. The improvement of these metrics outpaced results for both the fiscal third quarter and total year. Over the quarter the firm increased its tax provision, which lowered…
DreamWorks Animation and Netflix announced a multiyear deal that includes more than 300 hours of new programming from DreamWorks’ recent push into shorterform television content. Typical for a content agreement, the details of the economics and specific programming are not available, but we can see strategically that this deal could be a win for both parties. We’ve said for years that the television content ecosystem is much healthier than that for movies, and DreamWorks has taken several steps to supplement its movie business with shorter-form content. We believe DreamWorks had TV content in mind when it acquiring Classic Media last…
FactSet reported second-quarter results that were in line with expectations. Second-quarter revenue increased 7% year over year to $213 million. Top-line growth has slowed over the past few quarters as the demand environment remains challenging, especially on the sell side, which makes up about one-fifth of the business. This trend is reflected in the company’s annual subscription value, which grew 7.5% year over year to $863 million. Given the volatile environment in the financial sector, we expect FactSet’s top-line growth to remain in the mid- to high single digits in the next few quarters. FactSet had a net addition of…
Spectra Energy’s SE decision to accelerate asset dropdowns to its master limited partnership, Spectra Energy Partners SEP , should provide a heady boost to the valuation of the MLP and a more moderate uplift for Spectra Energy. Here’s what we know: On Mad Money yesterday afternoon, Spectra Energy’s CEO disclosed that Spectra’s board has approved a plan to drop down all of the company’s widemoat U.S. transmission and storage assets to Spectra Energy Partners by the end of the year. A follow-on press release stated that the drop-down will boost dividend growth for Spectra Energy to $0.12 a year from…
Sodexo reported fiscal 2013 first-quarter results that were largely on par with analysts expectations. Revenue grew 7.4% to about EUR 4.95 billion in the quarter. However, favorable foreign exchange represented roughly half of this increase, as organic growth and acquisitions contributed only 2.1% and 1.1%, respectively. The relatively modest organic growth in the quarter can be partially attributed to difficult prior-year comparisons that include revenue from the Rugby World Cup in the United Kingdom and a sizable U.S. health-care contract subsequently lost in 2012. In light of these preliminary results, management reaffirmed its medium-term objectives of 7% average annual revenue…
Aviva has struggled to achieve growth in the post-financial crisis era. After years of sluggish growth and getting hit by large losses in the U.S. annuity business, the company has completely overhauled its operations and management, and 2012 was a year of transition at Aviva. The company hired former AIA executive Mark Wilson as CEO, and within three months he has made significant progress in cutting exposure to under-performing markets and products. Toward the end of 2012, the company announced the sales of the U.S. insurance business and the Malaysian joint venture. The new strategy appears to have brought more focus to…
Cobham reported reasonable results as sales declined 5.7% during the year, mainly due to divestment and operating profits dropping by 8.7%. Its costcutting initiatives that began in 2010, Excellence in Delivery, did soften the blow and saved GBP 14 million during the year. The company continues to generate 66% of sales from defense and security, areas that are seeing significant pressure on spending levels. Still, its acquisition of Thrane & Thrane helped decrease the portion from 73% in 2011. Analysts estimates call for sales to decline again in 2013, but we had initially hoped margins would hold up. However, analysts…