‘A high-quality company’
Greg Smith, investment specialist with Generate, said Fisher & Paykel was one of the few Australasian healthcare stocks that hadn’t been hammered – “That’s not to say it will happen”.
Cochlear, which supplies hearing devices, has plunged 48% in the past two trading days and at 6pm NZ time was trading at a 10-year low of A$92.11 ($111.90) after cutting its net profit guidance to A$290m-A$330m, from A$435m-A$460m.
Cochlear, a blue-chip stock on the ASX 200, has lost nearly 70% of its value this year.
Biotechnology multinational CSL had declined a further 4% to a nine-year low of A$128.67 after also providing profit warnings.
Smith said the Australian stocks were trading at less than 20 times earnings, and Fisher & Paykel is at 40 times. “Fisher & Paykel is a high-quality company, but maybe there is an awareness of the major slip-ups and downgrades in the sector.”
The S&P/ASX 200 Index was down 0.67% to 8784.4 points in afternoon trading.
Smith said markets were still driven by soundbites on the Middle East situation. “They are on tenterhooks but are still taking a glass-half-full approach to a peace settlement in Iran.”
Brent Crude oil was back over US$100 ($169.83) a barrel for the first time in two weeks, trading at US$103.2 (6pm NZ time).
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite hit new highs after rising 1.05% to 7137.9 points and 1.64% to 24,657.57, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0 0.69% to 49,490.03 points.
Local stocks
At home, the retirement stocks had a strong rebound with Summerset gaining 26c or 3.23% to $8.31, and Ryman Healthcare increasing 10c or 4.76% to $2.20 after a broker’s upgrade.
In the technology sector, Gentrack was up 15c or 2.42% to $6.35; Eroad was down 3c or 3.06% to 95c; and Blackpearl Group fell 6.5c or 7.3% to 82.5c.
Channel Infrastructure gained 8c or 2.75% to $2.99, while Scott Technology declined 12c or 5.04% to $2.26, and The Warehouse decreased 3.5c or 4.73% to 70.5c.
Genesis Energy, up 4c or 1.75% to $2.33, followed Mercury in upgrading its full-year operating earnings (ebitdaf) guidance to $515m-$545m, from $490m-$520m, because of improved hydro generation and more favourable wholesale market conditions.
Genesis said national lake levels were currently sitting at 117% of average, and hydro generation was up 264GWh to 745GWh in the third quarter compared with the same three months last year.
Thermal generation was down 716GWh to 236GWh because the Unit 5 gas turbine at the Huntly Power Station was largely offline, with available gas redirected to higher-value industrial customers.
Vector gained 6c to $4.93 after reporting a 2% increase in new electricity connections to 9670 for the nine months ended March, and total connections were 639,473, up 1.5% on the previous corresponding period.
But new gas connections fell 50% in the nine months, with a net reduction of 399 customers, and gas distribution volume was down 2.3%. The electricity volume distributed was 2% to 6575GWh.
Heartland Group, up 0.005c to $1.15, told the market it was on track to deliver a return on equity of at least 7% and net profit of at least $85m for the 2026 financial year ending June.
The dual-listed banking group said reverse mortgages were performing strongly in NZ and Australia, and the motor and asset finance divisions returned to growth in the third quarter ending March.
NZX, unchanged at $1.40, told shareholders at the annual meeting that first-quarter revenue increased 5% to $32.7m and operating earnings were up 0.2% to $12.9m. The exchange confirmed full-year operating earnings guidance at $53m-$58.5m, but likely to be at the lower end of the range.
Locate Technologies, up 0.003c or 14.29% to 2.4c, reported a 15% increase in revenue to $1.8m at the end of the third quarter, and operating earnings (ebitda) of $167,000, the first positive quarter for the company.
Pole monitoring firm ikeGPS increased 5c or 4.63% to $1.13 after reporting a 33% rise in subscription revenue to $19.2m and total revenue of $26.6m, up 6%, for the 12 months ending March.
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