Rudi's View | 10:00 AM
A closer look beneath the bonnet of corporate results and share price moves in busy August season.
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor
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The first three weeks of the August reporting season have been a rather mixed experience.
Up until Friday, the FNArena Corporate Results Monitor showed positive surprises and disappointments running at similar levels, but Monday's update has now put the negatives in front.
Of the 187 results assessed by Monday, 69 (36.9%) have disappointed, against 61 that have outperformed forecasts.
The good news is better-than-forecast market updates have, on average, been rewarded more (7.1%) than disappointments have been punished (-5%).
However, given the strong polarisation underneath these numbers, the outcome for investment portfolios might not be as straightforward.
On FNArena's numbers, the average share price response on the day of reporting has been a gain of 1%, but the median response has been only 0.1%.
Winners & Losers
This year's August season very much feels like a game of trick or treat, even with less volatility occurring in comparison with the previous two or three seasons.
While operational performances for the six months to June 30 in most cases don't seem too far out of whack with forecasts, most share prices suffer when guidance disappoints.
The positive offset often comes through higher dividend payouts, including from gold miners.
As of Friday, share prices were, on average, up by 2% since the release of results. The ASX200 was up 0.91% since the start of the month, and that has improved a little on Monday.
Among the hardest hit to date are Hansen Technologies ((HSN)), Life360 ((360)), Temple & Webster ((TPW)), Step One Clothing ((STP)) and Seek ((SEK)), with punishments ranging from -21.2% to -14.3%.
To date, no fewer than 18 results in the Monitor have resulted in the share price weakening by more than -10% on the day of release.
The converse group, comprising shares that rallied by 10% or more, includes 20 names, among them Zip Co ((ZIP)), MA Financial ((MAF)), Universal Store Holdings ((UNI)), Adrad ((AHL)), Chrysos ((C79)), Judo Capital ((JDO)) and Super Retail ((SUL)).
Eighteen versus 20. Consider it yet another statistic showing just how polarised this years results season has been (yet again).
Share price responses, when measured three days after the market update, had been positive for circa 100 companies out of a total of 161 as of Friday.
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