Daily FNArena News - Australia

Momentum in new construction has carried James Hardie through to a strong start to FY21, although the full impact of the lockdowns is yet to be felt.

Graincorp is a much simpler business, having divested two divisions in the first half, and now looks forward to a better winter harvest and less volatile earnings profile.

After Breville sustained strong sales of its appliances in the first four months of 2020, brokers are asking just how resilient the business will be as the pandemic continues to pressure household incomes.

Depressed building activity heading into FY21 makes it hard to assess the earnings outlook for Boral, despite the company shoring up its balance sheet.

FNArena’s Monitor keeps track of corporate earnings result releases, including broker views, ratings and target price changes and beat/miss assessments.

Xero was reluctant to provide guidance for FY21 in its results briefing, which has amplified concerns regarding new customer growth in the wake of the pandemic.

Increasing stress on small businesses has made customer acquisition and subscriber growth difficult for software designer Altium, and achieving FY20 revenue targets now appears unlikely.

Amid a deteriorating economic environment and with high collective provisioning, the final dividend outlook for Commonwealth Bank is unclear.

CSR has shown only a modest impact from the pandemic and housing downturn so far, but caution is urged as the outlook is far from clear.

Amcor has upgraded earnings growth guidance, a rare occurrence in the current environment, and the stock’s dividend yield remains a key feature.