Flight Centre (FLT) shares nose dive
Stock
Flight Centre (FLT) $41.80 as at 09/10/2019
Event
The travel company has seen its share price tumble today, falling an index leading -11.5% after presenting at the Morgan’s conference in Queensland. Often used as a chance to talk up performance and engage new investors, Flight Centre took the opportunity to flag a disappointing start to FY20.
The bulk of the presentation talked to the recently presented FY19 results which the market liked at the time – shares were up 7.5% on the day. The final page, however raised some concerns ahead of the company’s AGM in November where they plan to provide guidance.
According to the presentation, FLT has seen subdued trading in Australian and US leisure travel while unrest and uncertainty is also impacting transaction growth in a number of other areas including the UK. This will drop down to “underlying FY20 1H profit likely to be below $140.4m FY19 1H result.” While not exactly guidance for the full year, it doesn’t paint a confident picture as we approach the November AGM.
The company were hoping to gloss over the first half struggles by presenting upside into the back end of the year saying any improvement in global unrest should restore demand, while the Australian and US markets could see a boost from lower interest rates. Despite all this, the company is off to a slow start in a year where analysts had penciled in ~10% growth.
Flight Centre (FLT) Chart
Market Matters Take/Outlook
