Viewpoint: Bullish
HUB +7.74%: A very strong update from investment platform provider HUB 24 today (HUB) and the stock reacted accordingly. 1H23 group revenue of $137.7m was strong and around ~10% ahead of expectations while Underlying EBITDA at the group level of $49.9m was a ~5% beat.
IGO has also fallen -20% from its January high and it looks poised to make fresh 6-month lows in the coming weeks, sentiment is not being helped by the move by some battery makers towards LFP batteries which will reduce the amount of the expensive nickel & Cobalt required to make battery cells.
US stocks were closed overnight but the futures drifted lower before tonight’s re-opening.
So far this year ANZ has rallied +4.6% whereas QBE has popped over +11% following an excellent earnings report, Adjusted Net Profit of $770m was well ahead of the consensus of $653m driven by better-than-expected investment performance.
Our current pick across our banks & insurers is QBE, with their FY22 result demonstrating the turnaround that MM believes is unfolding across the business. In our opinion, the share price is still not reflecting the tailwinds they have from a macro perspective aided by a logical simplification of the company from an operational standpoint.
BEN +1.87%: edged higher today on a decent update, although much of it had been flagged at the December trading update. Since then, shares have rallied ~7% and todays update should see them remain supported.
WBC +0.09%: Quarterly update today with limited financial details, although what we saw seemed okay. Their capital position, credit quality and funding are all inline with what you’d expect.
Diagnostics company SHL rallied +15.1% yesterday after beating market expectations, they delivered a profit that was 50% higher than before COVID – revenue over the last few years was elevated due to massive PCR testing, hopefully, a thing of the past.
US stocks ultimately failed to recover from a kneejerk move on the downside following further hawkish comments from the Fed, we’ve said over recent days equities already appeared to have priced in higher rates as they continue to absorb bad news on the macro front – this is clearly another test. At this stage, we see no reason to believe equities won’t continue to grind higher toward our target area.
