Global markets were mixed on Friday, with the US market slightly higher (as the S&P 500 index hit a fresh record high) as investors booked profits after a record-setting few days.
Closer to home, last week was full of corporate earnings announcements across Australia & NZ, and there will be more of the same this week. As we have discussed in the past, during earnings season the focus of investors generally shifts away from economic issues with the focus back on company profitability.
Earnings announcements will be key in terms of whether share prices will be supported at current levels, and this week sees important results from the likes of BHP, Westpac, Crown Resorts and Qantas.
One of our standout performers (share price up +103% since September 2015) – Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) recently released its interim 2017 financial year result, with profit after tax up +132% to $132m. In saying that expectations were high, and TWE’s share price was actually down on the announcement, partly reflecting the strong run experienced by TWE shares in recent times with its share price up +32% in the last 12 months alone. Overall, we were pleased with the solid result and as TWE management highlighted, “premiumisation” and momentum continued across all regions. We believe the company has a solid strategy in place to lift earnings, both through cost savings as well as better market positioning of its products in a more luxury and premium segment.
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