The S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to trade sharply lower today with the Sydney Futures Exchange pointing to a negative open. This is likely a response to overnight sell-offs on Wall St and Europe.
On the positive side of things, right now, the ASX 200 is priced 2.3% from its 52-week high of 7139.
Making investment headlines today is FlexiGroup Limited (ASX:FXL), Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) and Caltex Australia Limited (ASX:CTX).
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ASX 200 News Today
1. FlexiGroup – HY report
FlexiGroup offers a range of financing options for consumers and businesses through a network of retail and business partners. It has buy now, pay later options called Humm, credit cards and consumer & business leasing.
Today, Flexigroup updated investors with its 2020 half-year financial report which revealed a total of 1.87 million customers, up 12%. That helped the company increase the total transaction volume by 28% to $1.3 billion.
Unfortunately, the positive user data didn’t translate to revenue, with the company’s total income falling 4% over the prior corresponding period. At the bottom line (profit) there was a modest 6% increase in profit to $33.3 million.
“The transformation strategy put in place 12 months ago is delivering, demonstrated by the key indicators over the last six months,” Flexigroup CEO Rebecca James said. “Profit growth, strong double digit volume growth across all current product propositions, and a significant reduction in losses in proportion to volume.”
Flexigroup declared a 3.85 cents per share fully franked dividend.
2. Appen – FY report
Appen provides data for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Basically, it provides and improves data for the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning products.
This morning the machine learning database company reported a 47% increase in full-year revenue to $536 million and an underlying profit of $64.7 million, up 32%.
While the company said its organic revenue rose 37% to $498 million management also acknowledged that the company it acquired recently, Figure Eight, has rebounded to growth.
Appen achieved underlying EBITDA of $101 million and expects to report an EBITDA result of between $125 million and $130 million in the year ending 31 December 2020.
3. Caltex Australia – FY report
Caltex Australia is known for its popular fuel and convenience stores. The multi-billion dollar company also operates in the petroleum industry by buying, refining and distributing fuel products throughout Australia.
In a market release this morning, Caltex reported its full-year financial results. In its 2019 financial year, the company achieved group RCOP EBIT of $607 million, down from $826 million last year. Outgoing CEO Julian Segal said the result was disappointing.
“2019 was a disappointing financial result, impacted by lower regional refining and retail fuel margins, softer economic conditions, and unplanned outages caused by a third-party power disruption at our Lytton refinery,” Segal said.
“Despite this, the underlying performance of our business has been resilient and we have continued to build on the solid foundations we have in place for future growth.”
The board declared a fully franked dividend of 51 cents per share for the second half.
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