The S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) opened 2% lower on Wednesday following overnight losses on Wall Street.
Making sharemarket headlines today is Redbubble Ltd (ASX:RBL), Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX:CAT) and Ridley Corporation Ltd (ASX:RIC).
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ASX 200 News Today
1. Redbubble Ltd
Redbubble is an Australian online retail marketplace business specialising in customised graphic design and speedy fulfillment of orders.
Today, Redbubble released its 2019 half-year financial report showing a 42% increase in revenue to $213 million (versus the prior corresponding period). At the bottom line, Redbubble made a profit of $3 million, up 32% from the same period a year earlier.
The company said its marketplace revenue rose 26% to $180 million and gross profit (revenue minus costs of goods sold) climbed 27% to $66 million.
Going forward the company’s focus remains improving its search engine presence, which leads to more users, artists and sales; together with increased content partnerships and brand licensing.
2. Catapult International Ltd
Catapult International is a sports technology business probably best-known for its GPS trackers which sits on the back of shirts for professional sporting teams, and allows coaches and staff to monitor player performance and improve gameplay.
This morning the sports technology company released its half-year financial report covering the six-month period to 31 December 2019.
Catapult reported an 18% increase in revenue, to $51 million, and a loss of $4.7 million, which was up from the loss of $9.2 million reported in the same period a year earlier.
“These results are the hallmark of a scaling successful SaaS business; the ability to grow the top line while becoming efficient in scale,” CEO Will Lopes said.
“Catapult’s transition to a profitable and long-term free cash flow positive company continues following our second consecutive half-year of positive EBITDA and a record free cash flow result.”
Looking forward Catapult said it remains committed to achieving its positive free cash flow target by FY21.
3. Ridley Corporation
Ridley is Australia’s leading provider of high-performance animal nutrition solutions. Some of Ridley’s largest brands include Barastoc, Cobber, Rumevite and Primo.
In its ASX update today, Ridley reported a 6.9% drop in half-year revenue to $487 million and a profit of $396,000, down 97.5% over the prior corresponding period.
Excluding the impact of non-recurring items, Ridley noted its EBITDA from ongoing operations would have been $30.7 million, mostly in-line with last year’s result.
Despite an obvious restructuring of its business lines and financials, the company declared a half-year dividend of 1.5 cents per share, which was also in-line with the payment this time last year.
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