ASX 200 (XJO) rises 0.93%, Kogan.com (ASX:KGN) impresses again

The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is up almost 1% this morning as the share market continues to climb.

Victoria reported a diverging set of COVID-19 numbers. The number of new cases dropped to 322 – the lowest in almost two weeks, however there were another 19 deaths which was the heaviest toll so far.

NSW reported 14 new cases, but one of them had no known links to any other cases.

Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN) share price surges higher

The Kogan.com share price is up almost 7%, going above $20 after giving an update for July 2020’s numbers.

it added another 126,000 active customers over the month to finish with 2.31 million.

July gross sales increased by more than 110% year on year. Gross profit rose by over 160%.

Adjusted EBITDA (click here to learn what EBITDA means) was more than $10 million for the month.

A couple of months ago Kogan.com said that the average adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of FY20 was $7 million per month in April and May, with June adjusted EBITDA of $7.9 million. So over $10 million is large increase compared to around $8 million in the previous month.

Adairs Ltd (ASX: ADH) share price jumps 14%

The Adairs share price has jumped after reporting its FY20 result.

Adairs revealed that its group sales were up 12.9% to $388.9 million. This was achieved despite nationwide store closures in April and May 2020 and the closure of the New Zealand online business across March and April 2020.

Adairs sales increased by 4.5% with online growth of 61.4%. However, total store sales dropped 7.3% due to the closures. When only counting when stores were open, like for like sales were up 3.9%. Mocka sales grew by 50.2%.

Group online sales amounted to $124.2 million, accounting for 31.9% of total sales.

Adairs said its underlying gross margin improved by 226 basis points (2.26%) to 61.4%. Management said that Mocka’s performance – which it acquired in December 2019 – is well ahead of expectations with sales and EBIT (click here to learn what EBIT means).

The business’ overall underlying EBIT rose by 39.7% to $60.7 million. Statutory net profit increased by 19% to $35.3 million and profit/earnings per share (EPS) rose by 17.3% to 21 cents.

Adairs announced a final dividend of 11 cents per share, which represents 72% of the underlying net profit of the second half. This is after the decision to cancel the dividend of the FY20 first half.

For the first five weeks of FY21, sales have been ahead of FY20. Adairs online sales were up 103.2%, Mocka sales were up 46.8% and like for like store sales were up 15.8%.

Construction on its national distribution centre is underway with annual savings of $3.5 million per year expected from FY22. This building is expected to support growth for the next 10 years.

Aurizon Holdings Ltd (ASX: AZJ) FY20 result

The rail business announced that its revenue increased by 5% to $3 billion. The Aurizon share price is flat after initially being down in early trading.

Aurizon said that there was solid tonnage for both ‘coal’ and ‘network’ with no significant volume impacts from COVID-19 in FY20. Its bulk business outperformance was driven by new contracts and efficiency improvements.

Underlying EBIT (click here to learn what EBIT means) rose 10% to $909 million with reported EBIT growing 22% to $1.01 billion.

Underlying net profit increased by 12% to $531 million and statutory net profit increased 28% to $605 million. Statutory earnings per share (EPS) increased by 30% thanks to the $400 million share buyback.

Management have actually announced another share buyback for a total of $300 million.

Aurizon declared a final dividend of 13.7 cents, an increase of 10%. That brings the total year dividend to 27.4 cents, up 15% from last year.

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