Tag: WES

Is Wesfarmers about to join a long list of Australian companies have entered the UK economy and been forced to retreat after missteps or worse?

A rebound in resources plus another solid contribution from its Kmart department store and Bunnings’ Australian operations helped Wesfarmers more than offset another loss in Target, a loss in its new UK operations and a weaker contribution from the Coles supermarket chain in the year to June 30.

On the pure figures of higher production and prices for coking and thermal coal, Wesfarmers is looking at a big rebound for its resources business for the year to June 30, but there are couple of small bombs that could see the business incur a smaller than expected profit, or even a loss.

Wesfarmers shares fell to their lowest level since February yesterday as investors gave the company’s annual investor day strategy update something of a thumbs down.

Wesfarmers’ new CEO could be paid as much as $3 million less than incumbent Richard Goyder when he steps into the top job in November.

Blame the at times hysterical media reporting and stockbroking analyst reports about the weak stock market, the advance of Amazon upon our shores, and/or the fickleness of local consumers but there won’t be an Officeworks float happening any time soon, or a trade sale.

Wesfarmers (WES) has some headaches in its retail portfolio according to its third quarter sales report released on Thursday.

Retail giant Wesfarmers (WES) is looking to sell its successful Officeworks chain through a trade sale or a stock market float, as the conglomerate lifted interim dividend after a reasonable profit for the half year.

Wesfarmers’ (WES) coal mining business is looking better (and perhaps more attractive to possible buyers) thanks to an improvement in output, sales and prices.

Wesfarmers shares rose modestly yesterday in something of a surprise after the company surprised the market by revealing that the long time head of its Bunnings hardware business was standing down.

Wesfarmers (WES) has moved to get rid of its troublesome coal mining interests and become even more focused on its core retailing operations, with some industrial assets attached (and which look certain to be sold in 2017).

Wesfarmers (WES) slid more than 5% yesterday, dragging the wider market sharply lower with it, after it revealed surprisingly weak September quarter sales figures for its Coles supermarkets chain.

An expected weak result from Wesfarmers yesterday thanks to those previously announced big impairment losses at Target and Queensland coal. But the results were actually a bit weaker even after setting side those one off items. Wesfarmers told the ASX that full-year profit plunged by more than 83% to $407 million as big losses from its coal division and Target crunched its earnings.

Investors played it cautious in their reaction to the annual investor day briefing from Wesfarmers yesterday, seemingly preferring to see the company’s results in August before placing any lasting value on the information yesterday.

In contrast to the apparent acceptance on Wednesday of its $2.3 billion in write downs and losses at Target and its Queensland coal mine, investors took a more negative view of Wesfarmers (WES) shares yesterday.

Wesfarmers had made it clear that its relationship with its banks won’t be hit by yesterday’s big $2.3 billion of write-downs and losses, and has made clear that shareholders will not feel any pain.

Wesfarmers (WES) has surprised this morning by revealing plans to write-down the value of its Target department store chain and its Curragh coal mining business in Queensland by more than $2.2 billion.

Wesfarmers shares rose 2.7% yesterday as its third quarter sales report confirmed that its various chains are humming – with the exception of Target.

There’s obviously deep embarrassment at Wesfarmers over the attempts by unnamed Target employees to inflate the retailers’ first-half earnings by almost 40% by colluding with about 30 suppliers to book extra rebates in return for promises of higher prices.

No profit surge for Coles owner Wesfarmers (WES) after reporting a tiny 1.2% rise in December half year net profit to $1.4 billion, thanks to a solid performance by Woolies killer, hardware chain Bunnings (and with Officeworks assisting) and Kmart.

Wesfarmers (WES) shares ended higher yesterday in the wake of the Woolies announcement and a separate announcement giving more details on the purchase of the Homebase do it yourself (hardware) chain in the UK for $705 million.

Wesfarmers (WES) three major retail chains – Coles, Kmart and Bunnings – have made a very strong start to the new financial year, reporting solid sales gains for the September quarter.

Ignore the statutory profit data from yesterday’s 2014-15 earnings report from Wesfarmers (WES) because they don’t clearly show the way the company performed in the year to June.

Wesfarmers’ (WES) shares fell 0.7% yesterday after the market started digesting a huge strategy package for the next year or so released at the company’s annual investor day.

A solid March quarter sales update from Wesfarmers’ (WES) retailing business – except for the Target department store chain which continues to lose ground.

Wesfarmers (WES) will pay a higher interim dividend after lifting profit 8.3% to $1.376 billion on a modest rise in sales for the six months to December 31 – a result which hid some quite strong results in most of its retail chains.

Coles’ supermarkets business has set a high bar for rival Woolworths (WOW) to match with a noticeable quickening in the rate of top line and same store sales growth in the first quarter of the 2014-15 financial year.

Wesfarmers (WES) is handing out cash by the truck load to shareholders to celebrate not only its 100th year in business, but also another solid full year result.

Confession is supposed to be good for the soul and looking at the way Wesfarmers’ (WES) share price rose yesterday after the company sprung a near $700 million write-down in value of it’s faltering Target department store chain, you’d have to say that confession is also good for the share price.

Woolworths (WOW) is likely to enjoy releasing its third quarter sales report later this morning.

The chances are rising that shareholders in Wesfarmers (WES) will be in line for some sort of capital management move, including a substantial buyback, after the company yesterday completed selling its insurance businesses for a total of $3 billion.

It’s not hard to be a bit cynical about the hullabaloo yesterday and this morning about Coles’ $1.1 billion supermarket expansion plan for the next three years, with more than 16,000 jobs created.

Wesfarmers (WES) has joined the growing list of companies large and small lifting dividend payouts to shareholders after reporting a better than expected first half profit yesterday.

Silly short term investors wasted a fair bit of money selling Wesfarmers (WES) shares in the wake of what some optimistic analysts claimed were disappointing figures in yesterday’s quarterly update.

Every now and then you see the smarties in the stock market outsmarted by someone else, usually themselves.

As good as Wesfarmer’s results were for the 2010-11 financial year, with a 23% lift in after tax earnings; let’s pause for a moment to put them in some perspective.

The aftermath of the big wet in the central Queensland coal fields has again forced Wesfarmers to take the knife to its sales forecast for its rich Curragh coking coal mine.

The Coles Group purchase, criticised four years ago by some analysts, continues to pay off for Wesfarmers and its shareholders.

Wesfarmers expects flooding in Queensland to significantly reduce output at its Curragh coal mine, according to its December quarter production report issued yesterday.

Wesfarmers big Curragh coal mine in Queensland continues to lose sales and production, thanks to the continuing big wet.