This past week the S&P ASX All Ordinaries Index (ASX: ^XAO) hit a new 52-week high of 5,471, a level not achieved since June 2008. The earnings season has now passed and we can see how strong earnings have pushed up some of the stocks hitting new 52-week highs.
BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP) began the week with a 52-week high of $39.79. It announced a half-year underlying net profit for member equity holders of US$7.8 billion, up 31% on the pcp. Cost cutting, higher iron ore production and strong oil prices all contributed to the earnings.
There has been an expectation that the company may return capital to shareholders by way of a share buyback or special dividend once its debt has been reduced to target levels, so anticipation of that may be drawing in investors.
Henderson Group plc (ASX: HGG), the UK-based international fund manager had a "buy" rating from UBS on the back of its full-year results in the week. It reported a 24.2% rise in underlying net profit to GBP 190.1 million, and total assets under management (AUM) increased to GBP 75.2 billion, up from GBP 65.6 billion.
It set a new all-time high at $4.72 on Thursday and over the past year it is up nearly 94%.
TPG Telecom Limited (ASX: TPM), the internet service and telecommunications provider, announced the completion of its acquisition of Telecom New Zealand Australia, which AAPT, an internet service provider, is a subsidiary of. The company has an extensive fixed line network connecting around 500,000 urban premises that it wants to develop further to offer broadband speeds equal to what the NBN is expected to achieve.
It hit a new all-time of $5.76 a share on Thursday. Over the past 12 months, it has risen 115.7% to $5.61.
Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW) almost broke $37 a share, stopping just short at $36.96, still that was an all-time high for the food and general merchandise retailer. Its half-year profit was up 14.5% to $1.3 billion on $31.8 billion in revenue.
Food, liquor and petrol sales were up 5.3%, general merchandise was flat with a 0.2% rise, and home improvement sales saw a 25% improvement. Its Masters DIY and hardware chain is still experiencing growing pains with a $72 million net loss in EBIT for the half-year, although sales were up 49.4% to $393 million for the period.
Foolish takeaway
I think we are going to see further improvement in the major miners because the cost cutting is improving productivity and with production increases that have been talked about over the past year, the full benefits of those will become more evident.
