The All Ordinaries (Index: ^AORD) (ASX: XAO) dropped 0.1% today after the market was unable to sustain an early spike.
Earnings season continues with another busy day of companies reporting financial results. And it was disappointing results that crashed the party for some of these stocks. Here're 5 companies hammered down today…
iiNet Ltd (ASX: IIN) plunged 11.1% to $6.41 after the internet service provider reported a flat 0.9% rise in underlying net profit for the first half. We've covered the result in more detail here, but essentially profit growth was low due to higher tax expense, lower margins on hardware revenues and an ongoing decline in fixed phone call usage revenue per customer.
Copper miner PanAust Limited (ASX: PNA) fell 6.9% to $1.35 after reporting a US$178 million full-year loss. The company declined to pay a dividend for the final period, following US$264.7 million in impairments. Despite increasing production of copper and silver, falling commodity prices and a 6% drop in gold production saw revenues fall to US$678.8 million.
Beacon Lighting Group Limited (ASX: BLX) saw its share price drop 6.7% to $1.68, despite an early 5.6% gain. That came on the back of a 35.3% lift in net profit for the six months to December. But maybe investors were expecting more, with shares in the lighting retailer soaring 10% yesterday. We've outlined our thoughts on Beacon here.
Abacus Property Group (ASX: ABP) fell 4.9% to $3.13 despite reporting a 50% increase in underlying net profit for half year ending December 2014. The diversified property group even upped its distribution to shareholders to 8.5 cents for the half year. Abacus is targeting a distribution of 17 cents per share for full 2015 financial year, which may have disappointed investors.
Capitol Health Ltd (ASX: CAJ) fell 5.3% to 90 cents. That is more than likely a number of traders (not investors) taking a short-term profit from the recent oversubscribed Share Purchase Plan (SPP). Capitol Health issued around $20 million of new shares at a price of 76.6 cents to existing shareholders. With shares closing at 95 cents yesterday, some shareholders saw an opportunity to lock in a short-term gain – they may regret it though with Capitol growing fast.
