The Aurizon (ASX:AZJ) share price is zooming up today

The Aurizon (ASX: AZJ) share price is climbing today following release of the company's first-half results. Here are the highlights.

Gretchen Kennedy

Gretchen grew up in a small Connecticut town where she learned to read The Wall Street Journal as part of the grade six enrichment program. She moved to Australia in 2002, earned a Master of Arts (Professional Writing) and went on to spend eight years writing on Wall Street. In June 2018, Gretchen returned to Australia and has since developed a keen interest in all things ASX. In December 2020, she started writing for the Motley Fool. Gretchen's usually writing something, reading a book or chasing her dogs around.

Published February 15, 2021 11:04 am AEDT

The Aurizon Holdings Ltd (ASX: AZJ) share price has taken off this morning following the release of the company's half-year results.

Aurizon Holdings is Australia's largest rail freight operator. It provides integrated freight and logistics solutions across an extensive rail and road network. The company's infrastructure connects miners, primary producers, and industry with international and domestic markets.

At the time of writing, the Aurizon share price is trading up 4% at $4.00.

three building blocks with smiley faces, indicating a rise in the ASX share price — Image source: Getty Images

How did Aurizon perform?

The company reported that total revenue for the first half of FY21 dipped 2% to approximately $1.49 billion, compared to the $1.53 billion reported for the same period in FY20.

Lower volumes in coal and 'network' and the sale of Aurizon's Rail Grinding business in October 2019 impacted this decline. Network refers to the company's Aurizon Network Pty Ltd business, the largest coal rail network in Australia.

Aurizon's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) came in at $454.2 million compared to $455.6 million in the prior corresponding period (pcp).

Aurizon attributed the flat EBIT results to higher earnings in bulk and network being offset by a 4% reduction in coal volumes. This reduction has been partially impacted by the current challenging trade environment with China.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 1H FY21 were $738.3 million, up 1% on the pcp.

Net cash inflow from operating activities from continuing operations increased by $73.9 million (12%) to $700.4 million.

About the Aurizon share price

The company reported a first-half increase to shareholder distributions for FY2021, with the dividend per share up 5%.

Aurizon's interim dividend is 14.4 cents per share compared to the 1H FY20 dividend of 13.7 cents.

On 10 August 2020, Aurizon announced a share buy-back program of up to $300 million during FY21. During the first half, the company bought back and subsequently cancelled 60,022,650 shares at a total consideration of $247.1 million.

The Aurizon share price has fallen nearly 30% over the previous 12-month period. Aurizon has a market capitalisation of $7.1 billion and 1.9 billion shares outstanding.

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