A few ASX shares have been upgrading their FY21 guidance after experiencing stronger profit growth than expected.
It's coming up to reporting season. Businesses are getting a clearer picture of where their results will be. If that is materially different to what the market is expecting, then (in theory) they're meant to tell investors.
These two ASX shares recently upgraded profit expectations:
Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART)
Airtasker is one of Australia's leading outsourcing businesses. A few weeks ago the business upgraded its forecast after the IPO.
It reported a strong third quarter of FY21 that was ahead of the prospectus assumptions. Management said that the business is confident it will exceed its prospectus forecasts and upgraded its expectations for gross merchandise volume (GMV) and revenue.
Including IPO costs, Airtasker generated $484,000 of positive operating cashflow in the FY21 third quarter. Excluding IPO costs, positive cashflow was $2.1 million.
GMV and revenue for the third quarter represented 57.9% and 59.7% of the FY21 second half forecast.
The ASX share is now expecting FY21 GMV to be in the range of $148 million to $152 million, instead of the $143.7 million forecast in the prospectus.
FY21 revenue is expected to be between $25.5 million to $26 million, up from $24.5 million.
Airtasker also recently announced the acquisition of Zaarly for $3.4 million to accelerate its expansion into the US. It comes with around 600,000 registered users and over 900 verified service providers.
To fund that acquisition, it is raising $20.7 million and it will also further invest into international growth markets – namely UK and US city markets.
Inghams Group Ltd (ASX: ING)
Chicken business Inghams also came to the market this week to say that its FY21 profit is likely to be better than the market consensus seems to suggest.
Statutory earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is expected to come in between $438 million to $448 million. Meanwhile, statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) is expected to be between $80 million to $87 million.
The ASX share said that it's deriving benefits from operational efficiencies implemented throughout the year.
There has also been an improvement in general trading conditions as the impact of COVID-19 restrictions have decreased over the last six months, although that doesn't take into account the seven-day lockdown has just started in Victoria on 27 May 2021.
There was also the receipt of a research and development tax credit relating to a prior financial year.
The poultry business said it will release its FY21 full year result to the market on 20 August 2021.
