The BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX: BSL) share price had a good session on Friday, gaining 0.75% to trade at $25.50.
BlueScope's Friday gains might have been in anticipation of the company's full year results, set to drop tomorrow.
Making tomorrow's release more exciting is the fact that the BlueScope share price hit a new 52-week record high of $26.01 on Friday, meaning if it reports good earnings, there'll likely be some happy shareholders out there.
While many are holding their breath and waiting for tomorrow to come, we've taken a look at how the painted and coated steel products manufacturer's shares responded to its financial year 2020 results.
What BlueScope reported for FY20
Financial year 2020 wasn't BlueScope's best. In fact, it reported a 91% drop in net profits after tax.
Here's a summary of what BlueScope reported almost 12 months ago to the day:
- Sales revenue of around $11.284 billion
- Net profit after tax of $96.5 million – 91% less than the previous financial year
- A 38% drop in reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) to around $1.098 billion
- A 6-cent ordinary dividend and an 8-cent final dividend – in line with FY19
- Reported earnings of 19 cents per share
Weirdly, the BlueScope share price gained on the news. It ended the day at $12.35 – 2.3% higher than it started it.
The company didn't give an outlook for the financial year ahead but said it was "well placed to contribute in a post-COVID-19 economic recovery".
Additionally, BlueScope spruiked US-based North Star's expansion project and capacity utilisation, which was above 90% during the second half. That was despite US automakers shutting down due to COVID-19 in the final quarter of FY20.
BlueScope also reported it improved its liquidity by increasing and extending its core syndicated bank facilities.
Since then, BlueScope proved its word, and its share price has soared as a result.
What's moved the BlueScope share price since?
For the first half of FY21, BlueScope posted net profits after tax of $330.3 million – 78% more than the prior corresponding period. BlueScope also reported that demand for its domestic products had boomed to their strongest volumes since 2010.
The BlueScope share price gained 2.2% on the company's first half results.
The most recent time that the market's heard from BlueScope steel was in late July when it brought more news.
Then, BlueScope steel released its preliminary unaudited results for FY21. Within them, BlueScope stated its underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were expected to be approximately $1.72 billion – the best it's been since 2002.
The BlueScope share price boomed 6% after the news was released, and the market might be expecting a similar increase tomorrow.
Needless to say, BlueScope's shares will be on watch on Monday morning.
