The AGL Energy Limited (ASX: AGL) share price is having a year to forget. At close of trade of Friday, shares in the energy producer were selling for $7.46. While that's up 3.9% on the previous close, it's down 1.84% over 2 days and an almost unbelievable 38.5% in 2021.
Just for context, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 14.1% this year. In other words, the AGL share price is underperforming the benchmark index by a whopping 52.6 percentage points.
Let's take a closer look to see what's going on.
AGL's FY21 results
For the full financial year, AGL Energy declared a statutory loss of over $2 billion but an underlying profit of $537 million. The underlying figure is down 33.5% on the prior corresponding period.
Not only did profits fall, but most other financial indicators too. For example:
- Revenues decreased 10% on the pcp to $10.9 billion.
- Underlying earnings per share (EPS) dropped 31.6% to 86.2 cents.
- Net operating cash outflow before significant items was $870 million – a 35% drop.
- The full year dividend of 75 cents per share (41 cents interim + 35 cents final) is down 23.5% on the pcp for a yield of 10.1% on the current AGL share price.
AGL Managing Director and CEO, Graeme Hunt, said the impacts of the pandemic and longer-term trends were hurting the company:
"Our FY21 result reflects a challenging year for AGL Energy as we realised the impact of lower wholesale electricity prices, reduced electricity generation output at peak periods, and the roll-off of legacy supply contracts in Wholesale Gas."
"Although wholesale electricity prices have rallied in recent months, our result reflected the impact over the past two years of increasing generation supply and lower demand arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and milder weather."
What else has hit the AGL share price
As Motley Fool has previously reported, there have been several significant items that have hit AGL shares.
For example, on 30 June AGL announced plans to demerge into two businesses, both listed on the ASX. Accel Energy would focus on low-carbon energy production while AGL Australia's remit will pertain to multiple energy products as well as energy trading, storage, and supply. The AGL share price slumped on this news.
Management expects the demerger to be completed by the fourth quarter of FY22.
As well, there were multiple updates relating to the company's current and proposed work sites, including Crib Point, Loy Yang, the Portland smelter, and Liddell.
AGL share price snapshot
While the last 7 and half months have been challenging for the AGL share price, the last 12 have been more so. Over 52 weeks, AGL shares have collapsed 51.4%.
Not only is AGL massively underperforming the ASX 200, but it's also underperforming its industrial peers. The S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ) is down 2.66% this year and up 6.31% over the 12 months.
AGL Energy has a market capitalisation of around $4.5 billion.
