Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) shares will be under the spotlight next week as the ASX lithium share is due to hand in its FY23 report to investors.
Pilbara Minerals is scheduled to release its full-year result on 25 August 2023, which is next Friday.
The company has seen enormous swings in its share price over the past year as investors' confidence about the valuation and lithium price changed. In this article, we're going to look at a few key points that Pilbara Minerals may report.
What we already know
Pilbara recently gave its update for the three months to June 2023, which meant the business was able to reveal some of its annual operational numbers.
It announced that production of spodumene concentrate had increased 64% year over year to 620.1kt, sales grew 68% to 607.5kt. The realised price for its lithium was US$4,449 per tonne, which was 87% higher than FY22.
This combination of a higher volume of sales, and a higher price for its commodity, led to a 238% rise in the revenue to $4 billion.
Unit operating costs (CIF China), which include freight and royalty costs, rose by 29% to $1.09 billion. So, while costs did significantly increase, revenue improved substantially more, which is very promising for profit generation and stronger margins in the upcoming report.
The Pilbara Minerals share price is being helped by the fact that its cash balance has become huge. It went from $0.6 billion at the end of FY22 to $3.3 billion at the end of FY23.
What could Pilbara Minerals shares report?
The ASX lithium share is projected to generate 76 cents of earnings per share (EPS), according to Commsec. This would put the price/earnings (P/E) ratio at just 6.
Last year, the company committed to a target dividend payout ratio of between 20% to 30% of free cash flow. The estimated annual dividend per share for FY23 is 23.1 cents, according to Commsec. That would be a grossed-up dividend yield of 7%.
The broker Goldman Sachs has currently pencilled in a forecast that the business could generate earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $3.54 billion according to Commsec, while net profit could come in at $2.41 billion.
Goldman Sachs has suggested that Pilbara Minerals could make an EPS of 81 cents, while the dividend per share could be 22 cents.
Pilbara Minerals share price snapshot
Over the past 12 months, Pilbara Minerals shares have risen by around 50%, whereas the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is essentially at the same level it was a year ago.
