With earnings season once more all but wrapped up, we see that some S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) stocks grabbed investor interest and posted gains amid weak results, while others were sold off following strong results.
Casting her eye across the February reporting season, Jun Bei Liu, founder and lead portfolio manager at Ten Cap, said, "It was not the companies that delivered quality results that have proven most interesting."
Liu pointed to two ASX 200 stocks that came under pressure despite reporting strong growth (courtesy of The Australian Financial Review).
Namely electronics retailer JB Hi Fi Ltd (ASX: JBH) and financial services company Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd (ASX: PNI).
ASX 200 stocks losing ground amid strong results
JB Hi-Fi released its half-year results on 10 February.
While the ASX 200 stock initially gained 5% to post a record high of $108.08 a share, momentum turned in intraday trading, and JB Hi-Fi shares closed the day down 4.6%.
Addressing that seeming anomaly, Liu said:
JB Hi-Fi, despite operating in a challenging retail environment, delivered one of its strongest-ever results, growing sales and profit by 10% amid intense competition and cautious consumer spending.
Management reinforced confidence by rewarding shareholders with a sizable special dividend and signalling more to come in the years ahead. Analysts responded with bullish upgrades – typically a catalyst for a strong share price rally. Yet instead of surging, JB Hi-Fi has fallen 5% since the result.
The fully franked interim dividend worked out to $1.70 a share, up 7.6% from last year's interim payout. The stock trades on a trailing dividend yield of 3.8%.
Longer-term, the JB Hi-Fi share price continues to be a strong performer, currently up 55% over the past 12 months.
Also coming under post-earnings pressure
Then there's Pinnacle Investment.
The ASX 200 stock gained 3.5% on 5 February, the day Pinnacle released its half-year results. However, shares have tumbled 9.3% since then.
"Pinnacle Investment is another curious case," Liu said. "The company posted an outstanding result, exceeding analyst expectations by double digits and outlining a multi-year growth trajectory."
She noted that "a flurry of upgrades and buy recommendations followed" on those results, but that hasn't kept the share price from retracing.
Despite the dip, shares in the ASX 200 financial stock remain up an impressive 104% since this time last year.
Pinnacle Investment shares also trade on a partly franked dividend yield of 2.6%.
If you're looking to grab the interim dividend of 33 cents a share, you'll need to own the stock at market close on Wednesday, 5 March. Pinnacle Investment shares trade ex-dividend on Thursday.
