Here We Go Again
Retail sales came in below forecasts, up only 1.2%. News follows.
*Canada's Algonquin (AQN) reported on the 2nd quarter today in us dollars:
Q2 2020 Financial Highlights
- Revenues of $343.6 million, consistent with the previous year;
- Adjusted EBITDA of $176.3 million, compared to $190.0 million in 2019;
- Adjusted Net Earnings of $47.4 million, compared to $54.5 million in 2019; and
- Adjusted Net Earnings per share of $0.09, compared to $0.11 in 2019.
Key Financial Information
|
All amounts in U.S. $ millions except per share information |
Quarter ended June 30 |
Six months ended June 30 |
||||||||
|
2020 |
2019 |
Change |
2020 |
2019 |
Change |
|||||
|
Revenue |
343.6 |
343.6 |
— |
808.5 |
820.8 |
(1)% |
||||
|
Net earnings attributable to shareholders |
286.2 |
156.6 |
83% |
222.4 |
243.0 |
(8)% |
||||
|
Per share |
0.54 |
0.31 |
74% |
0.41 |
0.49 |
(16)% |
||||
|
Cash provided by operating activities |
142.9 |
133.6 |
7% |
209.8 |
255.7 |
(18)% |
||||
|
Adjusted Net Earnings1 |
47.4 |
54.5 |
(13)% |
150.7 |
148.6 |
1% |
||||
|
Per share |
0.09 |
0.11 |
(18)% |
0.28 |
0.29 |
(3)% |
||||
|
Adjusted EBITDA1 |
176.3 |
190.0 |
(7)% |
418.5 |
421.5 |
(1)% |
||||
|
Adjusted Funds from Operations1 |
93.4 |
127.2 |
(27)% |
272.9 |
301.2 |
(9)% |
||||
|
Dividends per share |
0.1551 |
0.1410 |
10% |
0.2961 |
0.2692 |
10% |
||||
This result was a miss from consensus forecasts which were for eps of 11 cents/sh and revenue of $365 mn, but there were special factors, first appalling weather early in the quarter and then coronavirus. CEO Arun Banokota told the conference call that AQN is sticking with its $9.2 bn 5-yr capital program which was notably boosted in the last quarter when Chevron agreed to use Algonquin to work on its renewables program.
He also said that in H1 AQN managed to save $5 mn in costs and that there will be a further $10 mn in cost cuts in the rest of 2020. He forecast a rather wide revenue forecast, of between $1.34 bn and 1.75 bn but aq relatively narrow EPS range of 65 cents to 70 cents. Morgan Stanley now rates it a buy, AQN is down only 2.5% year to date.
*Other news today is scant. AstraZeneca today signed two deals for the Oxford corona-virus project (really in phase III) on which AZN will not make profits, 400 mn doses for the European Union (whose members get to fight over who gets how many of the total) and another 400 mn doses for Mexico and Argentina. It also nat deliver a bigger batch of jabs to Europe later. It is not the only drugmaker being a good citizen as Glaxo GSK with its French partner Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson also will sell vaccines at cost.
*Schlumberger Ltd SLB had a 1.6 mn shares bought by Adage Capital Partners, a fund manager according to Adage's report to the SEC.
*After falling yesterday over its plan to make drugs in New Jersey, Eisai (ESALY) overcame the Tokyo nationalist reaction and rose to $90.55 today.
Latins
*Banco Latino-Americano de Comercio Exterior BLX of Panama rose 3.4%. Panama uses the dollar, which gained today,
*Orbia Advance Corp MXCHF of Mexico which Merrill keeps saying has lost double digits in price today did fall a bit in trading, by 1.77% in Mexican trading. It is one of the shares I cannot track with Merrill, why I am moving back to TD Ameritrade.
*Ericsson fell 3% in Europe on no news and fell less in the US where ERIC was off 2.65%.
Here we go again, another week with no automatic delivery of my issues. Apparently former site holder Blue Host is keeping our drupal team from accessing our database, even though it is because they ...
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Interesting and encouraging since there are still profits, just not as much. But I think that I will hang-tight with my investments.