NZ shares fall as Pushpay touches 12-month low

New Zealand's headline share index fell on Wednesday as Pushpay Holdings tumbled 13% after it gave a soft half-year earnings report and a poorly received analyst call.

Wednesday, November 10th 2021, 6:21PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index fell 68 points, or half a percent, to 13022.46. Turnover was $133 million.

Shares in the church management software company were already down more than 7% at 11:00am, but the worst was yet to come.

In the half hour following the call, the share price plunged another 12% after Pushpay’s chief executive declined to tell analysts how many new customers had been added.

An analyst on the call said it appeared as though the number of net new customers had “gone backwards” which the company denied.

The donation platform reported a 9% increase in operating revenue, to US$93.5m (NZ$131.3m), likely driven by existing customers adding more Pushpay products and processing more donations.

However, full-year earnings guidance was dialed back roughly 6% to a midpoint of US$62m.

The head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, Mark Lister, said growth stocks were sensitive to any sign that expansion might be slowing down.

Pushpay finished the day down 13% at $1.61 and briefly touched $1.50 during the session, which is its lowest price in more than a year. The stock is still up 50% since the pandemic.

Elsewhere on the share market, stocks were mixed with a fairly even amount rising and falling.

Risk sentiment is weaker for no obvious reason, with US equities on track for a rare fall today while global bond markets show a broadly-based rally

Pacific Edge declined 2.8% to $1.40, which is a fairly average price for the stock in the past couple of months.

The company gave a presentation to the Bell Potter Healthcare conference today, which did not contain any price sensitive information.

Several other healthcare stocks also fell on the NZX today, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare fell 1.5% to $31.80, AFT Pharmaceuticals dropped 2.7% to $4.74, and Ebos Group declined 1.2% to $36.

Other stocks were climbing, with Move Logistics leading the gains, up 6.3% at $1.70, while Mainfreight gained a dollar, up 1.1% to $90.99, ahead of its half-year report tomorrow.

A2 Milk dropped 1.8% to $6.43 as a second law firm prepared to make a decision about whether to file a class action lawsuit against the exporter.

Shine Lawyers is looking at a class action on behalf of shareholders who suffered losses when the stock plunged earlier this year. Another law firm has already filed a claim in an Australian court.

The NZ dollar was trading at 71.25 US cents today, down from 71.51 cents yesterday and from 71.60 cents ten days ago.

Tags: Market Close