F&P Healthcare boosts share market with stable revenue

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare led the New Zealand share market higher today after giving earnings guidance which confirmed its declining earnings have stabilised.

Friday, January 20th 2023, 6:12PM

by BusinessDesk

The S&P/NZX 50 Index rose 91.83 points, or 0.8%, to 11,977.48. Turnover was $205 million.

F&P Healthcare said operating revenue for the financial year ending in March would be almost $1.6 billion, slightly below the $1.68b revenue earned the previous year.

In November, when the company reported its interim result, it declined to give guidance, warning that conditions were still uncertain.

Despite the year-on-year fall in revenue, shares in F&P Healthcare jumped 5.4% to $26.32 today.

Greg Smith, head of retail at Devon Funds, said investors were pleased to see revenue steady because earnings have been declining with covid hospitalisation rates.

“Revenues are down from the glory days of covid, but it was higher than expected,” he told BusinessDesk. “The question for the past year has been what will a post-covid world look like for the company?”

Lewis Gradon, F&P Healthcare’s managing director, said the covid surge in China was leading to more sales of hospital hardware and consumables.

“An early start to the flu season and the prevalence of respiratory syncytial virus also fuelled demand for our hospital consumables in North America during the final months of 2022, though this now appears to be easing,” he said.

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Other stocks performing well included Restaurant Brands, which rose 4.2% to $6.17, stock market operator NZX which was up 3.2% at $1.30, and KMD Brands which climbed 2.8% to $1.09.

Smith said some market participants feel the economy has started to cool and may have an impact on the consumer price index data set for release next Wednesday.

The inflation data will be a pivotal point as it could prompt the Reserve Bank to slow its monetary policy tightening when it meets later in February.

December electronic card spending data showed the first decline in consumer spending in nine months, once seasonally adjusted.

New data released today showed the rate of contraction in the manufacturing sector remained the same in December as in November, the third consecutive month of decline.

The Performance of Manufacturing Index returned a reading of 47.2 for the month – a reading below 50 indicates that manufacturing is declining and above 50 means it is expanding.

“The sugar rush is wearing off and interest rates are starting to bite,” Smith said.

Electricity generators and retailers Genesis Energy and Meridian Energy both made gains today, up 2.2% at $2.76 and 1.3% at $5.36 respectively.

Global logistics firm Mainfreight was one of the weakest stocks on the index, dropping 2.7% to $71 after a strong performance over the past week. Move Logistics also dropped 1.9% to $1.03.

The kiwi dollar was trading at 64.01 US cents at 3pm in Wellington, down from 64.24 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 71.67, from 71.98 yesterday.

Tags: Market Close