Underwhelming F&P puts dampener on prices

• Published date: 27 May 2023
• Author: Graham Skellern
• Publication title: Weekend Herald

The S&P/NZX 50 Index was down 129.82 points or 1.09 per cent to 11,830.03, falling 2.5 per cent for the week. The index is still ahead 3 per cent so far this year and up by about 6.5 per cent over the past 12 months

There were 52 gainers and 74 decliners on the main board with 32.94 million shares worth $159.17m changing hands.

Respiratory devices manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare has been a pandemic beneficiary with strong growth, but as the situation normalises and the company’s earnings slow, its shares have fallen.

Fisher & Paykel fell $1.67 or 6.51 per cent to a five-month low of $23.98 on trade worth $37.03m after reporting a 6 per cent decline in revenue to $1.58 billion and 34 per cent drop in net profit to $250.3m for the year ending March.

Shane Solly, portfolio manager for Harbour Asset Management, said Fisher & Paykel’s cautious outlook disappointed the market, as did the gross margin improvement forecast of 2 per cent, down from an expected 3 per cent.

“Fisher & Paykel’s result was okay but it is a highly-priced stock and it needs to have the earnings engine behind it. This time it was not quite enough.”

Mainfreight was down 41c to $68; Chorus declined 10.5c to $8.23; Mercury Energy decreased 8.5c to $6.30; a2 Milk shed 7c to...