End of week ASX wrap up: quarterly results begin

• Dexus was today's top performer on the ASX
• Quarterly results have been released throughout the week
• The Agency and Charter Hall have announced strong results

The Australian stock market ended today slightly up – well 0.0013% to be precise – having been driven down by poorly performing mining stocks throughout the day.

Good performers included travel stocks such as Flight Centre, Webjet and Qantas who all saw rises today – not surprising given optimism in the air surrounding the easing of restrictions across Australia and the reopening of borders.

The broader market

The ASX200 closed today at 7,415.50 points, marginally above the 7,415.40 open.

Dexus was today’s top ASX-listed property performer.

Top-performing ASX listed real estate company shares

Source: ASX

In addition to the top performers, the bottom five (from fifth lowest to lowest) were:

Least-performing ASX listed real estate company shares:

Source: ASX

The movement

Quarterly updates have started to roll in, with CIMIC (ASX: CIM) announcing on Thursday that for the nine months to 30 September, it reported an NPAT of $303 million, group revenue growth of 9.2% year on year to $10.9 billion, and a revenue increase of 6.8% year on year to $7.1 billion.

The company EBITDA, PBT and NPAT came in at 9.6%, 5.1% and 4.3% respectively, despite third quarter 2021 COVID-19 impact. Liquidity was reported as strong, coming in at $4 billion, with net debt at $754m; YTD movement includes $481 million unwind of factoring and $187m dividend payment to shareholders in July.

CIMIC was awarded new work of $16 billion during the nine months to September, bringing work in hand to $35.1 billion, a 17% increase.

Mirvac (ASX: MGR) also released its quarterly update, reporting lot sales and settlements up from the previous corresponding period.

The company also reported it was the strongest first quarter of residential sales for a financial year on record.

Waypoint REIT (ASX: WPR) announced on Thursday that Chief Executive Officer, Mr Hadyn Stephens has been appointed Managing Director of Waypoint REIT Limited with effect from 21 October 2021.

The Agency (ASX: AU1) released its September quarter update, with group revenue reported as $16.05 million, up 18% from $13.6 million in Q1 FY21. Other details include positive operational cashflow of $1.3 million, gross commission income (GCI) of $24.5 million (up 47.5% from $16.6 million in Q1 FY21), and cash and cash equivalents as at 30 September 2021 of $6.8 million.

Charter Hall Retail REIT (ASX: CQR) also released its quarterly trading update and FY22 earnings guidance. The company reported, “strong trading performance despite the impacts of mandated lockdowns and trading restrictions in New South Wales and Victoria.”

Supermarket sales have been strong, with 5.1% sales growth for the September quarter, 3.1% MAT sales growth over 12 months and 11.1% MAT sales growth over two years to September 2021. At the height of the lockdowns during August, 428 or 10.8% of CQR’s specialty tenants by total monthly portfolio income were closed.

Collections for the period have continued to be strong, $67.3 million, or 90% of rent billed for the period has been collected, with $5.0 million or 6.7% rent provided as tenant support and $2.5 million or 3.3% of rent remaining for collection.

Rent collection and Tenant Support Summary (ex GST)

Earnings guidance for CQR was announced (barring any further unforeseen events) as expected to be between 27.8 and 28.2 cents per unit (cpu) representing growth of 1.8% – 3.3% on FY21 earnings per unit.