The WPP Aunz Ltd (ASX: WPP) share price is underperforming today, down 1.43% at the time of writing to 69 cents a share. By contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is having a pretty good day, up 1.01% to 6,846 points.
The catalyst for WPP Aunz’s slow show today appears to be the earnings report for the full 2020 calendar year that the company released this morning before market open.
WPP Aunz (the latter stands for Australia/New Zealand) is a public relations company that works with a range of clients and offers tailored solutions depending on said clients’ needs.
The company was in the news a few months ago after receiving a takeover offer from its parent company WPP plc (LSE: WPP), for 70 cents a share. That resulted in the WPP Aunz share price shooting up around 85% between 19 November and 18 December.
What did WPP Aunz report this morning?
WPP Aunz reported a mixed bag this morning. The company delivered net sales of $612.3 million, down 14.1% from the $712.5 million reported in 2019.
Likewise, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 32.6% to $61.9 million, down from 2019’s $91.8 million.
Translating into earnings per share (EPS), WPP delivered 4.1 cents per share, down from the 6 cents of EPS in 2019.
That translated into a profit before tax of $53 million, down 31.9% from 2019’s $77.8 million. Profits after tax were $34.9 million, also a fall of 31.9% from 2019’s $51.2 million.
Surprisingly though, the company’s total dividends for the year came to 4.4 cents per share, a healthy bump from the 2.3 cents per share paid out in 2019. That has a lot to do with the sale of its Kantar assets, which facilitated a special dividend payment of 15 cents per share.
WPP Aunz CEO Jens Monsees had this to say on the results:
Our transformation strategy means WPP AUNZ taps further into growing areas of the market like e-commerce, personalised advertising and digital consumer experience…
We now move into the ‘strengthen’ phase of our transformation strategy…. With our creativity and technology capabilities, we are well-placed to drive growth as the leading creative transformation company in Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.
About the WPP Aunz share price
Despite today’s share price moves, the WPP Aunz share price has been a good performer for investors over the past few months.
In addition to being up 81.5% since mid-November, the company was also up around 245% since early April last year.
WPP Aunz has a market capitalisation of $587.98 million at the current share price and a trailing dividend yield of 9.13%.
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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.
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