The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is running out of steam today and edging into the red. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is down 0.2% to 8,041 points.

Four ASX shares that are falling more than most today are listed below. Here’s why they are dropping:

Alumina Ltd (ASX: AWC)

The Alumina share price is down 5% to $1.53. This morning, the alumina producer revealed that major shareholder, CITIC Group, has advised that it is supportive of its takeover by Alcoa Corp (NYSE: AA) and intends to vote in favour of the deal. CITIC Group has a 18.9% stake in the company. While this is positive news, it is having no effect on its share price today. That’s because Alumina’s takeover is an all-scrip deal. This means that it tends to move in line with the Alcoa share price at present. So, with Alcoa’s shares taking a tumble on Wall Street overnight, Alumina’s shares have fallen to reflect this.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

The Domino’s Pizza share price is down 9% to $32.89. This follows news that the pizza chain operator plans to close approximately 800 underperforming stores in the Japan market. However, management advised that the majority of customers that ordered from these stores will be covered in the delivery network of remaining stores. Also, in France, Domino’s is targeting a net 10-20 store reduction in FY 2025. Once again, it believes the majority of delivery orders from these stores will be serviced by neighbouring stores, resulting in earnings improvements.

DroneShield Ltd (ASX: DRO)

The DroneShield share price is down 2.5% to $1.78. This counter drone company’s shares have come under pressure this week after its incredible rally ran out of steam. The company’s market capitalisation rose to approximately $2 billion before its shares started to crater. This may have been driven profit taking from some investors, which then led to panic selling from other investors. DroneShield’s shares remain up almost 500% since this time last year despite this week’s selloff.

WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC)

The WiseTech Global share price is down 5.5% to $94.28. Investors have been selling WiseTech Global and other ASX tech stocks on Thursday following a selloff on the Nasdaq index on Wall Street overnight. Investors in the United States were locking in gains and rotating out of high-flying tech stocks and into other areas of the market. This has led to the S&P/ASX All Technology Index falling by a sizeable 2.2% today.

The post Why Alumina, Domino’s, DroneShield, and WiseTech shares are sinking today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has positions in Domino’s Pizza Enterprises. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Domino’s Pizza Enterprises, DroneShield, and WiseTech Global. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended WiseTech Global. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Domino’s Pizza Enterprises. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP) share price is lifting off today.

Shares in the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) buy now, pay later (BNPL) stock were in a trading halt yesterday after closing up 1.9% on Tuesday at $1.605 a share.

In morning trade on Thursday, Zip shares are back in action. They are currently swapping hands for $1.738 apiece, up 8.3%.

For some context, the All Ords is down 0.1% at this same time.

Here’s what’s happening.

ASX BNPL stock lifts as debt slate to be wiped clean

The Zip share price was frozen yesterday after the company released its quarterly results and announced its intention to raise $217 million via a fully underwritten equity placement. Zip is also offering eligible shareholders the opportunity to take part in a non-underwritten share purchase plan, aiming to raise another $50 million.

The company plans to use the $267 million in new funds to improve its balance sheet and pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Management said this would enable greater flexibility to pursue growth ambitions, with one eye on expanding operations in the lucrative US markets.

Today, the Zip share price is charging higher after the company said it had successfully completed the $217 million (before costs) equity placement. The funds are earmarked for the early repayment of Zip’s existing corporate debt facility and associated exit fee. That’s expected to happen as soon as Monday, 22 July.

All told, the BNPL company issued some 139.1 million new shares under the placement. The final issue price, determined via a bookbuild process, came out to $1.56 a share. That’s 2.8% below Tuesday’s closing price. But notably it’s 2.6% more than the underwritten floor price of $1.52 per new share.

Commenting on the successful capital raising boosting the Zip share price today, CEO Cynthia Scott said, “We are delighted with the extremely strong support we have received from high-quality existing and new shareholders for the placement.”

Scott added:

This is a strong endorsement of our strategy, and we thank our existing shareholders for their ongoing support and welcome our new shareholders to Zip.

The placement will enable Zip to repay its existing corporate debt, optimise our capital structure and provide Zip with greater flexibility for future growth.

What’s ahead for the Zip share price?

With today’s intraday gains factored in, the Zip share price is up 304% in just 12 months.

But RBC still sees significant upside potential from here. According to data from The Australian, the broker raised the ASX BNPL stock to an ‘outperform’ rating with a $1.90 price target. That represents a potential 9% upside from current levels.

The post Zip share price rockets 8% on ‘extremely strong support’ for $217 million capital raise appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Zip Co. 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 Scott Phillips.

The ASX tech share industry is suffering today, with some of the most well-known names in the red. It is the worst-performing sector on the ASX in early trading, with the S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology (ASX: XIJ) down 2.1%.

Looking at some of the ASX technology stocks with the biggest market capitalisations:

• The WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price is down 3.75%
• The REA Group Ltd (ASX: REA) share price is down 2.2%
• The Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO) share price is down 2.2%
• The CAR Group Limited (ASX: CAR) share price is down 1.4%  
• The Nextdc Ltd (ASX: NXT) share price is down 3%

What’s causing this indiscriminate selling of ASX tech shares?

The ASX share market’s daily performance is usually heavily influenced by what happens in the global share market, particularly in the US share market.

The US technology sector suffered a sizeable sell-down overnight. Let’s examine what’s going on.

What happened to US technology shares?

In Wednesday trading, the Nvidia share price dropped 6.6%, the Microsoft share price fell 1.3%, the Apple share price dropped 2.5%, the Amazon share price dropped 2.6%, the Tesla share price declined 3.1%, the Meta Platforms share price dropped 5.7%, the Alphabet share price fell 1.6%, and semiconductor business ASML suffered a 10.9% sell-off.

Overall, the NASDAQ-100 Index (NASDAQ: NDX) fell 2.9% overnight.

It has been reported by Bloomberg that the United States is considering implementing significant trade restrictions on tech companies to stop them sending advanced semiconductor technology to China.

With China being one of the biggest economies in the world, restrictions could send shockwaves through the technology sector and supply chain. Additionally, this week, Republican candidate Donald Trump floated the possibility of slapping tariffs on goods from China of between 60% to 100%.

With both Democrats and Republicans seeking to increase pressure on China, it creates more uncertainty for the tech sector and the broader stock market. Time will tell how investors react to ASX tech shares.

Could tech share prices fall further?

The Australian quoted Pepperstone’s head of research, Chris Weston, who was pessimistic about the near term for technology companies:

The world has been debating what could cause big tech and the AI-rated equity names to reverse lower on a sustained basis, and for some time, it’s been hard to make a clear judgment call on when that might be.

Some had talked up valuation as a key concern for the US and global tech plays, with calls that these names had hit peak gross margins, but with such broad-based confidence behind the sustainability of the rally, investors piled in, and positioning had become incredibly rich.       

Well, it appears as though we may have our answer, and it comes from both the Trump and Biden camps, with both presidential candidates beefing up their rhetoric towards the scene and notably towards Taiwan, and companies, most notably ASML, who are providing advanced semiconductors technology to Taiwan.

In my thinking, the rhetoric on protectionist measures offers such limited visibility to efficiently price risk and with limited confidence to price the near-term future it feels like this rich positioning has further to unwind.

Despite one day of negative trading, ASX tech shares and the NASDAQ-100 are still up significantly. To date in 2024, the NASDAQ-100 is up around 20%.

The post Why are ASX tech shares being hit so hard today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended ASML, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, REA Group, Tesla, WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended WiseTech Global and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended ASML, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Car Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and REA Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The market may be falling today but that hasn’t stopped one beaten down ASX small cap stock from rocketing.

Prior to today, Dusk Group Ltd (ASX: DSK) shares were down over 40% since the start of the year.

But much to the relief of the retailer’s long-suffering shareholders, the company’s shares are up 32% to 78 cents today.

Why is this ASX small cap stock rocketing?

The catalyst for this has been the release of a trading update from the specialty retailer of home fragrance products.

According to the release, the company’s sales run rate continued to improve on a monthly basis in the second half.

This culminated in positive sales growth of 0.4% for the last five weeks of the financial year compared to the prior corresponding period.

This led to its second half sales falling 5.8% on the prior corresponding period, which is a nice improvement on the 9.7% sales decline recorded in the first half of FY 2024.

For FY 2024, total sales are expected to be down 8.2% to $126.3 million and underlying EBIT is expected to be $6.2 million to $6.4 million (from $16.5 million in FY 2023).

What drove the improvement?

Management notes that the improved sales performance in the second half reflects the implementation of various strategic initiatives.

These strategic initiatives focused on product rejuvenation, tactical and disciplined promotional activity, and enhanced execution of its online channel following the website relaunch in June 2024.

It also notes that its position as a gifting destination was highlighted during the Mother’s Day week, with total sales up 10.4% on the same period last year. It believes this is an indication that its refreshed product range is resonating well with customers.

Also likely to be going down well with investors is commentary relating to the ASX small cap stock’s gross margin. Management advised that it was diligent in maintaining its gross margin in the second half through focused promotional activity and supply chain management.

As a result, its gross margin rate for FY 2024 is expected to be broadly in line with the prior year (FY 2023: 64.1%) despite headwinds from freight and distribution costs.

The company’s CEO and Managing Director, Vlad Yakubson, was pleased with the improvements. He said:

FY24 has been a time of transformation at dusk as we laid the foundations for the rejuvenation of the business, with significant changes made to the leadership team over the past 12 months. The executive team brings new ideas and fresh perspectives to trading the business and developing products that appeal to our customers. In 2H FY24, we have progressively arrested the sales decline and more recently moved into positive growth.

Looking ahead to FY25, we are in a strong financial position and our inventory is clean and well balanced. We continue to focus on delivering product innovation and the latest trends to our customers on a regular basis.

The post Down 40% in 2024, why is this ASX small-cap stock rocketing 32% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Why is this ASX 300 retail stock surging 7% today?

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. 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 Scott Phillips.

The Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) share price is marching higher today.

Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) energy stock closed yesterday trading for $8.01. In morning trade on Thursday, shares are changing hands for $8.06 apiece, up 0.6%.

For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.2% at this same time.

This comes following the release of Santos’ quarterly update for the three months ending 30 June.

Read on for the highlights.

Santos share price higher on production lift

Investors are bidding up the Santos share price today after the company reported quarterly sales revenue of US$1.3 billion. That’s roughly equivalent to revenue in the prior corresponding quarter.

Production hit 22.2 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), up 2% quarter on quarter.

Gearing was reported at 19.9%, excluding operating leases. Including those leases, gearing stands at 23.5%.

And free cash flow from operations came in at US$380 million. Santos said it expects its half-year free cash flow to reach roughly US$1.06 billion.

Commenting on the key metric helping lift the Santos share price today, CEO Kevin Gallagher said, “First half cash flow of almost US$1.1 billion positions us well to fund shareholder returns, backfill and sustain our existing business, and grow our Santos Energy Solutions business.”

The quarter also saw Santos execute a binding long-term LNG supply and purchase agreement with Hokkaido Gas to provide portfolio LNG of some 400,000 tonnes per year for 10 years, commencing in 2027.

On the major project front, the Barossa Gas Project is 775 complete; the Pikka Project is 56.2% complete; and the Moomba phase one Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project is 92% complete.

“Our major projects continue to deliver to plan,” Gallagher said.

He added:

I am very pleased that both the Barossa pipelaying activities and the installation of the modules onto the FPSO in Singapore are now complete and other activities are on track for offshore commissioning to commence in the first quarter of 2025. The Pikka project has had a strong first winter season with the team delivering significant progress on the North Slope, with some pleasing well results…

We can now see line of sight to our major projects progressively coming online, putting us in a strong position to deliver sustainable, competitive shareholder returns over the long term.

What’s next?

Looking at what could impact the Santos share price in the months ahead, the company is forecasting 2024 production of 84 mmboe to 80 mmboe with sales volumes of 87 mmboe to 93 mmboe.

Total capital expenditure guidance (including major project and decommissioning) is around $2.85 billion for the year. Unit production costs are expected to be in the range of $7.45 to $7.95 per barrel of oil equivalent (boe).

“Our focus for 2024 is on continuing to drive the disciplined low-cost operating model across the business and the execution of the Moomba phase one CCS project, Barossa Gas Project, and Pikka Project, whilst maintaining a strong balance sheet,” Gallagher said.

Santos will report its full half-year results on 21 August.

With today’s intraday moves factored in, the Santos share price is up 7% over 12 months. The ASX 200 energy stock trades on a 3.5% unfranked dividend yield.

The post Santos share price marching higher on US$1.1 billion first half cash flow appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. 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 Scott Phillips.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP) shares are under pressure on Thursday morning.

In morning trade, the ASX 200 pizza chain operator’s shares are down 9% to a 52-week low of $32.70.

Why are Domino’s shares crashing?

Investors have been selling the company’s shares this morning following the release of a business update.

According to the release, Domino’s has now completed specific works that were underway in Japan and France to identify improvements for these markets.

In Japan, a comprehensive review of store locations has now been completed and a complete review of marketing and pricing is underway. This will result in the closure of up to 802 low volumes stores across the country.

However, management notes that the majority of delivery customers previously serviced by the closed stores will be able to be serviced by neighbouring stores. This is expected to improve unit economics and minimising the total sales impact for the market.

As the aggregate contribution of these low volume stores is loss-making, the closures will have a positive impact on earnings. This will then be reinvested into additional marketing and advertising to reach more customers and lift order counts in this low-frequency market.

Management expects a return to positive same store sales in Japan in FY 2025, with core margin improvements.

In France, it is targeting a net 10-20 store reduction in FY 2025. Once again, it is expecting the majority of delivery orders from these stores to be serviced by neighbouring stores, resulting in earnings improvements.

Group outlook for FY 2025

With ongoing positive performance from Australia/New Zealand, Germany and Singapore, and recent performance improvement in Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises anticipates gross store openings will be ~3% of the network.

After the store closures outlined above, and the typical level of store closures year-to-year, store growth is expected to be flat to slightly positive in FY 2025. After which, it is stepping up to 3-4% (net growth) in FY 2026.

Beyond this, management continues to see opportunities to grow its network to 7,100 stores over the long term. This is 1.9x the size of its current network.

Though, it notes that this target could be “conservative” given that it is “modelled on significantly lower store penetration than established markets, even where countries have larger existing pizza markets.”

Broker reaction

Analysts at Goldman Sachs have responded relatively positively to the update. It said:

We view this announcement as an incrementally positive step in restoring quality of the store network in the business, without significantly damaging FY25e Group EBIT vs Consensus.

In our European Investor Day preview, we highlighted that a critical pivot in strategy that we would need to turn positive is “re-prioritizing store unit economics over store growth… to improve the payback period attractiveness for Franchisees and ultimately re-stimulate store expansion” and through the emphasized focus on 1) stepping up on digital investments including loyalty, store kiosks and aggregators in Germany; 2) restoring store profitability through lifting AWUS in France including higher brand marketing and leaning further into aggregators; as well as 3) today’s announcement of low-performance store closures in both Japan and France, we are seeing that the company is taking more proactive steps to restore a quality franchise network that will enable healthier sustainable growth.

The post Why are Domino’s shares crashing 9% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has positions in Domino’s Pizza Enterprises. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Domino’s Pizza Enterprises and Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Domino’s Pizza Enterprises. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX) share price is rising again on Thursday morning.

In early trade, the radiopharmaceuticals company’s shares have hit a record high of $20.76.

Why is the Telix share price at a record high?

Investors have been bidding the company’s shares higher this morning after it released an update on its performance during the second quarter.

According to the release, for the three months ended 30 June, Telix achieved total revenue of approximately US$124 million (A$189 million) This represents an increase of 55% on the prior corresponding quarter and an 8% increase on the previous quarter.

Management advised that this revenue was primarily generated from sales of Telix’s prostate cancer imaging product Illuccix in the United States.

Revenue generated from sales of Illuccix in the United States was approximately US$121 million during the three months.

Guidance upgraded

In light of this strong performance, the company has upgraded its revenue guidance for FY 2024.

It now expects revenue to be in the range of US$490 million to US$510 million (A$745 million to A$776 million at current exchange rates). This represents an increase of approximately 48% to 54% on FY 2023’s revenue.

Telix was previously guiding to revenue of US$445 million to US$465 million for FY 2024, which means it has lifted its guidance by a sizeable 9.9% at the mid-point. This helps explain why the Telix share price is outperforming today.

This revenue guidance is based on approved products in jurisdictions with a marketing authorisation. Telix has also reaffirmed its guidance for research and development expenditure, which remains at an expected 40% to 50% increase compared with 2023. This will be funded by earnings.

The company’s managing director and CEO, Dr Christian Behrenbruch, was rightfully pleased with the quarter. He said:

We have continued to deliver excellent quarterly growth in both revenue and dose volume sales of Illuccix. We have leveraged our unrivalled scheduling flexibility and clinical differentiation, to increase our market share and minimise the impact of new entrants.

Further information, such as profitability, was not released with this update. However, investors won’t have to wait long to see if Telix’s strong profit growth continued during the quarter.

The company revealed that it plans to release its half year results for the six months ended 30 June on 22 August.

Following today’s gain, the Telix share price is now 70% over the past 12 months.

The post Telix share price hits record high on strong quarter and guidance upgrade appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has positions in Telix Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Telix Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Telix Pharmaceuticals. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

The Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) share price is slipping into the red on Thursday morning.

At the time of writing, the iron ore giant’s shares are down 1% to $22.15.

Why is the Fortescue share price falling?

The Fortescue share price is falling this morning in response to the release of an announcement after the market close yesterday.

According to the release, Fortescue is making some big changes to support the simplification of its structure to ensure it remains lean, impactful, and agile.

One of those changes will be a significant reduction in its workforce later this month.

Fortescue advised that it “remains resolute in its commitment to be the world’s leading green technology, energy and metals company” and retains its focus on achieving Real Zero by 2030.

However, as the company has undergone a period of rapid growth and transition, and as part of bringing together Metals and Energy into One Fortescue, it revealed that initiatives are being implemented to simplify its structure, remove duplication, and deliver cost efficiencies.

Management stressed that this is because it must continually evolve to ensure it remains lean, is best positioned to deliver on its strategy, and generate the maximum value for shareholders.

As part of this evolution, approximately 700 people from across Fortescue’s global operations will be offered redundancies. This process is expected to be finalised by the end of July 2024.

Executive appointment

Fortescue has also announced that its acting chief financial officer, Apple Paget, will move into the role of group chief financial officer after serving 11 months acting in the role.

Fortescue notes that Paget joined Fortescue in January 2023 as group manager finance and tax and has 25 years’ experience as a finance executive.

Chief corporate officer Shelley Robertson has also been appointed chief operating officer. Robertson joined the company in October and is an experienced executive with a career spanning 30 years in oil and gas, mining, and renewable energy.

Finally, Fortescue’s assistant company secretary, Navdeep (Mona) Gill, has been appointed as the secretary of the company. Gill has been with Fortescue since 2021, acting as legal manager and assistant company secretary, and replaces Phil McKeiver in the role with immediate effect.

Fortescue notes that this will mean that Fortescue’s board compromising almost 50% women. It also highlights that diversity will continue to be a key measure of its performance, with new targets implemented to drive diversity across the business.

The Fortescue share price is down 2.5% over the past 12 months.

The post Fortescue share price falls after cost-cutting decision appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. 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 Scott Phillips.

The Accent Group Ltd (ASX: AX1) share price is having a strong start to the session on Thursday.

At the time of writing, the ASX 300 retail stock is up over 7% to $2.11.

Why is this ASX 300 retail stock surging?

Investors have been buying the footwear focused retailer’s shares this morning following the release of a trading update.

According to the release, Accent expects that its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) will be in the range of $109 million to $111 million in FY 2024. This will be down by 20% to 21.5% from $138.8 million in FY 2023.

However, it is worth noting that this earnings guidance includes an additional charge of approximately $14.2 million relating to its Glue Store brand.

Management notes that it has made a decision to exit 17 underperforming stores where the required returns are not being achieved.

Once these stores are closed, it will result in the Glue Store business consisting of 18 stores (including its digital store). Management expects this change to make the business profitable in FY 2025.

If you were to exclude the Glue Store charge, Accent’s FY 2024 EBIT is expected to be in a range of $123.2 million to $125.2 million. This would mean a 9.8% to 11.2% decline year on year.

And while a decline is not what investors like to see, the ASX 300 retail stock’s result will be largely in line with expectations.

For example, analysts at Bell Potter were forecasting Accent to deliver EBIT of $124.6 million for the year.

Second half improvement

The ASX 300 retail stock’s CEO, Daniel Agostinelli, revealed that the company’s performance has improved in the second half. So much so, it has achieved solid like for like (LFL) sales growth during the half. Agostinelli said:

Trading conditions across the Group in H2 FY24 improved on H1 FY24, with LFL sales in H2 4.1% ahead of prior year. For the full year, total LFL sales are up +1.7% on FY23.

I am pleased with our retail performance in H2 where the Company continued to experience strong momentum in Skechers, The Athlete’s Foot, Hype DC, Stylerunner, Nude Lucy, and Hoka amongst others. The decision to exit the 17 underperforming stores will allow the Glue Store management team to focus on a profitable business comprising 18 stores including digital.

Accent intends to release its full year results for FY 2024 on 23 August 2024.

The post Why is this ASX 300 retail stock surging 7% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Accent Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.