Reporting season 2022: Fortescue cut dividends, Treasury shakes off China woes

Reporting season is underway with investors gaining a snapshot of how businesses are performing.

Reporting season is really heating up with Australia's largest companies starting to inform the market of their financials.

Following a day highlighted by BHP, today investors got a glimpse into the healthcare, minerals, travel and online retail sectors.

Here is what you need to know about the market today.

CSL

Biopharmaceutical giant CSL has announced the impact of Omicron on its bottom line.

The company said net profits have fallen 5% to $2.4 billion, while earnings per share are at $3.77, which is also down 5%.

Shareholders will pocket an interim dividend of $1.46 per share.

CSL's chief executive officer and managing director Paul Perreault said it was a strong result in a challenging environment and spoke of future growth when plasma collections returned to normal.

"Our core franchise, the immunoglobulin portfolio, has been impacted by the industry-wide constraints on collecting plasma in FY21 during the course of the global pandemic," the statement to the ASX reads.

"We have responded by implementing multiple initiatives in our plasma collections network, which has given rise to significant improvement in plasma volumes collected. Given the long-term nature of our manufacturing cycle, this will underpin stronger Ig and albumin sales going forward", Mr Perreault said.

Shares in CSL jumped 6.66% to $259.18.

Fortescue Metals

Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals has announced another strong result, but shareholders shouldn't expect another record dividend payment.

Following a spike in demand for iron ore, the price reached over US$200 a tonne, leading to huge windfalls for investors.

But with the iron ore price falling over the last 3 months, so have Fortescue's profits, which slid by 32% on the corresponding period to US$2.8 billion.

Revenue also declined 13% to US$8.12 billion.

As such dividends, have fallen with it. Investors will now receive 86 cents per share.

Shares in Fortescue fell 2.13% to $21.13

Treasury Wine Estates

Over recent months Treasury Wine has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, although it is hardly the company's fault with China's tariffs on Australian wine impacting the business's bottom line.

China's impact on trading has seen first-half profits slide 7.5%.

Adding to this is the Omicron variant, which Treasury said impacted sales, although it was offset to an extent by growth in its American and premium brands.

Looking ahead, the winemaker believes it sells its premium wines including Penfold to the United States, Europe and increasingly in Australia.

It has also previously spoken of growing its own wine in China as a way of selling to the large Chinese market without facing tariffs.

Despite the headwinds, Treasury Wine has announced it will pay a 15-cent dividend to shareholders.

Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) chief executive officer Tim Ford said the result was pleasing after taking into account the Mainland China tariffs.

"This performance reflects the focused execution of our plans and strategic priorities, led for the first time by Penfolds, Treasury Americas and Treasury Premium Brands. Each division is now on a clear and positive trajectory towards their respective long-term growth objectives, with the benefits of separate focus and accountability already very evident throughout TWE."

Shares in TWE were up 9.58% to $11.55 following today's announcement.

Corporate Travel Management

Shaking off the pandemic, Corporate Travel Management (CTM) says it is in "full recovery" with its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reaching $265 million.

Despite the strong statement and the expectations for clients to materially increase over the next quarter, the company did not issue profit guidance moving forward.

However, the company states that its North America revenue is now exceeding pre-COVID levels, which it says could be copied in its other markets once restrictions ease.

Managing director Jamie Pherous said, "The strategic acquisitions we made during the pandemic have transformed CTM into a much larger business with greater exposure to the North America market which, along with the UK market, is rebounding sharply."

"CTM has a unique combination of personalised service and proprietary technology which is helping our clients adjust with confidence to the increased complexity of corporate travel."

Shares in CTM were up 4.37% to $23.62

Redbubble

Online global marketplace for artists and artworks Redbubble has fallen sharply over the last few months after lowering its guidance expectations.

The company today confirmed this.

While the number of artists selling on the platform has increased by 21% year-on-year to 634,000, unique customers fell 15% over the same period.

As such, EBITDA is now $8 million, which is down 84%, while net profits after tax see the company lose $1 million.

The company also states it is not going to be a short-term turnaround. It is expecting FY22 marketplace revenue to be slightly below FY21.

Redbubble group CEO, Michael Ilczynski said he remains confident in the potential of Redbubble.

"We remain committed to our medium-term aspirations to grow GTV to more than $1.5 billion, to grow Artist Revenue to $250 million, and to produce Marketplace Revenue of $1.25 billion per annum. EBITDA margin is also expected to expand significantly over the medium-term with top-line growth."

Shares in Redbubble increased by 4.49% to $1.74

At the time of writing Cameron Micallef owns shares in Treasury Wine Estates.