AWB

Stock Code
Stock Exchange
AWB Limited (AWB) is an Australia-based company engaged in providing insurance, commodity risk and finance management services in the regional and rural areas of Australia. It is one of the top 100 publicly listed companies in Australia. AWB was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on the 22nd of August 2001. Its average annual revenue reaches approximately AUD$502 million. Its headquarters is located in Melbourne, Australia and to date; around 2,200 people are employed in the company.
AWB posted strong half- yearly results yesterday. It remains solid for two years despite facing consecutive drought years. The net profit after tax for the half year was $48.7 million which showed 96 percent increase from the corresponding year. EBITDA for past six months was up 53 percent to $110.7 million. The bottom line had provision of $26.4 million as a probable liability that may arise due to litigation by Standard Chartered Bank to AWB (USA). Standard Chartered has a long due dispute with AWB (USA) over a commercial promissory note. AWB kept its interim dividend of four cents.
Pan Australian Resources (PNA) was the overall best performing stock taking in a 13.09 percent increase. Among the best performing companies for the week 42 of 2007 on the Australian sharemarket were a mixture of energy, metal & mining, drilling services and agribusiness: Paladin Energy (PDN), Newcrest (NCM), Boart Longyear (BLY), Pan Australian Resources (PNA), AWB (AWB), Mt. Gibson Iron (MGX). All the above best performing stocks for week 42 managed more than 5 percent gain by the end of the trading week. The week’s highlight was the majority of metal and mining companies.
Among the best performing stocks last week (week 42) on the Australian sharemarket were a mixture of energy and mining companies: Nexus Energy (NXS), Paladin (PDN), Pan Australian Resources (PNA), AWB, Mt Gibson Iron (MGX), Sino Gold (SGX), Roc Oil (ROC) and Flight Centre (FLT). All the above best performing stocks for week 42 stocks managed more than 10 percent gain on the trading week. Nexus Energy was the overall winning stock taking in a 16 percent increase after new company takeover speculation and the recent increase in the oil price.
On the ASX100 index, Allco Finance (AFG) was the worst performing stock meanwhile on the ASX200 index, AWB (AWB) was the worst performing company listed. Allco Finance and AWB are the losers of the week for week 36 of 2007. Allco Finance lost 6.243 percent (-$0.55, closing $8.26) and AWB lost 12.458 percent (-$0.37, closing $2.60) after after admitting the drought will cause a big drop in this year's wheat harvest. AFG was previously a loser and a winner. AWB has also previously been a loser and a winner. The AUD/USD pair closed the week at 82.67 cents, gold at $700, the All Ordinaries at 6296.5 and the ASX200 index on 6278.
AWB shares have had a volatile week, plummeting 11% in the first two days, and then clawing back 2% yesterday. Weighing on the sentiment was the company’s first half net profit numbers and the decision to strip the company of control of the single desk wheat export after next crop. AWB will clearly remain a volatile stock until the final industry structure is realised. As expected, the result was impacted by drought conditions and the small FY07 crop. NPAT was $11.8m, adjusted $24.9m and interim dividend of 4cps. Underlying profit of $24.9m was down 59% on pcp of $60.3m. An underlying tax rate of 19% was lower than MRE’s 25% expectation. Total overheads across the group were reduced by $25.9m (230 FTEs), ahead of stockmarket analyst, Macquarie Research Equities expectations. The new dividend reflects both the drought and the future of wheat marketing arrangements. The analysts have lowered their annual dividend forecasts to 8cps. Guidance previously given at the AGM for FY07 of an underlying profit of $67m was not updated. Achievement of this forecast will require further follow up rains from recent seasonal break. New wheat marketing arrangements: The Prime Minister has announced that a new grower owned wheat marketer (most likely a de-merged AWBI) will be formed by March 2008 and that the current wheat marketing system will remain in place for the December 2007 crop. If the new entity is not finalised by March 2008, the industry will be deregulated further. The impact of this on AWB depends on whether the AWBI demerger includes the pool management division. If it doesn't, our price target is $3.33 and if it does, our price target falls to $2.58. If the demerger misses the March 2008 deadline, deregulation becomes a possibility. This would reduce the analysts' price target to $1.85 per share. There is still significant uncertainty as to the eventual outcome. Earnings revision FY07 EPS up 7.3% to 15.5cps, mainly due to lower tax rate assumptions. FY08 EPS up 1.1% to 30.5cps. The analysts' long term valuation based on a normal season is $3.33 and assumes AWBI separation only. If the pool management division is separated from AWB as well our price target falls to $2.58. AWB will clearly remain a volatile stock until the final industry structure is realised.

AWB (AWB) is the winner of the week (the best performing company on the Australian sharemarket ASX200 index) for week 1 of 2007. The Australian Wheat Board company closed the week 27 cents higher or 8.85 percent, closing at a final price of $3.32. The ASX All Ordinaries closed lower by 1.7 percent from 5644.3 to 5544.8.

AWB was the best performing company this week on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) (Winner of the Week for week 51 of 2006). The company closed higher by 22 percent closing the week at $3.08.

AWB was the worst performing company listed in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) this week (Loser of the week for week 49 of 2006). The AWB share price closed 8 percent lower this week after the Australian Federal government removed its wheat export monopoly. AWB has been in the news lately largely due to the scandal related to the kickbacks and the oil for food program. The changes to legislation are contained in the Wheat Marketing Amendment Bill 2006.

There has been some shady dealings with respect to AWB shares, David Tweed and his company "Australian Share Purchasing Corporation." A number of farmers in Victoria have reported receiving a letter from Tweed's company offering to buy their AWB shares for well under their market value. Australian Share Purchasing is offering to buy AWB shares off the farmers for $1.50 per share - compare that to the price of $2.71 - that was the share price for AWB when farmers were receiving the letters.
Must Read Articles
- Successfully Trading CFDs Online Tutorial
- What's the Difference Between a Stockmarket, Sharemarket and Bourse?
- What is a Friendly Takeover?
- What is a Reverse Takeover?
- What is a Takeover?
- What is a Hostile Takeover?
- Learning about CFDs
- Investing in Shares Basics
- Share Trading Basics
- Profiting from Oil Price Volatility
- London Metals Exchange (LME)
- Comparing Futures Brokers
- Picking Market Direction Using Futures
- Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) Comparison
- Basic Fundamental Analysis in Forex
- List of Trading Books
- Interesting Thoughts about the Australian Dollar
- What's the Meaning of Hawkish?
- Do You Know How To Use the P/E Ratio
- Trading, Religion and Politics - Do They Have Anything in Common?
- Shares that are Volatile that Double and Half in the Short Term
- Telstra (TLS) T3
- Margin Call by E-mail
- The Cost of Holding a Position
- Lack of Disclosure: Compensation from ASX Listed Company
- Unrealistic Returns and Benchmarks
- CMC Markets Down
- Quality versus Quantity Forex Trading
- Trading Risk and Leverage Case Study
- Examples of Greed
- Babcock & Brown Power (BBP): Best Performing Stocks for the Week 27 of 2008
Date added 05-07-2008 - ABC Learning (ABS): Worst Stock Performers for Week 27 of 2008
Date added 05-07-2008 - ABC Learning: The Best Performing Stock for the Week 26 of 2008
Date added 30-06-2008 - Felix Resources: The Worst Stock Performer for Week 26 of 2008
Date added 30-06-2008 - Market Reacts Strongly to Futuris Announcement
Date added 26-06-2008 - Best Performing Stocks for the Week 25 of 2008
Date added 23-06-2008 - Worst Stock Performers for Week 25 of 2008
Date added 23-06-2008 - Babcock & Brown Share Prices Record Gain
Date added 17-06-2008 - Worst Performing Stocks for Week 24 of 2008
Date added 14-06-2008 - Best Performing Stocks for the Week 24 of 2008
Date added 14-06-2008 - Gloomy Outlook for the Next Quarter
Date added 10-06-2008 - Worst Stock Performers for Week 23 of 2008
Date added 08-06-2008 - Best Performing Stocks for the Week 23 of 2008
Date added 08-06-2008 - Sundance Resources (SDL): Winner of the Week
Date added 01-06-2008 - AED Oil: Worst Performer for Week 22 of 2008
Date added 01-06-2008
Top 50 Public Companies Listed on the Australian Stockmarket as at 18/07/2008
- BHP Billiton
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)
- Rio Tinto
- National Australia Bank (NAB)
- Telstra (TLS)
- News Corporation or NewsCorp (NWS)
- Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC)
- Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL)
- ANZ
- Woolworths Limited (WOW)
- Westfield Group (WDC)
- Westfarmers Limited (WES)
- Fortescue Metals (FMG)
- CSL
- QBE Insurance
- St. George Bank Limited (SGB
- Newcrest Mining Limited (NCM
- Origin Energy Limited (ORG)
- Maquarie Group (MQG)
- AMP Limited (AMP)
- Leighton Holdings (LEI)
- Suncorp-Metway Limited (SUN)
- Brambles Limited (BXB)
- Santos Limited (STO)
- Coal & Allied (CNA)
- Incitec Pivot (IPL)
- Foster’s Group Limited (FGL)
- Orica Limited (ORI)
- BlueScope (BSL)
- AXA Asia Pacific Holdings Limited (AXA)
- Woodside Petroleum Limited (WPL)
- Insurance Australia Group Limited (IAG)
- Stockland (SGP)
- Lihir Gold Limited (LGL)
- Qantas Airways Limited (QAN)
- Oxiana Limited (OXR)
- Sims Group Limited (SGM)
- AGL Energy Limited (AGK)
- OneSteel Limited (OST)
- Transurban Group (TCL)
- Oil Search Limited (OSH)
- Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCL)
- Crown (CWN)
- Alumina (AWC)
- ASX (Australian Securities Exchange)
- Macquarie Infrastructure Group (MIG)
- Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TEL)
- Computershare Limited (CPU)
- Aneka Tambang (Persero) TBK (ATM)
- Tabcorp Holdings (TAH)
