Aviva, DocuSign and Brown-Forman earnings to be released this week
Aa
Share
Aviva FY22 – 09/03 – has been trading steadily between 430p and 460p over the last 3 months since the company posted its Q3 numbers back in November.
The general insurance business saw a 10.7% rise in gross written premiums from a year ago, turning over £7.2bn. The UK and Ireland life business also saw a 46% rise in new business to £466m, however, the wealth division saw assets under management slip back from £7.3bn a year ago to £7bn. Aviva's dividend guidance of 31p for this year and 32.5p for next year was left unchanged. All so far so good, however, we did see some volatility in January after sector peer in the insurance business Direct Line cut its dividend citing higher claim costs due to extreme weather events related to the hot weather last summer and the cold weather in December and January. Later in the month, Aviva said that it expected to see an extra £50m in costs due to the freezing weather during December and January.
DocuSign Q4 23 – 09/03 – DocuSign shares have seen a modest rebound since posting record lows back in November.
In their Q3 numbers in December, revenues and profits beat expectations, helping to lift the shares higher. Q3 revenues rose 18% coming in at $645.5m while profits came in at $0.57c a share. The company also upgraded its full-year guidance, edging its annual revenue forecast of between $2.49bn to $2.5bn, as gross margins improved in Q3 to 83% from 80.6%. Earlier this year in response to concerns about pressure on margins the company announced it was going to be laying off 10% of its workforce, taking an impairment charge of $25 to $35m primarily during Q1 of the next fiscal year 2024. Q4 profits are expected to come in at $0.52c a share, however, the main focus is expected to be on the outlook and how the company sees itself faring over the next 6-12 months.
Brown-Forman Q3 23 – 08/03 – when Jack Daniels maker Brown-Forman released its Q2 numbers back in December the company said it was on track for a "solid" year of growth.
Sadly, for the share price the market didn't appear to be listening with the shares sliding back sharply. For H1 the company delivered a net sales increase of 11% to $2.1bn, with Q2 delivering $1.1bn of that. This was driven by higher prices with decent growth in areas like Woodford Reserve, as well as the company's Tequila portfolio. The main downside appears to be in a decline in gross margins which fell by -1.3%, with the strong US dollar and high inflation weighing on profitability, as costs went up. Q3 profits are expected to come in at $0.46c a share slightly down from the $0.47c seen in Q2.
