Australia's Healius tracks worst day in 4 yrs as Jefferies sees tough FY23 for co

HL Science

31/08/2022 04:49

(Updates)
    ** Shares of Australian healthcare firm Healius Ltd  HLS.AX 
fall as much as 12% to A$3.37, eyeing their worst session since
Aug. 22, 2018, if losses hold
    ** Brokerage Jefferies lifts PT on co to A$4.40 from A$4.30
    ** HLS posted a more than seven-fold increase in FY22 profit
after tax to A$307.9 mln ($211.07 mln)  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN3051CQ
    ** Co declared total dividend in FY22 of 16 Australian
cents, up from 13.25 cents last year
    ** However, Jefferies says it worries that FY23 might be
tough for HLS
    ** Brokerage believes there are likely going to be impacts
from healthcare cost inflation and lower healthcare services
volumes at least into H2 FY23
    ** Jefferies expects margins on COVID-19 clinical lab tests 
to fall in FY23 and ahead, in line with lower volumes of testing
    ** Five of 14 analysts rate the stock "buy" or higher, eight
"hold" and one "sell"; their median PT is A$4.30 – Refinitiv
Eikon data 
    ** Stock hits its lowest levels in about 21 months since
Nov. 12, 2020
    ** HLS down 27.5% YTD, as of last close 
    
($1 = 1.4588 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Riya Sharma and Anan Ashraf in Bengaluru)
 ((Riya.Sharma@thomsonreuters.com;))