Temple & Webster shares plunge on HY profit decline
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More news: Temple & Webster shares tanked in early trade after the online retailer reported a 36% drop in first-half profit.
Shares were down 23.2% to $8.71 at 10:45am AEDT. The stock is now down 39% over the last 12 months.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Wei-Weng Chen said there were "some positives and some negatives" from the result. He noted that growth has accelerated since Temple & Webster's AGM update, with the first-half period ending ahead of expectations.
However, Chen believes consensus forecasts may not have fully factored in New Zealand costs into group earnings, resulting in a "large miss" to estimates.
What they said: "Overall, a somewhat tricky result that, in our view, will leave both (growth) bulls and (profitability) bears unmoved," said Chen.
"Given we err to the side of [Temple & Webster] being able to ultimately deliver long term margin expansion, we view this result slightly more favourably."
Temple & Webster suffers 36% slide in HY profit, reiterates FY26 guidance
The news: Online retailer Temple & Webster reported a 36% drop in first-half net profit after tax to $5.8 million, missing average forecasts of $8.53 million, according to Visible Alpha.
Revenue of $375.9 million was 19.8% higher year on year, outstripping average market forecasts of $371.9 million.
The company reiterated EBITDA margin guidance for FY26 of 3%-5%.
Temple & Webster said its market share expanded to an all-time higher of 2.9% of the total Australian furniture and homewares market.
What they said: "We continue to execute on our strategy to reach $1 billion in revenue by FY28 and cement our leadership in the online retail market for the home," said Temple & Webster CEO Mark Coulter.
"In addition to delivering 20% revenue growth and EBITDA within our target range, we made great progress on our long-term strategic priorities: brand awareness has increased while marketing ROI has stabilised; exclusive product revenue has reached an all-time high; and company-wide deployment of AI tools has helped to drive fixed costs to a record low percentage of revenue."
The source: ASX
