Yahoo Finance Trending tickers: Saudi Aramco | PageGroup | LSL Property Service | BioNTech
The latest investor updates on stocks that are trending on Monday
Saudi Aramco (2223.SR)
Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, revealed a 38% fall in second-quarter profit to 112.81bn riyal ($30.07bn, £23.63bn) on Monday, down from the $48.4bn recorded in the same period of last year. But it still came in above expectations.
The company cited a drop in hydrocarbon prices, as well weakening refining and chemicals margins as reasons for the decline. It has also been affected by continued production cuts by the OPEC+ cartel.
Shares tumbled as much as 4.3% on the day despite Saudi Aramco boosting its dividend to $29.4bn, including a performance-linked portion of the payout.
The state-owned company also brought in revenues of $30bn during the three months to June, a near 40% decline from the same period the year before.
“Despite the economic headwinds, we see signals that global demand remains resilient, supported by an ongoing recovery in the aviation sector,” Amin Nasser, Aramco chief executive, said during a company earnings call.
Read more: LIVE: FTSE tumbles as UK hiring falls at fastest pace in over three years
The firm still expects capital expenditure at between $45bn and $55bn this year, it said.
It comes as Saudi Arabia warned last week that it could deepen cuts to oil production as it extended its voluntary supply curb agreement with Russia for another month.
PageGroup (PAGE.L)
Shares in PageGroup slipped 0.1% in London as the company warned that workers are becoming more reluctant to accept jobs.
The recruitment firm posted revenue increase of 5.8% to just over £1bn in the six months to the end of June, while pre-tax profit fell almost 45% to £63.3m thanks to a hiring slowdown.
The firm, which also cut its own headcount by 5%, is on track to meet expectations, but added that the market had become more "challenging" in the last half year.
Gross profit from its permanent hires declined 7.1% to £392.2m while the temporary part of the business saw a 15.3% rise to £134.6m.
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"The challenging conditions we saw towards the end of 2022 continued into the first half of 2023, with lower levels of both candidate and client confidence resulting in delays in decision making and candidates being more reluctant to accept offers," Nicholas Kirk, chief executive, said.
"Reflecting the uncertain macro-economic conditions, temporary recruitment outperformed permanent, as clients sought more flexible options."
As well as the special dividend of 15.87p, PageGroup upped its interim dividend by 4% to 5.13p. Cash at the end of the half-year was £97.9m.
LSL Property Services (LSL.L)
LSL Property Services fell out of fashion with investors on Monday, falling as much as 13% during the session, after issuing a profit warning.
The firm, which is one of the largest providers of services to mortgage intermediaries and franchised estate agencies, said a bigger than expected interest rate rise in June took its toll on lending activity.
It cautioned that full-year profits are likely to be “substantially lower” than previously forecast after posting revenue of £104m for the first half of the year, down from £160.9m in the same period the previous year.
Underlying operating profit fell from £14.2m to £3.5m, broadly in line with expectations.
Read more: UK house prices fall for fourth consecutive month in July
Purchase lending fell by 27%, slightly less than the overall market reduction of 30%. Meanwhile, remortgage lending decreased by 15% compared to the market, which fell by 21%.
It comes as The Bank of England (BoE) has hiked interest rates 14 consecutive times since December 2021, bringing the cost of borrowing to 5.25%.
LSL has around 2,700 advisors and represents around 10% of the total purchase and remortgage market in the UK.
BioNTech (BNTX)
BioNTech stock was down 2% in pre-market trading on Wall Street after the company revealed that second-quarter revenue dropped to €167.7m ($184m, £144.64m) from €3.2bn a year earlier.
The German-based biotechnology company said that write-offs on Pfizer's (PFE) assets ate into profit share payments that BioNTech is entitled to receive from its US partner.
It also cut its projected research and development budget for 2023 to between €2bn and €2.2bn, down from between €2.4bn and €2.6bn previously forecast.
"With some uncertainty on the revenue line, we are also carefully watching our spending by revisiting our cost base," said Jens Holstein, finance chief said.
BioNTech confirmed its outlook for COVID-19 vaccine sales to reach about €5bn this year, down from €17.2bn euros last year. It is also on track to launch its new variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccine, and continues to support vaccinations during the autumn respiratory infection season, it said.
The stock has lost around 30% year-to-date so far.
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