One of the most anticipated results of the company reporting season is due to be released this week as Meridian Energy gives its first half-year results since it listed.
Meridian Energy reports on Wednesday and two of the country's biggest listed companies, Fletcher Building and Telecom, release their first half results later in the week as the reporting season continues in full swing.
Craigs Investment Partners head of wealth research Mark Lister said it is likely to be a solid reporting season and he expects earnings per share growth to be between 8 to 10 percent for the year.
Mr Lister said the Meridian announcement will be very closely watched given the hype surrounding the IPO, and he is expecting a good result.
"I'm expecting operational earnings to be pretty flat on last year but I think you might see them just upgrade their guidance for the full year when they give their outlook statement, because the first half, we think, would have been quite a good period for their hydro generation assets."
At Fletcher Building's annual meeting last year, the construction company said it expected building to ramp up, driving a rise in earnings, but warned it faced pressure from the high New Zealand dollar.
Mr Lister is expecting Fletcher to announce on Thursday an improved first half year profit compared to a year ago, around the 25 percent level in terms of growth and bottom line profit.
He says Fletcher Building is exposed to Christchurch and the rebuilding taking place there, as well as to the strong domestic economy.
He says the company does have a big Australian operation which will suffer from the high New Zealand dollar against the Australian dollar, but the housing sector in Australia still seems to be doing all right.
Telecom 'unlikely to excite the market'
Telecom will release its half-year results on Friday, and at its annual meeting last year it signalled to investors that this financial year wouldn't be easy.
Mr Lister says it continues to be a challenging and competitive environment for Telecom, as all of the telcos look for ways to gain customers and there are pricing pressures on a lot of the products offered.
Mr Lister says the Telecom result will probably be a solid one, but is unlikely to have the potential to excite the market to any degree.
Results out this week
- Monday: Property for Industry (full year)
- Tuesday: Contact Energy (half year)
- Wednesday: Meridian, APN, Trade Me, New Zealand Oil & Gas, Port of Auckland and Ebos (half year)
- Thursday: Fletcher Building, Port of Tauranga, Auckland International Airport, Skellerup Holdings, Nuplex and Oceana Gold (half year)
- Friday: New Zealand Stock Exchange (full year), Telecom, Vector and IAG (half year)
