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The equity market of Australia consequently faced third session in red. At the close on 26th February 2020, the benchmark index S&P/ASX200 settled at 6708.1 with a fall of 158.5 points or 2.4%. All Ordinaries declined by 163.1 points and stood at 6790.7. There was heavy fall in most of the sectors on ASX including S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Staples (Sector), which witnessed a drop of 274.7 points and stood at 12,660.2. S&P/ASX 200 Health Care (Sector) settled with the decline of 3.76% and stood at 44,452.9.
Let us now look at some companies, which ended the session in green. Healius Limited (ASX:HLS) settled with a rise of 15.217% to $3.180 per share. InvoCare Limited (ASX:IVC) closed the session at $14.480 per share, up by 13.569%.
Moving towards the gainers and losers at NZX Main Board, Evolve Education Group Limited (NZX: EVO) rose by 9.24% and closed at NZ$0.130. NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) inched up by 5.71% and ended the session at NZ$0.370. When it comes to losers, Cavalier Corporation Limited (NZX: CAV) experienced a drop of 15.52% and closed at NZ$0.245.
Recently, we have written important information on RooLife Group Limited (ASX:RLG). To read the information, please click here.
Healius Limited reported decent growth in earnings during 1H FY20
Healius Limited
Healius Limited (ASX:HLS) has recently released its results for 1H FY20 wherein it reported an increase of 4% in underlying EBIT to $75.7 million and a rise of 8% in underlying NPAT to $42.1 million. The company witnessed a growth of 7% in revenue, which was driven by growth in Pathology and Montserrat. The company also reported a solid balance sheet with the decent leverage position which is within the covenants.
HLS remains focused on managing debt levels for balancing gearing ratio with capital needs and dividends. The company has declared a fully franked interim dividend amounting to 2.6 cps. This reflects a payout ratio of 38% of underlying NPAT.
On the outlook front, the company is expecting underlying NPAT in the range of $96 million and $102 million for full year 2020.
InvoCare Limited Settled in green on Australian Stock Exchange
InvoCare Limited (ASX:IVC) has recently released its results for full year ended 31st December 2019 and reported strong bounce back in operational EBITDA with the growth of 21.4%.
It also reported net profit after tax of $63.8 million, up from $41.2 million in FY18, representing a growth of 54.6%. These results have proven the positive impact of its investment in the Protect & Grow strategy.
The Board of the company declared the fully franked final dividend amounting to 23.5 cents per share against 19.5 cents of 2018. This took the full year dividend to 41.0 cents per share. The company will be paying dividend on 17th April 2020 with a record date of 5th March 2020.
