Uxin shares drop 45% as predicted by InvestingPro’s Fair Value model
Investing.com -- U.K. budget carrier easyJet reported stronger fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and beat annual profit expectations, but its shares still fell 2% in London trading.
Headline pretax profit (PBT) reached £773 million in the three months to Sept. 30, up from £724 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.2% to £3.65 billion, with passenger revenue increasing 4.4% to £2.16 billion.
Both figures were broadly in line with analyst expectations, with Visible Alpha consensus pointing to £763.6 million in pretax profit and £3.64 billion in revenue.
The airline’s load factor edged up to 92.4% from 92.2%.
For the full year, pretax profit improved to £658 million from £602 million, while total sales grew 9% to £10.1 billion, matching consensus estimates.
Headline operating profit for the year came in at £703 million, beating analysts’ projections of £669.37 million. Flight revenue per seat was steady at £83 and tracked consensus. Revenue from easyJet’s package holiday arm, easyJet holidays, was also roughly in line with expectations.
The company reported that full-year passenger revenue per available seat kilometre (PRASK) fell, while unit costs excluding fuel also declined. Revenue per seat (RASK) was slightly below Visible Alpha forecasts, but Morgan Stanley analysts noted that this was “more than offset with CASK ex-fuel momentum."
Looking ahead to fiscal 2025, easyJet expects revenue per available seat kilometre and cost per available seat kilometre (CASK) excluding fuel to fall by 3% and 1% year-on-year, respectively.
The group plans to expand capacity by around 7% in the coming year, while customer numbers in its holidays business are expected to rise about 15% from a base of 3.1 million. Forward bookings for the first quarter stand at 81%, two percentage points higher than last year.
The company’s package-holiday is now projected to generate £450 million in pretax profit by 2030, after already reaching its earlier medium-term goal of £250 million this year.
"We are well placed to seize the significant opportunities ahead, and we are confident in achieving our medium-term goal of delivering over 1 billion pounds in profit before tax," easyJet CEO Kenton Jarvis said in a statement.
Morgan Stanley analysts led by Axel Stasse said the company delivered a full-year “PBT beat driven by better-than-expected cost management and holidays performance,” adding that early booking trends for the coming year look supportive.
They also pointed to improving pricing conditions from the second quarter and ongoing efficiency programmes that should help the airline move toward its medium-term profit ambitions.
EasyJet’s board proposed a dividend of 13.2 pence per share, up from 12.1 pence a year earlier.