Ouch! The Punter was perhaps a little too quick to buy the Costa Group (ASX code CGC) in June, after the sharp fall in the price of this global fruit grower.
The shares have continued to slide, and the release of its half year results to the end of June last week saw CGC drop a further 15 per cent.
The results, however, were mixed rather than poor, and the Punter is happy to hold on to his holding.
Costa is diversified, with improvements in some areas offsetting disappointment in others. Mushroom prices haven't recovered and delays in the commission of the big Monarto facility haven't helped. Raspberry crumble is still a disease, not a dessert, so far as Costa is concerned. Avocados were a bit small, China is tracking nicely, table grapes and logistics are doing well, and tomato earnings have improved.
Net profit after tax is pretty steady for the six months, at $43.8 million up from $40.7m in the first half of the last financial year. The interim dividend, payable in October, will be 3.5 cents a share.
Cash flow, excluding investment, slumped from $80m to $22m, but it was still positive and the company expects that to improve in the second half, as delayed harvests means payments for some sales will only be received in the second half.
Meanwhile the former Queensland Bauxite, now known as Cann Global Ltd (CGB), was readmitted to the stock market on Friday, and saw its shares drop 20pc. The Punter suspects that investors may be losing their initial enthusiasm for hemp and its trendy products.
Enthusiasm for the emerging producer of high quality raw material for ceramics, however, is continuing unabated, with shares in Andromeda Metals (ADN) still climbing. The Punter sold another 25,000 shares at 6.4c, which is 6.4 times what he paid for them less than two years ago. He still holds 50,000 ADN.
- The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies featured in this column.
