Macquarie Shares Fall Amid Potential Fiscal Year 2024 Weakness

   By Alice Uribe 
 

SYDNEY--Macquarie Group's shares fell Thursday morning after the company said that earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 were "substantially down" on the previous year, missing some analysts' estimates.

Shares in Australia's biggest investment bank and asset managers fell 4.3% to 175.07 Australian dollars (US$118.33) after earlier hitting a low of A$174.34. It is one of the poorest performers on the ASX 200 so far.

Macquarie said Thursday that trading conditions softened during the three months through June, and that the contribution of its operating group to net profit during that period was substantially lower than a year earlier.

The company also said that the contribution to net profit of its annuity-style businesses was substantially down on a year ago, as was the contribution of its markets-facing businesses.

Citi analysts said in a note that they had tipped first-quarter earnings at about A$1 billion, down around 25% on the prior year amid the cycling of strong gains, but that it "appears that earnings have printed below this estimate."

"It appears that management is anticipating further weakness through FY 2024," Citi said, adding that "likely negative earnings revisions will see the stock trade down today."

Macquarie shares are up 4.9% so far this year.

Write to Alice Uribe at alice.uribe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 26, 2023 21:05 ET (01:05 GMT)

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