A2 Milk (ASX:A2M) fell in February
Got Milk: A2 Milk fell in February, but here are 2 dairy stocks heading the other way
Food & Agriculture
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February was a tough month for dairy stocks but industry giant A2 Milk (ASX:A2M) saw the biggest fall.
The stock is still a multibagger since listing at $1 per share in early 2015 but had been struggling with a slowdown in the daigou trade.
While A2 Milk saw revenue growth in some areas, such as liquid milk in Australia and China infant formula, its revenues experienced a fall of 16 per cent and earnings dropped 32 per cent.
The company has announced plans to reactivate the channel but expects to see pressured demand for some months.
Few other stocks did better; even Nuchev (ASX:NUC), which was the top performing dairy stock in January, shed nearly 20 per cent during the month.
Here’s a list of all ASX dairy stocks and their performance in February…
| Code | Company | Price | %Mth | %Yr | MktCap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JAT | Jatcorp Limited | 0.025 | 9 | -49 | $32.1M |
| MBH | Maggie Beer Holdings | 0.415 | 4 | 186 | $88.2M |
| WHA | Wattle Health Au Ltd | 0.53 | 0 | 0 | $122.2M |
| BUB | Bubs Aust Ltd | 0.56 | 0 | -21 | $343.2M |
| KTD | Keytone Dairy | 0.22 | -4 | -33 | $57.7M |
| AHF | Aust Dairy Group | 0.057 | -5 | -36 | $28.8M |
| BFC | Beston Global Ltd | 0.066 | -6 | -13 | $55.6M |
| BXN | Bioxyne Ltd | 0.013 | -7 | 8 | $8.3M |
| HRL | Hrlholding | 0.125 | -7 | -17 | $64.2M |
| A2M | The A2 Milk Company | 8.97 | -12 | -40 | $6.7B |
| CLV | Clover Corporation | 1.28 | -12 | -51 | $210.4M |
| HVM | Happy Valley | 0.17 | -13 | -3 | $25.7M |
| SM1 | Synlait Milk Ltd | 3.66 | -16 | -38 | $830.6M |
| NUC | Nuchev Limited | 1.07 | -18 | -65 | $45.2M |
| AUK | Aumake Limited | 0.048 | -21 | -33 | $23.5M |
Here are two dairy stocks that didn’t fall like A2 Milk
But there were two stocks that avoided a fall.
One of these was microcap JatCorp (ASX:JAT), despite also reporting a similar fall in demand from the daigou channel.
However it did report a gross profit of $5.45 million for the half year and expects vaccinations and border reopenings to help demand return.
Another challenge it reported was trade tensions, to which it has responded to by moving part of its operations into China and appointed new contract manufacturing in New Zealand – among other measures.
The other was Maggie Beer Holdings (ASX:MBH) which is a diversified food group. Among other things, it makes and sells the St David Dairy products.
Maggie Beer had already told shareholders in January it expected record sales based on unaudited results and the audited results followed through.
It saw $4.6 million in net sales – up 20 per cent from H1 FY20 – and $2.2 million in positive earnings. Ecommerce net sales rose by 167 per cent and now represent 8 per cent of net sales.
The St David Dairy business was actually the least performing of its three segments while still recording 5.5 per cent sales growth. It noted COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne were restricting growth but planned to launch new products in the months ahead.
