ASX Large Caps: Big day for Tech as Altium, Megaport jump double digits; Coles’ profit disappoints

• Local shares were up modestly on Tuesday
• A hectic day in earnings again, with tech stock Altium leading the way
• Data#3 was the worst-performing large cap

The ASX 200 traded flattish by +0.04% on Tuesday after another hectic day of earnings reports. Tech stocks led the way following the 1.5% surge on the Nasdaq overnight.

Huge results by techies Megaport (ASX:MP1) and Altium (ASX:ALU) were the highlights (more details below), as their shares jumped by 16% and 27% respectively.

Other tech stocks, including NextDC (ASX:NXT) and Xero (ASX:XRO) also climbed ahead of their earnings release.

Consumer Staples meanwhile was the worst-performing sector following soft results by Coles – more details also below.

According to Commsec, the most actively traded large cap today was Telstra, with a trading volume on the platform of more than 16 million as the stock price rose 3%.

Elsewhere, Asian stock markets were mainly up today following Nasdaq’s rally. The Nikkei rose almost 1%, while Hang Seng has snapped a seven-day losing streak.

BIG CAP WINNERS

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Software maker Altium (ASX:ALU) surged 27% after full year revenue increased by 19.2% to US$263.3 million, and EBITDA grew by 20.3% to US$96.0 million.

For FY24, Altium predicts revenue to come in between US$315 million to US$325 million, a 20%-23% growth from this year.

Megaport (ASX:MP1) surged 17% after guiding the market to a FY24 revenue range of $190m to $195m, an increase of 24% to 27% on FY23 revenue of $153.1m.

Megaport also confirmed that it expects to be net cash flow positive for the full year FY24. The company reported a gross profit for FY23 of $103.9m, up 52% on the pcp.

Hub24 (ASX:HUB) jumped 14% after its full year profit surged by 160% to $38m. The company also announced a share buyback worth up to $50 million over the next 12 months.

Lithium miner Allkem (ASX:AKE) rose 2% after posting full year record profit of US524.6 million, from $US334.7 million a year earlier.

BIG CAP LOSERS

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Data#3 (ASX:DTL) fell -18% despite reporting a 16.9% increase in revenue to $2.5 billion for the full year, and a 22.4% growth in NPAT to $37 million.

Coles (ASX:COL) fell after announcing a $1.042 billion NPAT for FY23, down -0.3% on pcp. This was off the back of $40.5bn revenue, which grew by 5.9% year on year. Coles declared 66cps fully franked dividends.

BHP (ASX:BHP) fell after reporting dividends and profit that came in weaker than expected. BHP’s underlying profit fell by 37% year-over-year to $13.42 billion, which has seen its final dividend trimmed by 54% to $0.80 a share.

“This result will disappoint investors, and with the near-term outlook not looking bright in China, the expectation is that demand will fall further,” said Josh Gilbert, market analyst at eToro.

Woodside Energy (ASX:WDS) reported a record H1 net profit after tax of US$1.74 billion. Production for the first half was a record at 91.3 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Motor vehicles accessories company ARB Corp (ASX:ARB) fell after reporting a -3.4% drop in sales revenue and 27.5% decline in profit after tax to $88.5m.