The latest Market Talks covering Equities. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
2019 ET - Propel Funeral Partners keeps its bull at Bell Potter despite weaker-than-expected 1H revenue. The Australian funeral provider's average revenue per funeral was softer than analyst Chami Ratnapala had anticipated, but she retains a buy rating on factors including an ageing population. She sees the ageing of Australia's baby boomers as a sizeable volume catalyst from 2026 onwards. Ratnapala also flags the company's commentary regarding its M&A pipeline and views a trading update due in May as a potential share-price catalyst. Bell Potter cuts its target price 15% to A$15.00. Shares are down 0.6% at A$4.115. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1949 ET - REA Group's higher-than-forecast price increases are seen by its bull at Citi as reducing downside risk from any listings softness from rate hikes and broader macroeconomic weakness. Analyst Siraj Ahmed tells clients in a note that the Australian real-estate advertiser's proposed 8%-10% price rises compare with his prior expectation of a 7% increase. The move should also ease investor concerns that the News Corp-controlled company's pricing power could be hit by a resurgence at CoStar-owned rival Domain. Citi has a buy rating and A$199.00 target price on the stock, which is up 0.8% at A$159.88. News Corp is the parent company of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1932 ET - Premier Investments' 1H earnings look decent to RBC analyst Michael Toner given soft retail conditions. Toner tells clients in a note that the Australian retail conglomerate's earnings were in line with his forecast once significant items were stripped out. Gross margins missed his forecast by 40 bps, he adds. Positively, he thinks that full-year earnings guidance implies an improvement in trading momentum. He forecasts 7.0% 2H sales growth for Premier's Peter Alexander sleepwear brand. RBC has a last-published neutral rating and A$12.52 target price on the stock, which is up 7.3% at A$13.43. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1923 ET - Premier Investments' appointment of a permanent boss for its laboring stationery business is encouraging, Citi analyst Adrian Lemme says. He tells clients in a note that focus at the Smiggle chain had drifted toward customers even younger than its core 6-12 year-old audience, and welcomes the appointment of Georgia Chewing to lead a reset. He observes that weakness in Smiggle's first-half sales was driven by an 8.7% reduction in store numbers ahead of its inventory reset through the second half. Lemme tells clients that he currently forecasts a 4% drop in second-half Smiggle sales. Citi has a "neutral" rating and A$16.70 target price on the stock, which is up 7.4%, at A$13.45. (stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1823 ET - FedEx is expecting the net fuel impact from the conflict in Iran to be "relatively muted" in its main Express business during the current fourth quarter, Chief Executive Raj Subramaniam tells analysts. FedEx considers fuel costs in its pricing strategy. "We update our fuel surcharges weekly based on the current fuel price," he says. Fuel surcharges are indexed to the fuel prices published by the Energy Department, which allows FedEx to protect profitability during periods of volatility, he adds. The shipping company also reduced jet and vehicle fuel usage internationally in the third quarter to address global trade policy changes, Subramaniam says. Shares gain 8.7% rising to $387.10 after hours. (katherine.hamilton@wsj.com)
1811 ET - Australian stocks look set to extend their losses in early trade and stay on course for a third straight weekly decline. Local stock futures are down by 0.1% ahead of Friday's session, suggesting that the S&P/ASX 200 will follow U.S. equities lower amid continued worries about the impact of the Iran conflict on the global economy. The Australian benchmark index is coming off a 1.7% drop and is 1.4% lower so far this week. It has dropped 7.6% in March. Ahead of the open, retailer Premier Investments restored its interim dividend and flagged turnaround plans for its Smiggle stationery business. In the U.S., the DJIA slipped 0.4%, the S&P 500 fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.3%.(stuart.condie@wsj.com)
1809 ET - Australian transport stocks are likely to trade on a near-term discount because of concerns around diesel availability, Ord Minnett says. It notes some 2.7 billion liters of diesel are consumed in the country each month. "An arbitrary 1% increase in the market risk premium due to fuel supply issues would (all else equal) reduce discounted cash flow valuations by 11.2% for Qube, 11.4% for Freightways, 15.2% for Mainfreight and 15.2% for Lindsay Australia," analyst Ian Munro says. Australia's supply of diesel is heavily concentrated in Asia. South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei account for nearly 80% of imported diesel. "We note that these countries are heavy refining countries, with a heavy exposure to the Middle East for their crude supplies," Ord Minnett says. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1806 ET - Sigma Healthcare's share price recently dropped to a more than one-year low, leading Jefferies to turn bullish on the pharmacy owner's stock. Analyst David Stanton says Sigma is a high-quality retail franchise. "We expect growth to continue, notwithstanding moderating impact from GLP-1 sales in 2H FY26," Jefferies says. It expects Sigma's profit margins to expand more. That's due to increased volumes off a fixed-cost base and ongoing growth in higher-margin generic drugs. Jefferies also expects Sigma to make improvements in its wholesaling business. It upgrades Sigma to buy, from hold. Sigma ended Thursday at A$2.66, below Jefferies's A$3.05/share price target. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1802 ET - Higher fuel prices and scarcity due to the conflict in Iran could affect the 2H26 production and FY27 guidance targets of Australia's gold miners, says Ord Minnett. Feedback so far is that it's had little impact. Ord Minnett notes that miners typically have at least six weeks of fuel supply socked away as a contingency. Analyst Paul Kaner says diesel accounted for 2-15% of gold miners' costs before the conflict began. So, Ord Minnett "is not anticipating material changes to outlooks but flag it as a key inflationary risk/productivity risk should the Strait of Hormuz remain shut for an extended period." Ord Minnett says some miners are more protected from rising fuel costs, such as Evolution Mining, than others. It puts St Barbara in the latter camp. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1759 ET - Canaccord Genuity lowers its target on Boss Energy after the uranium miner's mineral resource update, showing more resources but lower grades at the Gould's Dam and Jason's deposits. "Clearly these satellite deposits, like East Kalkaroo, lack continuous high-grade mineralization," the broker says. It cuts its target to A$2.55 from A$2.80. The broker keeps a speculative buy rating. Boss Energy ended Thursday down 6.8% at A$1.52. (rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com; @RhiannonHoyle)
1756 ET - Modern warfare's shift toward drones leads Jefferies to start coverage of DroneShield. The company makes Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems, or C-UAS, which are popular with militaries seeking to bolster their defenses. Analyst William Richardson points out that NATO has committed to 1.5% of GDP by 2035 to protect infrastructure, networks and other items which would include C-UAS. He sees little risk of prime defense contractors, such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, competing in counter-drone technology. Still, Jefferies says it's unsure about the long-term effectiveness of DroneShield's radio frequency tech in the context of rapidly evolving UAS technology. Jefferies starts coverage of DroneShield with a hold call and A$3.70/share price target. DroneShield ended Thursday at A$4.21. (david.winning@wsj.com; @dwinningWSJ)
1754 ET - FiscalNote Holdings is the most recent company to reference artificial intelligence as it announces widespread layoffs. The company says that it will cut 25% of its workforce as it leverages AI automation and offshoring to cut costs. Earlier this month, Atlassian said it would cut 10% of its staff, citing the need to adapt to AI. And Block said in February that it would slash nearly half of its workforce as it moves to automate more labor with AI. The string of announcements comes amid growing concerns about the role of human workers in an economy increasingly run on AI tools and agents. (elias.schisgall@wsj.com)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2026 20:19 ET (00:19 GMT)
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