Azzet reports on three stocks with price movements today.
Treasury Wine Estates defies sea of red ~
Shares in Treasury Wine Estates (ASX: TWE) successfully dodged the market's blanket selloff, with the Penfolds maker up 8% by 2:10 pm AEDT (3:10 am GMT).
There are no announcements to warrant the stock being the market’s best performer.
However, having concluded that the market may have overreacted to recent headwinds like the "morality crackdown" - impacting demand in China - analysts may see the 22% fall in the last month - 65.7% over the past 12 months - as signalling a timely re-entry back into the large-cap winemaker.
Recently disclosed headwinds, including tougher trading conditions in some of its core markets, such as China and the U.S., as highlighted within its 1H FY26 on 16 February, appear to be more than fully priced in.
Net sales revenue of $1.3 billion was down 16% year on year, while earnings before interest and tax declined by 39.6% from H1 FY25 to $236.4 million.
With the company posting a statutory net loss of $649.4 million, management suspended the Treasury Wine dividend.
Consensus analyst recommendation on CommSec is hold, with two strong buy recommendations, two moderate buy recommendations, and 11 hold recommendations.
However, what may have helped to convince some investors that the stock has been oversold was the decision early March by French billionaire Olivier Goudet to invest another $41.7 million in Treasury since mid-January.
Goudet now holds around 7.1% of the company's outstanding shares.
Treasury Wine Estates has a market cap of $2.8 billion.
The stock’s shares appear to be in a long-term bearish trend, confirmed by multiple indicators.
Lachlan Star wavers on completion of New Waverley acquisition
Despite announcing the completion of its acquisition of the New Waverley Gold Project in the Norseman region of Western Australia (WA), shares in Lachlan Star (ASX: LSA) were trading 6% lower at the open, before paring losses to trade flat, with traders choosing to take gains following yesterday’s 15% rise.
What drove yesterday’s gains in the gold and copper explorer were strong investor interest in the New Waverley Gold Project and a broader rally in the gold sector.
What heightened investors’ confidence in Lachlan earlier this month were revelations that there were visible gold and high-grade results in rock chip sampling at the New Waverley gold project.
Samples included 56g/t, 29.2g/t and 20.9g/t, which saw the stock’s share price hit a three-year high of $0.16.
Commenting on these recent results, Lachlan Star’s CEO Andrew Tyrrell told the market that the mineralisation occurs at a key structural intersection within a corridor currently defined over approximately 400 metres, with geological mapping indicating the system may extend for at least 800 metres along strike.
“With diamond drilling set to commence shortly, our focus is on systematically testing this corridor to confirm historical drill intersections, determine the continuity and orientation of the quartz reef structures and their potential to host repeat high-grade gold intersections along strike and at depth.”
Within today’s update, Tyrrell told the market that the acquisition of the prospective New Waverley Gold Project has now been completed.
Following the finalisation of the acquisition, the miner now holds a 90% interest in this highly prospective gold project.
The company has satisfied the agreed consideration of $150,000 cash and issued 12.5 million fully-paid ordinary shares to the vendor.
Fifty percent of these shares are subject to voluntary escrow for a period of 12 months.
“Recent mapping, rock chip sampling and field validation by the Lachlan Star team has refined the geological and structural model, reinforcing the potential for a Norseman-style high-grade quartz reef system at New Waverley,” he said.
“We are pleased to have completed this transaction, which aligns with the imminent commencement of drilling and follows the recently announced Board refresh. Lachlan Star is now well placed to advance its exploration strategy and progress its next phase of growth."
Meanwhile, the company is preparing to commence a maiden diamond drilling program at the site next week.
The program will target key structural positions and extensions to mapped gold-rich quartz veins at Trial Pit, as well as open high-grade intercepts identified in historical drilling beneath Waverley Pit, according to the ASX announcement.
The stock is in a strong bullish trend, confirmed by multiple indicators.
Specifically, a 5-day moving average of the stock price is above the 50-day moving average.
Consensus does not cover this stock.
Weebit Nano tanks on capital raise update
When Weebit Nano (ASX: WBT) resumed trading today, following yesterday’s trading halt, shares in the semiconductor company were trading 14.7% lower after completing a fully underwritten $80 million institutional placement.
With all sectors in the red this morning (ex-energy) – IT down 1.8% - today’s update clearly got caught up in the broader market sell-off.
Together with an additional $7 million placement to investors in Israel, the company is issuing a total of 21.5 million new shares, representing around 9.4% of its existing shares on issue.
The issue price represented a 10.8% discount to the last traded price of $4.54 before the trading halt, with the falling share price reflecting the lower entry price for institutional investors.
In addition to the placement, the company also announced plans for a share purchase plan (SPP) to raise up to $15 million from eligible retail investors.
Today’s capital raise, which brings total cash reserves to around $150 million, is being earmarked to accelerate the commercialisation of its ReRAM technology and support its growth in the AI memory sector.
Commenting on today’s capital raise, Weebit Nano's CEO, Coby Hanoch, told the market that this strategic capital raise helps to ensure the company’s ReRAM is the clear leader at a time when the industry is moving to adopt ReRAM in next-generation technologies.
“As the market's only independent provider of qualified ReRAM, we have the first mover advantage. Still, scaling our R&D activity is essential to continuously improving the technology and solidifying our leadership position for many years to come,” he said.
Hanoch believes the company’s recent licensing agreement with leading semiconductor vendor Texas Instruments, following the deals with onsemi and DB HiTek, has reinforced the market perception that ReRAM is the successor to embedded flash.
“… we are continuing to progress technical evaluations and commercial negotiations with many of the world's leading foundries, IDMs and product companies,” Hanoch told the market.
“We also see clear opportunities to expand our offering, addressing genuine memory needs for AI in-memory compute (IMC) applications as well as within the discrete memory chip domain, among others.”
Assuming shareholders believe management will use the capital wisely to create value (value accretion), the recovery in the stock’s share price could happen relatively quickly.
Broker price targets in Weebit are between $9.74 and $8.71.
The stock’s 200-day moving average is trending upwards and highlights long-term investor interest in the stock.
Consensus is Strong Buy.
This article does not constitute financial or product advice. You should consider independent advice before making financial decisions.
