Final call: ASMI and Tesla rule, but the AEX lets the profits slip

If the trading day had lasted half an hour shorter, the AEX would have just kept its feet dry, but the steady decline this afternoon ultimately ended shortly after half past five with a negative score of -0.09% at a level of 874.02.

The European stock markets thus followed the example of Wall Street, which fell sharply after the opening, partly due to rising interest rates.

Thanks Wennink

With a minimal gain of 0.06%, ASML performed slightly better than the index today, but shareholders were more impressed today by Peter Wennink’s last performance as CEO at the shareholders’ meeting. The company was already technologically advanced when Wennink took over, but he leaves ASML as an absolute world superpower and key player in a sector that is perhaps the most important in the world from a geopolitical perspective.

And well, not every CEO is given the opportunity to wave goodbye to such a track record.

King ASMI

The almost namesake and co-parent (together with Philips) of ASML, ASM International, ASMI for short, was king of the Damrak today, after it published a nice quarterly report and ditto outlook after trading yesterday. The stock closed 11% higher at exactly €590.

ASMI expects a turnover increase of 10% or more for the second quarter compared to the first half of the year. That’s better than expected.

Analyst Hildo Laman is impressed:

It all looks very good for ASMI. A growing WFE (Wafer Fab Equipment) market, in which it is gaining market share because it has the right technology for the developments. This means it can grow even faster than that market. The balance sheet is, as always, excellent and the number of shares outstanding is gradually decreasing through the purchase of own shares.

You can read what this means for the ASMI price target and advice here:

KPN and Wereldhave

That was not all that the Damrak had to offer, because there were also figures and updates from Heineken, Vopak, KPN, Wereldhave and Allfunds.

KPN is usually predictability itself and today’s nice outlook increase was, eh, telephoned. So not a wild price jump, but a neat +0.7%, as befits KPN, we would almost say. Analyst Martin Crum calculated it all again and you can read his assessment here.

Although the share has not yet done much this year, Wereldhave’s figures showed that the real estate fund had an excellent first quarter operationally. Wereldhave wants to use the proceeds from French shopping centers for debt reduction and says it is also considering purchasing its own shares. Another strategic priority is to rotate capital out of the Netherlands due to the impending abolition of the FBI regime. Consideration is being given to setting up joint ventures and divestments to reduce the Dutch tax burden.

The share fell 1.2% today, but this was not out of step with the broad sentiment around real estate shares. You can read what analyst Peter Schutte thinks about it here.

Allfunds loses speculative air

Then we should take a moment to look at the Spanish mid-cap company Allfunds, which came up with excellent figures, but still received -11% today. And now the fintech company is, in the words of analyst Martin Crum, “finally showing a glimpse of the growth potential that this financial has.”

Unfortunately, that was not what the company was judged on today. Several takeover rumors have circulated in recent months, which has created a lot of imagination in the share. Until Bloomberg reported this morning that Allfunds is refraining from further discussions with buyers. That air came out smoothly today. A great opportunity to assess the share on its own merits:

Musk to the rescue

The hit of the day on Wall Street is called Tesla, which yesterday reported mediocre figures after hours, but after a roaring analyst call with Elon Musk trading almost 11% higher today.

In the first quarter, Tesla’s turnover fell by 9%, margins are falling and the entire electric car market is in the doldrums. Then only one thing helps and that is a passionate speech about a bright future by the CEO. And so it happened.

The launch of a robotaxi platform in August had already been announced by Musk, but yesterday he also announced that the new models that the market is eagerly looking forward to will come onto the market earlier than expected (end of 2024). Moreover, Musk says, people are too skeptical about self-driving cars. They will come, and Tesla will make them.

“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company”

That you know. Do Analysts Think You Should Invest in Tesla? Here are some changes in advice after last night’s call.

Our own analyst Ivo Breukink notes that things are not going well at Tesla at the moment, but also sees reasons to be optimistic. And those reasons don’t just have to do with cars.

The broad market

• Red figures throughout Europe, except for Stockholm
• The AEX reinvestment index (AEX TR) ended in a positive position, thanks to the ING dividend
• Wall Street is lower: S&P 500 -0.3%, Nasdaq -0.1%
• The 10-year interest rate in the US is rising slightly, as is the German one
• EURUSD is back in the $1.06-$1.07 zone after a small bounce
• The oil price (Brent) is falling slightly
• Gold and bitcoin hardly move

Risers & fallers

• The top 3 and flop 3 of the Damrak

• ASMI leads the AEX sovereign after good figures and prospects
• Yet the little Vivoryon is a lot better in percentage terms, now that it has finally put an end to the ongoing Alzheimer’s research
• Besi (+4.1%) will release figures tomorrow and investors are apparently hoping for an ASMI effect
• Is the opposite happening at Flow Traders?
• Randstad (+3.3%) is recovering after yesterday’s poorly received figures
• Heineken (+2.0%) is satisfied with Q1 and receives a higher price target from Degroof Petercam
• ING is ex-dividend, which already explains 4.8% of the 6% price drop today
• Really decent figures at Allfunds (-11%), but the disappearance of the takeover fantasy weighs more heavily on investors
• Vopak (-0.8%) raises the outlook, but Damrak shrugs its shoulders
• Smallcap NX Filtration (+3.8%) has news from Sumatra and that is good
• Local fund Ctac warns of lower turnover and goes -15%

agenda

Tonight it is IBM and Meta’s turn, but tomorrow morning it will only really rain quarterly figures. Find your own favorites in the long list. Shareholders’ meetings are held by Besi, Fugro, Akzo Nobel, Heineken, Hydratec, OCI (Bava) and Vastned

• 22:00 IBM – First quarter figures (US)
• 22:00 Meta – First quarter figures (US)
• 07:00 Adyen – First quarter figures
• 07:00 Besi – Figures first quarter and annual meeting
• 07:00 Flow Traders – First quarter figures
• 07:00 Fugro – Figures first quarter and annual meeting
• 07:00 Airbus – First quarter figures (Fra)
• 07:00 BASF – First quarter figures (Dld)
• 07:00 Deutsche Bank – First quarter figures (Dld)
• 07:00 Delivery Hero – First quarter figures (Dld)
• 07:00 HelloFresh – First quarter figures (Dld)
• 07:00 Nestle – First quarter figures (Zwi)
• 07:00 Sanofi – First quarter figures (Fra)
• 08:00 RELX – First quarter figures
• 08:00 Unilever – First quarter figures
• 08:00 Barclays – First quarter figures (UK)
• 08:00 Consumer confidence – May (Germany)
• 13:00 American Airlines – First quarter figures (US)
• 1:00 PM Caterpillar – First Quarter Figures (US)
• 13:00 Comcast – First quarter figures (US)
• 1:00 PM Harley-Davidson – First Quarter Figures (US)
• 13:00 Merck – First quarter figures (US)
• 2:30 PM Aid Applications – Weekly (US)
• 14:30 Economic growth – First quarter vlpg (US)
• 4:00 PM Upcoming Home Sales – March (US)
• 22:00 Alphabet – First quarter figures (US)
• 22:00 Intel – First quarter figures (US)
• 22:00 Microsoft – Third quarter figures (US)
• 10:00 PM Snap – First Quarter Numbers (US)

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