By David Winning


SYDNEY--Shares of Goodman rose 5% after the company upgraded its annual earnings guidance, which some analysts suggest is still conservative given the tailwinds for industrial property such as warehouses and data centers.

Goodman, which owns a property portfolio in countries spanning Australia to the U.S., said it now expects to grow operating earnings per security by 11% in the 12 months through June. That represents an improvement on a prior forecast for 9% growth.

"After 28% growth in 1H, this implies a 5% drop in 2H operating EPS, which looks very conservative to us given there were no performance fees included in 2H of FY 2023," Jarden analyst Lou Pirenc says in a note.

Jefferies also thinks Goodman is underplaying its earnings potential this year. It's tipping the company to achieve growth in operating EPS of between 12% and 13%.

In a note, Citi highlighted how data centers now account for 37% of Goodman's development work in progress, from some 25% in November when executives addressed shareholders at the company's annual meeting. Goodman on Thursday said it now has a global power bank of 4.0 gigawatts--a measure of data center capacity--compared to 3.7 GW in November.

"The earnings upgrade reinforces the growth story which investors will receive positively," says Citi, which believes the market's focus will be on continued growth from industrial portfolio and the scale of the opportunity in data centers.

Goodman's stock rose to A$27.94 in the first half hour of trading in Australia to reach its highest level in more than 15 years.


Write to David Winning at david.winning@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-14-24 1909ET