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The reporting season continues, with several companies in the financial and retail sectors informing investors of their fiscal year results, and the market responding accordingly.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (ASX:BEN) has seen its share price drop nearly 2% as it reported that cash earnings in the 2024 fiscal year had come in at $562 million – a fall of 2.6% from the figure of $576.9 the previous year.
Net profit had risen however, in FY24 to $545 million: a rise of 9.7% from $497 million in FY23.
The bank’s dividend was 63 cents – 2 cents higher from the previous year.
CEO Marnie Baker said she had been pleased with the year’s performance by BEN, which had registered a 3.4% rise in customer deposits, an increase of 2.6% in total lending for the 2024 fiscal year, with growth in residential lending volumes (up 6.4%) and agribusiness lending growing by 7.4%, with a focus particularly on Western Australia and Queensland.
At 12:15 AEST, BEN shares were $12.18: a fall of 1.81% since the market opened.
At the same time, shares in Tyro Payments Ltd (ASX:TYR) were $1.12: a rise of 14.29% since the market opened, as the payment solutions company told investors it had had a good year, with NPAT growing fourfold to $25.7 million, up from $6 million in FY23, while its earnings figure (EBITDA) had increased 31.6% year-on-year to $55.7 million, with an EBITDA margin of 26.4%.
Gross profit was up 9.1% year-on-year to $210.8 million.
Tyro said its stronger profit performance was underpinned by a successful pricing transformation, with a rise of 21% in the volume of Health transactions, while integrated banking had also come out strongly, with a 27% increase in banking users as well as a 29.4% rise in banking gross profit.
Looking ahead, the company said it anticipated growth to continue despite the economic headwinds facing merchant customers, and suggested that gross profit for FY25 could be between $218 million and $226 million.
NIB Holdings Ltd (ASX:NHF) also had a bad day on markets, with shares being 15.34% down (at $6.16) since the market opened, despite reporting net profit of a whopping 67.4% in FY24 (for $181.6 million), while telling investors that group revenue was also higher, sitting at $3.3 billion in the 2024 fiscal year: a rise of 9.3% from FY23.
The company said its flagship Australian Residents Health Insurance business was a strong performer for the year, achieving its highest sales ever in FY24, attracting higher value, combined hospital and extras policies.
Despite an increase in cost-of-living pressures, policyholder growth had come in 2.5% – outperforming anticipated industry growth of 1.9%.
NIB’s full year dividend (fully franked) was 29 cents per share, compared to 28 cps in FY23.
Online beauty retailer Adore Beauty Group Ltd (ASX:ABY) was another company with a positive narrative for the market. Adore – which last month acquired Australian beauty brand iKOU, as well as appointing a new CEO – told investors that its NPAT for FY24 was $2,175,000, a turnaround from its net loss of $559,000 in FY23.
This sent the company’s shares up 4.99% at 12:28 AEST, to $1.16.
Earnings (EBITDA) had been in-line with guidance, at $4.8 million: this was 661% higher than in FY23, with a margin of 2.5%.
Adore was also pleased to announce its ability to build a strong customer base, with the sales for the fiscal year including a record 519,000 returning customers, up 5.8% on FY23, and accounting for 79% of product sales.
