Australia's CBA beats annual profit forecast, extends shares rally
Cash net profit beats estimates
Highest-ever dividend of A$2.50/share
Net interest margin down 8 basis points but tops consensus
Shares up more than 1.2%
Recasts and writes through
By Byron Kaye and Sameer Manekar
SYDNEY, Aug 14 (Reuters) -Commonwealth Bank of Australia CBA.AX, the country's biggest lender, said on Wednesday full-year profit fell less than analysts feared due to lower provisions for bad debts, and upped its final dividend, sending its shares higher.
The closely watched result entrenches CBA's new status as Australia's biggest listed company after a one-third share price rally since late last year added pressure to show it could prevail in a faltering economy.
Banks historically benefit from rising interest rates but have struggled to grow profit recently because of stubbornly high expenses and a price war sparked by home loan borrowers looking for a better deal. CBA is most exposed with a quarter of the country's A$2.2 trillion ($1.46 trillion) mortgage market.
"Households continue to respond to the higher prices, and I find it even harder than six months ago," CEO Matt Comyn said of inflation in the broader economy on an analyst call. "More spend is directed towards essentials and discretionary spend is being cut back."
Profit for the Sydney-headquartered company fell 2% to A$9.84 billion in the year to end-June, beating an LSEG estimate of A$9.68 billion, as loan impairment charges narrowed by 28% to A$802 million due to "robust" loan origination processes, the bank said.
CBA raised its dividend to A$2.50 per share, from A$2.40 a year earlier, taking the year's payout to a record A$4.65.
Shares of CBA were more than 1.2% higher by late afternoon, outpacing a broader index .AXJO gain of 0.4% as analysts prepared to upgrade forecasts for the A$224 billion market capitalisation lender that recently overtook miner BHP BHP.AX to be the country's biggest company.
"We see potential for FY25F and FY26F consensus cash earnings to be upgraded," said Azib Khan, executive director at E&P Financial.
Net interest margin, a key metric of bank performance that compares interest received from loans with interest paid out to deposit-holders, rose from the first half to the second half, a sign that a protracted margin deterioration was being reversed, Khan added.
Citi analysts said previous profit forecasts for the bank might be "too pessimistic".
As Australia's banks resorted to offering cash handouts to sign mortgage borrowers refinancing from other lenders, CBA was first to say it was quitting the practice in 2023 in order to preserve margins. After a dip in market share, the bank said on Wednesday that it maintained share from December to June.
Though bad debt provisions fell, the bank said home loan payments more than 90 days late were at 0.65% of its total mortgages at the end of June, an increase of 13 basis points from December.
($1 = 1.5097 Australian dollars)
Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Jamie Freed
Actifs liés
Dernières actualités
Avertissement : Les entités de XM Group proposent à notre plateforme de trading en ligne un service d'exécution uniquement, autorisant une personne à consulter et/ou à utiliser le contenu disponible sur ou via le site internet, qui n'a pas pour but de modifier ou d'élargir cette situation. De tels accès et utilisation sont toujours soumis aux : (i) Conditions générales ; (ii) Avertissements sur les risques et (iii) Avertissement complet. Un tel contenu n'est par conséquent fourni que pour information générale. En particulier, sachez que les contenus de notre plateforme de trading en ligne ne sont ni une sollicitation ni une offre de participation à toute transaction sur les marchés financiers. Le trading sur les marchés financiers implique un niveau significatif de risques pour votre capital.
Tout le matériel publié dans notre Centre de trading en ligne est destiné à des fins de formation / d'information uniquement et ne contient pas – et ne doit pas être considéré comme contenant – des conseils et recommandations en matière de finance, de fiscalité des investissements ou de trading, ou un enregistrement de nos prix de trading ou une offre, une sollicitation, une transaction à propos de tout instrument financier ou bien des promotions financières non sollicitées à votre égard.
Tout contenu tiers, de même que le contenu préparé par XM, tels que les opinions, actualités, études, analyses, prix, autres informations ou liens vers des sites tiers contenus sur ce site internet sont fournis "tels quels", comme commentaires généraux sur le marché et ne constituent pas des conseils en investissement. Dans la mesure où tout contenu est considéré comme de la recherche en investissement, vous devez noter et accepter que le contenu n'a pas été conçu ni préparé conformément aux exigences légales visant à promouvoir l'indépendance de la recherche en investissement et, en tant que tel, il serait considéré comme une communication marketing selon les lois et réglementations applicables. Veuillez vous assurer que vous avez lu et compris notre Avis sur la recherche en investissement non indépendante et notre avertissement sur les risques concernant les informations susdites, qui peuvent consultés ici.
