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
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
