Reporting season 2022: CBA growth continues, IDP sets records

Reporting season is underway with investors gaining a snapshot to how businesses are actually performing.

Today's business snapshot showed how businesses that performed strongly throughout the pandemic are continuing to win post it.

The announcement includes a Big Four bank, an ecommerce retailer and a software business.

Here's what you need to know:

Commonwealth Bank

Australia's largest bank has announced strong earnings amidst a recovering economy, its latest market report shows.

CBA told the market that its interim cash profit was up 23% to $4.7 billion, while revenue surpassed $12 billion.

The Big Four bank notes to investors that it will lift its interim dividend to $1.75 per share while also signalling that it thinks its share price is cheap, through the intention of buying back up to $2 billion its ordinary shares.

However, CBA is facing headwinds, stating its net interest margin (NIM) decreased 5 basis points due to increased switching to lower margin fixed home loans, the impact of rising swap rates and continued pressure from home loans.

Shares in Commonwealth Bank are up 5.03% to $99.04.

Temple & Webster

Online furniture and homewares company was a major winner during the first lockdown in 2020, as consumers were forced to shop online and had the additional income to do so.

Today's results help silence the critics, with the company remaining resilient despite losing the COVID-19 tailwind.

Temple & Webster delivered a record revenue of $235.4 million for the half-year to 31 December, which was up 46% compared with last year.

The company notes it outperformed its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), which was 5.1% compared with a target of 2–4%.

It also points to an increasing customer base, which grew 34% to 906,000, while revenue per active customer grew 10% for the sixth quarter of growth.

The company points to a brighter future, noting that the next generation of shoppers is likely to be online and that it is well placed to continue to take share in the market it is currently operating in.

Shares soared on today's result up 12.80% to $9.08.

Bapcor

Bapcor announced continuing revenue growth despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On its latest statement, revenue is up 1.9% to $900.1 million, but profits slid 14.7% to $57.7 million, although revenue has grown year on year.

Bapcor has announced it is increasing its full franked interim dividend of 10 cents per share, which is up 11.1% on this time last year.

Bapcor CEO Noel Meehan believes it was a "solid first half result despite the challenges of COVID-19 restrictions".

Pointing to the company's future he said: "During the half, we expanded our geographic footprint, opening 8 Retail stores, 4 Burson stores and 6 Specialist Wholesale sites resulting in Bapcor now having a presence in over 1,100 locations throughout Australia, New Zealand and Thailand."

On the opening, shares were slightly down at $6.93.

Megaport

Software and services company Megaport announced strong revenue growth through the acquisition of new customers.

Its latest ASX reports show both monthly recurring revenue and annualised revenue were up 23%, while the total number of new customers increased by 7% to 2,455.

It also points out that its total number of services increased by 12% while the total number of ports it works in is up 11% to 8,523.

However, Megaport did not make a profit with net losses for the first half of 2022 of $20,233,000.

Shares fell slightly to $13.11 following today's announcement.

IDP Education

Helping international students study in English-speaking countries, the global leader in international education services managed to shake off the pandemic and border closures to announce a record-breaking half-yearly result.

Highlighting strong growth in the Northern Hemisphere, IDP Education reported total revenue of $397 million. This is an increase of 47% compared with the same period in FY21.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) was $77.9 million, an increase of 61% compared with the same period last year. Excluding one-off expenses and amortisation charges for acquired intangibles, adjusted EBIT was $80.7 million, an increase of 64% versus H1 FY21.

IDP notes total student placement volumes were up 33% for the year, with a growing demand for Northern Hemisphere countries driving a 63% increase in multi-destination student placement volumes.

Although Australia remains subdued, IDP believes the strong rebound overseas could be seen in Australia when the country opens up.

Andrew Barkla, IDP chief executive officer and managing director, notes a strong business model and attractive policy landscape has a strong rebound in results.

Shares fell 1.53% to $31.16 during morning trading.