Last week a number of Australia's most popular companies released their respective results. Here's a summary of four of the biggest results from last week:
Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)
On Wednesday CBA released its full year results and revealed an 8.1% decline in statutory net profit after tax to $8,571 million and a 4.7% drop in cash net profit after tax to $8,492 million. This was a touch lower than the market's expectations and led to its shares dropping lower. The banking giant also announced that it has signed an agreement with Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) rival Klarna. The bank has committed an investment of US$100 million into Klarna and will become its exclusive partner in Australia and New Zealand.
REA Group Limited (ASX: REA)
This property listings company released its full year results on Friday and revealed an 8% increase in revenue to $874.95 million and a 6% lift in net profit from core operations to $295.5 million. The main driver of this growth was its Australian business. Australian operating income increased by 8% to $826.3 million thanks to the resilient performance of its residential property and online advertising business. The company didn't provide any real guidance for FY 2020, but advised that it expected its key Australian business to benefit from price increases. It also aims to grow revenue quicker than costs.
Suncorp Group Ltd (ASX: SUN)
This insurance and banking giant's full year results surprised to the upside last week. Suncorp posted a 1.5% increase in cash profit to $1,115 million, marginally ahead of consensus forecasts. In addition to this, the company declared a 39 cents per share special dividend. It also revealed that it was scrapping its much-maligned Marketplace strategy, much to the delight of analysts and shareholders.
Transurban Group (ASX: TCL)
In FY 2019 Transurban posted a 26.3% increase in revenue from ordinary activities to $4,166 million and a 10.3% lift in toll revenue to $2,581 million. Average daily traffic grew by 2% over the 12 months. This led to proportional EBITDA excluding significant items increasing 12.3% to $2,016 million. In light of this positive performance and management's confidence in its outlook, it intends to increase its distribution by 5.1% in FY 2020 to 62 cents per security. Finally, as well as its results, Transurban announced a $700 million equity raising to fund the purchase of the remaining 34.62% minority interests in M5 West for $468 million.
