Earnings season went up a gear last week with a large number of popular ASX 200 shares releasing their latest results.
Among the best results last week were arguably the three listed below. Here's what these ASX 200 shares reported:
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Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA)
Australia's largest bank surprised the market by delivering a half year result that was well-ahead of expectations. For the six months ended 31 December, Commonwealth Bank reported a 23% increase in cash earnings to $4,746 million.
This compares to Goldman Sachs' cash earnings estimate of $4,295 million, Morgans' estimate of $4,320 million, and the market consensus estimate of $4,500 million.
In addition, CBA declared a $1.75 per share fully franked interim dividend and announced a $2 billion on-market share buyback. The latter is on top of the $6 billion off-market buyback that completed in October.
Macquarie Group Ltd (ASX: MQG)
Another impressive result came out of investment bank Macquarie. It released its third quarter operational update and revealed that it had a record quarter thanks to its market-facing businesses, Commodities and Global Markets (CGM) and Macquarie Capital (MacCap).
Management revealed that these businesses' combined profit contribution was up "substantially" on the prior corresponding period. This is also the case on a financial year to date basis, which bodes well for its full year results.
The CGM business delivered strong results across its commodities platform, but particularly in global Gas & Power and Resources. This was driven by increased client hedging and trading opportunities from unusually challenging market conditions. Whereas the MacCap business completed 126 transactions valued at $105 billion globally during the quarter.
Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)
Another ASX 200 share that impressed investors was Megaport. While the network as a service provider had pre-released a good portion of its half year figures in January, there were still enough pleasant surprises to get investors excited.
Megaport reported a 42% increase in revenue over the previous corresponding period to $51.2 million. And while it posted a net loss of $20.2 million, this was an improvement from $38.4 million a year earlier. This was thanks to a notably higher than expected gross margin and left Megaport with a healthy cash balance of $104.6 million.
Goldman Sachs reacted very positively to the update, reiterating its buy rating with a $19.90 price target. It commented: "We believe incremental commentary today was broadly positive and supportive of our 2H22 revenue acceleration (+42%/+48% in 1H/2H), driven by MVE and Partner channel traction."
