Christmas has come early for the bank’s shareholders with the decision to slightly increase the 2024 dividend – despite a single-digit decline in the net profit and cash earnings.
Beating the market benchmark is never easy, with 72 per cent of Australian actively managed global equity general funds trailing the S&P World Index in the six months to June 30, 2024. Domestic equity funds performed slightly better, albeit against a significantly lower bar set by the S&P/ASX 200 Index.
Premier Investments (ASX: PMV) continues to deliver
The Premier Investments Limited (ASX: PMV) share price has jumped 17% after giving a HY21 update.
Premier Investments is a retail business that’s behind several retail brands including Smiggle, Peter Alexander, Just Jeans, and Jay Jays. It also owns a large chunk of Breville Group Ltd (ASX: BRG) shares.
HY21 update
Premier gave an update about the first 24 weeks of the FY21 first half, ending 9 January 2021. The full FY21 first half result will consist of 27 weeks ending 30 January 2021.
The company is expecting Premier Retail EBIT (EBIT explained) for the 27-week period (before lease accounting changes AASB 16) to be in the range of $221 million to $233 million, up between 75% and 85% compared to the first half of FY20.
Online sales growth
Online sales have continued to boom. For the first 24 weeks of FY21, online sales were $146.2 million, which was an increase of 60% on the same period. Online sales contributed 20.4% of total group sales, up from 13.4% in the prior corresponding period.
Premier said that its online retail sales deliver a significantly higher EBIT margin compared to the retail store network.
Other elements of the update
The company said that its total Premier Retail global sales for the 24 weeks to 9 January 2021 was $716.9 million, an increase of 5% compared to the same period last year. Premier Retail’s total global like for like sales to 9 January went up 18% with Australian like for like sales up with even stronger growth of 26.2%.
Premier said that there had been good gross margin growth and sales growth for Peter Alexander, Just Jeans and Jay Jays in both Australia and New Zealand.
The retail business also said there had been strong cost controls, including reaching agreements with key landlords on COVID-19 rent abatements.
The company said that it continues to maintain a strong balance sheet.
Summary thoughts
Premier Investments has been doing really well over the last year. It has proven it’s one of the best retail businesses on the ASX.
Can this growth continue? Well, total revenue only grew by 5% so it’s not like the overall business sales are booming. It’s the online sales, with a much higher EBIT margin, which is helping right now. I think the trend of online sales isn’t going to reverse, so Premier Investments has a promising medium term future. If the northern hemisphere can get in control of the COVID-19 pandemic then that would help things too.
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