Aristocrat Leisure Fiscal H1 Net Profit Up 48%, Dividends Confirmed

Australia’s famed gambling machine manufacturer Aristocrat Leisure made their Interim Results Announcement and their results are looking “outstanding” as per their own words. The stellar half-year numbers and share prices of Aristocrat have jumped more than 6% at the time of writing.

Aristocrat Sees Strong Half-Year Results

As per Aristocrat’s 2022 Half-Year Media Release, the company is seeing a good early indicator of its performance. The company posted 41% growth in its normalized NPATA to $580 million.  Another 37% increase was reported in constant currency year-over-year. An “outstanding” result, indeed, keeping in mind that all of this was achieved during elevated market volatility and supply chain disruptions.

Interim dividends are up 73.3% climbing to 26 cents per share, expected to be paid on 1 July 2022. Additionally, an on-market $500 million share buyback was also announced, expected to be undertaken by the company by the company as Aristocrat makes sure to limit outside control on its stock. All of these results explain how the company saw an increase in share price despite the market sell-off.

Company in Good Position to Continue Growing

COVID-19 fatigue seems to be clearing off but the war in Ukraine means it’s not clear skies just yet. Back in March Aristocrat responded to the war by suspending operations in Russia, however, the company doesn’t have a clear-cut strategy on how to proceed further.

On the flipside, Aristocrat’s strong H1 results coupled with the name still appearing in some “Stocks we like” lists such as that of Roger Montgomery back in March, might help alleviate some of the market tensions and provide a green light to investors.

Aristocrat CEO and managing director Trevor Croker was obviously pleased with the result and had this to say:

“Aristocrat enters the second half with excellent fundamentals and strong operational momentum, a robust balance sheet, and an abundance of opportunity to accelerate our growth strategy.”

It is still very important to keep in mind that the market overall is facing tough operating conditions with more and more industries waking up from their pandemic slumber feeding the global supply chain crunch. To top it all off, online gaming is shrinking as well. Add to that the failed takeover of Playtech and the company’s focus on online real money gaming (RMG) becomes a point of discussion.

However, Mr. Croker said “Our priorities at the moment are to buy, scale and enter the RMG business and that remains pretty clear. We’ve been transparent about it,” insisting that the “build and buy” strategy will work.