The share price of AMP Limited (ASX: AMP) hasn't had a great 12 months with the stock falling by over 16%.
In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has slumped by around 13.5%.
Despite this relative underperformance, AMP remains a veritable giant within the Australian wealth management industry with reasonable prospects for long-term growth.
With the group operating its financial year on a calendar year basis, investors have just had the opportunity to review the group's full year results for 2015.
Those results contained numerous reasons to remain positive on the outlook for AMP…
- Underlying profit grew 7% to $1.1 billion with management singling out good earnings growth across Australian wealth management, AMP Capital, AMP bank and New Zealand divisions
- The final dividend was raised 4% to 14 cents per share (cps) bring total dividends for the year to 28 cps
- The cost-to-income ratio continued to be tightly managed with AMP successfully lowering the ratio a further 1% to 43.8%
- Average Assets under Management (AUM) at AMP Capital increased 10% to $159 billion
- Underlying return on equity (ROE) increased 0.5% to 13.2% largely thanks to increased profit
- Outlook
While the above five metrics all moved in the right direction and are good news for AMP shareholders, arguably the most important reason for sticking with AMP is the group's outlook.
One way to analyse this growth potential is via management's four strategic priorities which it expects will deliver a strong platform of future growth. They are:
- Building on AMP's leading market position to capture future growth in the superannuation industry which is expected to double in size by 2026
- Transformational change in its Australian business to improve customer service
- Reduce costs to maintain efficiency and reinvest in new customer solutions
- Invest selectively in Asia and internationally by building partnerships and leveraging increased global demand for the group's investment capabilities in infrastructure, property and fixed income
