The Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL) share price is shooting higher on Wednesday morning.
The gaming technology company's shares are up over 4% to $33.15 following the release of its full year results.
How did Aristocrat Leisure perform in FY 2019?
For the 12 months ended September 30, Aristocrat Leisure delivered strong top and bottom line growth.
On the top line normalised operating revenue came in at $4,387.4 million, which was an increase of 22.7% on FY 2018's result.
Things were equally good on the bottom line with the company positing normalised NPATA of $894.4 million. This was a 22.6% increase on the prior corresponding period. On a per share basis, earnings came in 22.9% higher at 140.2 cents.
This allowed the Aristocrat Leisure board to declare total dividends of 56 cents per share in FY 2019, up 21.7% on last year's 46 cents per share dividend.
What were the drivers of this result?
This result was driven by continued strong operational momentum across both Land-based and Digital businesses. Favourable currency movements and tax benefits also supported its result.
Over the 12 months the company's Americas segment delivered revenue growth of 14.2% to US$1,363.1 million and EBIT growth of 15.5% to US$750.6 million.
This growth was supported by its Digital segment which posted a 24.1% increase in revenue to US$1,252.2 million. However, due to expected margin moderation, segment profits grew 11.9% to US$370.2 million. It finished the period with 7.5 million daily active users, which were generating bookings per day of 41 U.S. cents per user.
The ANZ segment delivered modest growth in FY 2019. It posted revenue growth of 0.2% to $455.2 million and profit growth of 2.9% to $213.2 million.
Acting as a drag on its result was the International segment. Lower APAC revenues led to the segment posting a 7.3% decline in revenue to $195.2 million. Profits fell by 13.3% to $89.6 million.
How does this compare to expectations?
This result appears to have come in ahead of the market's expectations, hence why its shares are pushing higher today.
A note out of Goldman Sachs reveals that it was expecting revenue of $4.4 billion and NPATA of $883 million. This represents annual growth of 20% and 21%, respectively.
Outlook.
No real guidance was given for FY 2020. However, management plans for continued growth in the new financial year.
It expects this to be partly driven by further market share gains in North America and recently released digital games.
