The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by 1.1% to 6,102 points today. It was a strong day for most of the share market.
Among the top performers in the ASX 200 was buy now, pay later operator Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) which jumped 8% after updates from its competitors:
Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL)
Sezzle reported a strong set of numbers in its update in the quarter for the three months to 30 September 2020.
The BNPL operator reported underlying merchants sales (UMS) increased 231.5% year on year to US$228 million, up 21.4% quarter on quarter.
Merchant fees as a percentage improved to 5.8%, up from 5.6% from at June 2020 and 5.2% from 30 September 2019. Rising margins is a good sign for Sezzle.
Active consumers rose 178.1% year on year to 1.79 million (and was up 21.5% quarter on quarter) and active merchants rose by 178.3% year on year (and grew 29.7% quarter on quarter).
One of the most pleasing aspects of the BNPL company's update was that its active consumer repeat usage grew to 89%, which meant that repeat usage has increased for 21 straight months. This is an important part of lowering loss rates and improving the net transaction margin. Sezzle now has an annual run rate of almost US$1 billion.
The Sezzle share price went up by 3.6% today, though it was above $8.70 earlier in the day.
Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT)
Splitit is another high-growth BNPL operator and it reported a strong set of growth numbers.
It said that merchant sales volume (MSV) grew by 214% year on year to US$70.9 million. This helped gross revenue soar 318% to US$2.4 million.
Total merchants jumped 117% year on year to 1,400 and total shoppers grew 97% year on year to 362,000.
Splitit said that self-onboarding is now live in the US, it added over $3 billion of addressable online merchant sales in the third quarter of FY20 and it has expanded into the professional services vertical in the US and Australia.
The Splitit share price ended 4.7% lower, though it was up earlier in the day.
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)
ASX 200 business CSL announced that its subsidiary, Seqirus, has signed a final agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia for the supply of 51 million doses of the University of Queensland COVID-19 vaccine candidate called V451, if clinical trials are successful.
The agreement includes and up-front financial commitment from the government to support the clinical and technical development activities that CSL will need to carry out in order to progress V451.
CSL said that the large-scale phase 2b/3 clinical study for V451 is almost ready which will evaluate efficacy, immunogenicity and safety in adults aged 18 years and above. The first subject is expected to be enrolled in December 2020 with the goal of completing recruitment by March 2021.
The ASX 200 share said it's committed to demonstrating the vaccine is safe and effective prior to availability in the market. However, CSL isn't able to calculate the financial impact to the company relating to the vaccines.
The CSL share price went up 2.4%.
Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)
The Netwealth share price jumped by 8.8% today after announcing its quarterly update for the three months to 30 September 2020.
Funds under administration (FUA) was $34 billion at 30 September 2020, up 8% for the quarter, which included positive market movements of $0.6 billion. FUA net inflows was $1.9 billion for the quarter, an increase of 25.4% for the quarter.
The ASX 200 share's funds under management (FUM) was $8.1 billion at 30 September 2020. FUM net inflows for the quarter was $0.8 billion, including managed account net inflows for the quarter of $0.7 billion. The managed account balance was $6.5 billion at 30 September 2020, an increase of $3.4 billion compared to the prior corresponding period.
