The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up slightly to 7,688 points.
Here are some of the highlights from the ASX today:
Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS)
The Telstra share price rose by around 3.7% today after the telco announced its FY21 report.
Telstra also announced a $1.35 billion share buy-back. It is returning approximately 50% of the net proceeds from its InfraCo Towers transaction to shareholders with an on-market share buy-back.
Telstra's board also decided to declare a fully franked full year dividend of 16 cents per share.
The CEO Andrew Penn said that the transaction reinforced the view that Telstra's infrastructure assets could deliver additional value to shareholders.
In June, Telstra announced a long-term strategic partnership with a consortium that will acquire a 49% interest. The towers business is the largest mobile tower infrastructure provider in Australia with approximately 8,200 towers.
Turning back to the FY21 result, the ASX 200 telco giant said that on a reported basis, total income decreased by 11.6% to $23.1 billion, whilst net profit grew 3.4% to $1.9 billion.
On a guidance basis, underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 9.7% to $6.7 billion. The underlying EBITDA included an in-year NBN headwind of around $650 million and an estimated $380 million financial impact from COVID-19. Excluding the in-year NBN headwind, underlying EBITDA in FY21 dropped $70 million.
In FY22, Telstra expects to achieve underlying EBITDA of between $7 billion to $7.3 billion, total income of between $21.6 billion to $23.6 billion and free cashflow after lease payments of between $3.5 billion to $3.9 billion.
National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB)
The NAB share price went up 0.2% after the bank released its update for the third quarter of FY21.
The ASX 200 bank said that its cash earnings of $1.7 billion grew 10.3% compared to the prior corresponding period. It also made $1.65 billion of quarterly statutory net profit.
NAB said that its net interest margin (NIM) was broadly stable. Excluding markets and treasury, and higher liquids, the NIM actually increased modestly with lower deposit and funding costs, partly offset by the impact of lower interest rates and home lending competition.
Looking at its loan book, NAB said that the ratio of loans that were over 90 days past due and gross impaired assets to its loan book decreased by 10 basis points over the three months period to 1.13%.
NAB's management noted that the acquisitions of Citigroup's Australian consumer business and the neobank 86 400 will "help accelerate" the growth strategy.
Goodman Group (ASX: GMG)
The Goodman share price fell around 2% today after delivering its FY21 result.
The global property business reported that its operating profit increased by 15% over the year to $1.22 billion. That led to operating earnings per share (EPS) growth of 14.1% to 65.6 cents, beating its initial guidance of 9%.
Goodman generated $2.3 billion of statutory profit. This figure includes items like Goodman's share of valuation gains, non-cash items and so on.
The ASX 200 business finished the financial year with total assets under management (AUM) of $57.9 billion, an increase of 12%.
Goodman paid a total FY21 distribution of 30 cents per security. Management said this was in line with the group's capital management strategy to maintain an appropriate payout ratio in light of the strong activity levels.
Its net tangible assets (NTA) per security grew 14.4% to $6.68.
In FY22, the ASX 200 share is expecting to maintain its distribution at 30 cents per security, but grow EPS by another 10% to 72.2 cents.
