The Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL) share price has come under pressure on Thursday.
In morning trade, the ASX 200 tech share is down 5% to $37.29.
This follows the release of the company's half-year results.
Aristocrat share price lower on half-year update
For the six months ended 31 March, Aristocrat reported the following:
- Normalised revenue up 12.2% to $3,080.4 million
- EBITDA up 5.7% to $1,025.5 million
- NPATA up 13.6% to $658.8 million
- Interim dividend up 15.4% to 30 cents per share
What happened during the half?
Management advised that Aristocrat's revenue growth of 12% (5% in constant currency) was driven by a strong performance from its North America gaming operations and global outright sales, as well as a resilient performance from Pixel United in a challenging environment.
Aristocrat CEO and Managing Director, Trevor Croker, commented:
Aristocrat delivered a quality result over the period, demonstrating the ongoing resilience, competitiveness and diversification of our portfolio, as we navigated challenging market conditions and continued to invest fully behind our successful Group growth strategy.
The benefit of our investment to grow and diversify Aristocrat's revenue base was particularly evident in our ability to deliver solid revenue growth and stable EBITDA in constant currency at Group level over the half year, with a continued strong performance from the Aristocrat Gaming Americas business more than offsetting the challenging mobile gaming market conditions for Pixel United.
On the bottom line, the company's normalised NPATA (net profit after tax and before amortisation) was up 14% (5% in constant currency) to $659 million. This reflects its strong revenue growth, interest income benefits, and effective strategic investment in talent and technology.
How does this compare to expectations?
This result appears to have been a bit of a mixed bag, which may explain why the Aristocrat share price is falling today. Goldman Sachs, for example, commented:
Americas was a key positive surprise while ANZ and Pixel United results were misses vs. GSe. However, Pixel United guidance for 2H23 implies that FY23e is expected to be in line with expectations. Anaxi updates with regards to soft launch of product and new agreement with FanDuel flags encouraging progress in the new pursuit. Overall, while earnings had both positives and negatives, we read this as an inline to marginally positive update.
Outlook
Aristocrat's guidance to deliver NPATA growth over the full year remains unchanged, assuming no material change in economic and industry conditions.
This reflects its expectation for continued strong revenue and profit growth from Aristocrat Gaming, underpinned by market-leading positions and recurring revenue drivers in Gaming Operations, an improved profit result from Pixel United, and further investment in Anaxi to support its online real money gaming ambitions.
