The Lottery Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLC) share price is whipsawing today after the company reported its full-year earnings for the 2024 financial year this morning.
Lottery Corp shares closed at $4.91 each yesterday afternoon. This morning, they opened at $4.94 before rising as high as $5.00 soon after open, a gain worth a hefty 1.52%.
However, the Lottery Corp share price has since lost all of that steam and then some, with the ASX 200 share currently down 0.41% to $4.90 at the time of writing.
What did the company report?
Here are some of the highlights from Lottery Corp's 2024 financial year:
- Revenues of $3.997 billion, up 13.8% over the $3.51 billion reported over FY2023
- Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before significant items of $827.1 million, up 16% year-on-year
- Net profits after tax (NPAT) before significant items up 21.3% to $411.8 million
- Earnings per share (EPS) of 18.5 cents, a rise of 21.7%
- Final dividend of 16 cents per share (fully franked) declared, up 14.3% over last year's final dividend
- Special dividend of 1.5 cents per share declared
In addition to announcing a net profit after tax before significant items of $411.8 million, Lottery Corp also revealed an NPAT after significant items of $414 million, up 56.3% year-on-year.
The significant items in question over FY2024 consisted of a resolution with the Australian Taxation Office "relating to the income tax treatment of payments for various licences and authorities". This resolution benefitted Lottery Corp to the tune of $2.2 million.
What else happened in FY24?
One of Lottery Corp's FY2024 highlights was the May $200 million Powerball jackpot, which resulted in the company enjoying a $320 million turnover. Lottery Corp estimates that one out of every two Australian adults purchased a ticket for this jackpot.
Following this Jackpot, the company benefitted from some broker upgrades, resulting in the Lottery Corp share price rising over June.
Overall, Lottery Corp's sales were assisted by a 26.7% rise in Jackpot games over FY2023's figures, although that came at the cost of a 5.1% decline in base game participation.
The company also reported that its active registered customer numbers rose by 12.2% to 4.75 million during the financial year.
What did Lottery Corp management say?
Here's some of what Lottery Corp CEO Sue van der Merwe had to say on today's FY2024 numbers:
FY24 was another successful year for The Lottery Corporation, showcasing the resilience and long-term attractiveness of our balanced and diversified game portfolio. Our strong financial results delivered record benefits of $2.6 billion to our retail partners and the community, alongside increased returns for shareholders, with the Board determining to pay a special dividend of 2.5 cents per share, in addition to the full year ordinary dividend of 16.0 cents per share…
Our strong market position is underpinned by exclusive and/or long-dated licences, strong brands and diversified distribution channels. Our business has highly defensive characteristics, with strong cash generation and low capital intensity. We continue to execute our strategy to drive long-term growth, with more initiatives to enhance the customer experience and evolve the portfolio.
What's next for Lottery Corp?
Lottery Corp issued minimal guidance for the 2025 financial year today. However, the company told investors that it aims to improve customer onboarding and implement a new customer data platform to "drive personalisation across channels" over FY2025.
The company also aims to expand cashless options across its Keno network and deploy new terminals to retail outlets.
Lottery Corp share price snapshot
The Lottery Corp share price has had a meandering year over 2024 so far. Lottery Corp shares remain up over the year to date, but only just, with a 0.72% rise. However, over the past 12 months, Lottery Corp shares are still nursing a 5.72% loss.
At the current Lottery Corporation share price (at the time of writing), this ASX 200 stock is trading on a dividend yield of 2.86%.
