The Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) share price is in focus on Thursday after the company reported its FY24 results.
Before the open today, Wesfarmers shares are priced at $77.20 apiece, having climbed 9% in the past month of trade.
Let's see what the company posted.
Wesfarmers share price in focus after solid full-year results
Here are the key highlights from Wesfarmers' FY24:
- Revenue increased by 1.5% year over year to $44.2 billion
- Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) came to $3.9 billion, up 3.3% year over year
- Net profit rose by 3.7% to $2.56 billion
- Earnings per share (EPS) increased by 3.6% to 225.7 cents per share
- Operating cash flows were up 9.9% to $4.6 billion
- Final dividend declared at $1.07 per share, bringing the full-year dividend to $1.98 per share, up 3.7% from the prior year
What else happened in FY24?
The Wesfarmers share price had a strong year in FY24, as did the business. The company's retail divisions performed well, driving sales growth of 1.5% and EBIT growth of 3.3%.
Bunnings performed really well, with H2 FY24 revenues up 3% year over year to $9 billion, whereas Kmart Group posted record earnings growth of 21.4%, tallying $357 million.
For the full year, Bunnings revenues were $18.9 billion, with Kmart posting $9 billion at the top line.
Meanwhile, Officeworks posted a 6.1% growth in net profit compared to last year. But the Wesfarmers Health division was the standout of the day – with earnings up 28% year over year to $23 million.
On the industrial side, WesCEF faced lower global commodity prices, which impacted earnings. Profits were down 22% for this segment.
Still, company operating cash flows were up 10% for the year, underlined by the earnings growth across all segments.
The growth in profits across basically all business lines prompted the board to increase the dividend by around 4% to $1.98 per share after declaring a $1.07 per share final payout. This could impact the Wesfarmers share price.
What did management say?
Wesfarmers managing director Rob Scott expressed satisfaction with the company's performance:
We expected a challenging year and there were numerous headwinds to navigate with cost of living pressures, rising costs of doing business, subdued activity in residential construction and ignificant volatility in key commodities.
In this environment, our divisions maintained their focus on profitable growth and shareholder returns by delivering more value, choice and reliability to our consumer and commercial customers. This is a credit to our 120,000 team members across the Group.
Wesfarmers' businesses executed well, with the retail divisions responding effectively as households increasingly shifted to value during the year. Sales and earnings growth in the retail divisions was supported by everyday low price offerings and products with broad customer appeal.
What's next?
Looking ahead, Wesfarmers plans to continue investing in its existing operations while also developing new platforms for long-term growth.
The company is particularly focused on its lithium project, expecting first production from the Kwinana refinery in mid-2025.
The retail divisions are also well-positioned to meet ongoing demand for value-based products, especially as households face continued cost-of-living pressures.
CEO Scott says the company is focused on delivering "long-term value creation" moving forward:
Wesfarmers remains focused on long-term value creation and continues to invest to strengthen its existing businesses and develop platforms for growth.
These actions, together with a strong balance sheet and portfolio of cash generative businesses with market-leading positions, make Wesfarmers well positioned to deliver satisfactory returns to shareholders over the long term.
Wesfarmers share price snapshot
The Wesfarmers share price is on close watch on Thursday following the release of its FY24 results. In the past 12 months, the stock is up 45%.
