Last week, we finally got a look at the latest earnings from ASX 200 bank stock ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ). An ASX earnings latecomer, ANZ shareholders were some of the last bank owners to get a look at their bank's FY24 books, following just after National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB).
It wasn't the rosiest earnings report, as we covered on Friday. ANZ reported a 2% drop in revenues compared to FY2023, coming in at $20.55 billion. The bank's expenses rose, though, ticking up 4% to $10.55 billion. This combination resulted in ANZ reporting a 9.3% fall in cash profits to $6.73 billion. That drove an 8% decline in ANZ's statutory profit after tax to $6.535 billion.
As a result, ANZ revealed that its final dividend for 2024 would come in at 83 cents per share. It will come partially franked at 70%, as seems to be the norm with ANZ these days.
That 83 cents per share matches the April interim dividend but represents an 11.7% fall from last year's final dividend of 94 cents per share.
Despite all of this, ASX investors didn't seem too fazed. Since the bank reported these earnings, the ANZ share price has ticked up by a healthy 0.95% or so.
That leaves ANZ shares sitting on a happy 24% year-to-date gain over 2024 (at current pricing), as well as a 26% rise over the past 12 months:
But given these earnings and the recent trajectory of the ANZ share price, many investors might wonder whether this ASX 200 bank stock remains a buy today. Let's discuss that question.
Are ANZ shares a buy today?
Well, unfortunately for bank enthusiasts, one ASX expert doesn't seem too keen on ANZ shares right now.
That expert is ASX broker Morgans. According to reporting in The Australian this week, analysts at Morgans have downgraded their view of ANZ. The broker previously had a neutral rating on ANZ, but has just revised its position to 'reduce'.
That rating downgrade came alongside a 12-month share price target of just $25.29. If Morgans is on the money here, that would see ANZ shares lose a painful 21% from their current $32 price.
Investors will no doubt hope that Morgans is missing something here. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
At Monday's closing ANZ share price of $32.14, this ASX 200 bank stock has a dividend yield of 5.5%.
