Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares are marching higher today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) bank stock closed yesterday trading for $164.40. In early afternoon trade on Wednesday, shares are changing hands for $166.01, up 1.0%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.8% at this same time.
This comes as CommBank hosts its annual general meeting (AGM) today, which is taking place in Brisbane for the first time since 2018.
CBA shares in focus amid AGM
CBA chairman Paul O'Malley led off the AGM by throwing the focus on the company's strategy, set four years ago, of "building tomorrow's bank today".
He said:
It prioritises investment in technology that provides customers with better, faster and safer banking. And it invests in our people and branches to better serve our customers and communities.
Turning to the bank's financial performance that's helped CBA shares surge over the past 12 months, O'Malley highlighted the FY 2025 cash net profit after tax (NPAT) of $10.25 billion, which was up 4% from FY 2024.
This also saw the bank lift its full-year dividend payout by 4.3% to $4.85 per share. At the current share price, CBA trades on a fully franked trailing dividend yield of 2.9%.
Atop its strong balance sheet, O'Malley said, "We maintain conservative financial settings to be well prepared for a range of economic scenarios."
A word from the CEO
O'Malley handed off the lectern to CommBank CEO Matt Comyn, who also stressed the importance of technology for the future of CBA shares.
"Technology is reshaping what our customers expect from us," he said. Adding that in FY 2025, CBA boosted its tech investment spend by $300 million.
Comyn noted the major achievement in September with the cloud migration via Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).
He said:
Last month, we reached a major milestone in our multi-year enterprise-wide transformation program, completing the full upgrade and migration of our SAP Core Banking platform to AWS Cloud – the largest system-of-record migration in our history, and one of the largest of its kind globally.
As for the bank's FY 2025 financial performance, Comyn concluded, "We further strengthened our balance sheet and remain well positioned to support our customers and the broader economy, and deliver a sustainable dividend for you, our shareholders."
Which should come as welcome news to passive income investors.
How have CBA shares been tracking?
Although they've retraced from June's all-time highs, CBA shares remain up a market-beating 19.5% since this time last year. And that's not including the two CBA dividend payouts.
