Earnings Round-up: Shell, BT, Centrica, Barclays

Another busy day for earnings brought a blizzard of financial information to investors

Alliance News 27 July, 2023 | 12:07PM
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Shell (SHEL) on Thursday said profit and revenue in the first half of 2023 fell, with performance weighted to the first quarter, while it announced another $3 billion share buyback programme.

The oil major said pretax profit almost halved to $19.70 billion in the first half of 2023 from $36.94 billion a year earlier.

Revenue also fell 12% to $161.54 billion from $184.26 billion. Total expenditure fell 2.7% to $145.34 billion from $149.31 billion.

Shell said the falling half-year performance reflected lower realised oil and gas prices, lower volumes and lower refining margins, partly offset by higher Mobility margins.

Shell announced a further $3 billion share buyback programme, which it expects to complete by the time it announces its third quarter results.

Shell also indicated intentions of announcing at least a further $2.5 billion in buybacks with its third quarter results, while it completed its $4 billion share buyback programme across the second quarter, having announced the buyback with its first quarter results.

The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.331, up 15% from $0.2875 for the first quarter, which Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan evidenced "delivering on our capital markets day committment".

BT (BT.A) reaffirmed its full year guidance reporting a rise in revenue and profit in its first quarter.

The telecommunications company’s adjusted group revenue was £5.16 billion in the three months to the end of June, a 4.0% rise from £4.98 billion at the same time the prior year. The company said this was due to an increase in fibre-enabled product sales and price increases in Openreach, as well as increased service revenue in its Consumer sector.

First quarter reported pretax profit increased by 11% to £536 million compared to £500 million, principally due to Ebitda growth.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was £2.03 billion, a 5.0% rise on £1.95 billion at the same point the year before, with cost control more than offsetting cost inflation.

BT said that pro forma adjusted revenue to date was £5.2 billion, a 4.0% increase on the first quarter due to product sales, which it said was due to fibre-enabled product sales and price increases in Openreach.

The company reconfirmed all its financial 2024 outlook metrics.

Centrica (CNA) reported a strong first half as it swung to a profit and saw revenue jump.

The British Gas owner swung to a pretax profit of £6.42 billion from a pretax loss of £1.18 billion a year prior. This was partly driven by a 44% reduction in the cost of sales to £5.10 billion. Net finance costs also fell by 54% to £36 million.

Revenue soared by 60% to £16.52 billion from £10.32 billion the year before. This includes a £3.7 million contribution from the government relating to the Energy Price Guarantee, and a further £449 million from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Another £319 million came from contracts with customers, while £130 million related to non-domestic British Gas customers.

Centrica declared an interim dividend of 1.33 pence per share, up 33% from 1.0p per share the year before.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects growth to slow in the second half of 2023. Centrica added it expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to be heavily weighted towards the first half of the year, in line with market expectations of between 16.5p to 24.7p.

Barclays (BARC) pretax profit increased 22% during the recent half year to £4.56 billion from £3.73 billion a year before.

The consumer, business and investment bank said basic earnings per share increased 34% in the six months ended June 30 to 19.9p from 14.8p.

Barclays declared a 2.70p per share dividend for the half-year, up 20% from 2.25p in first half of 2022. It also plans to launch a share buyback of up to £750 million.

Back in February, Barclays had announced a share buyback of up to £500 million in February, which brought total share buybacks related to 2022 to £1.0 billion.

Barclays reported a 13.2% return on tangible equity, a key metric for banks, up from 10.4% in the first half of 2022.

Total income increased 2.4% to £13.52 billion from 13.20 billion, while operating expenses were reduced by 12% to £8.06 billion from £9.13 billion.

 

 

 

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Securities Mentioned in Article

Security NamePriceChange (%)Morningstar
Rating
Barclays PLC260.25 GBX0.00Rating
BT Group PLC145.00 GBX-0.96Rating
Centrica PLC124.95 GBX-0.75Rating
Shell PLC2,394.50 GBX-0.46Rating

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