ASX share price in focus
ASX Limited operates Australia’s primary national securities exchange. This includes the provision of securities exchange services, derivatives exchange services, central counterparty clearing services, and registry, settlement, and delivery-versus-payment clearing financial products.
The company provides access to a variety of different products, including shares, futures, exchange traded funds (ETFs), managed funds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs).
ASX operates at the heart of the Australian financial markets. It oversees compliance for listed companies and aims to promote a high standard of corporate governance and a fairer playing field for retail investors.
Let’s talk profits
If you’ve ever tried to read a company’s income statement on the annual report, you’ll know it can get pretty complex. While there are any number of figures you could pull from this statement, three key ones are revenue, gross margin, and profit.
Revenue is important for obvious reasons – everything starts here. If you can’t generate revenue, you can’t generate profit. What we’re concerned about is not so much the absolute number, but the trend. ASX last reported an annual revenue of $1,581m with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last 3 years of 15.8% per year.
Moving down the income statement, we then get to gross margin. The gross margin tells us how profitable the core products/services are – before you take into account all the overhead costs, how much money does the company make from selling $100 worth of goods? ASX’s latest reported gross margin was 96.2%.
Finally, we get to profit, arguably the most important figure. Last financial year ASX Ltd reported a profit of $474m. That compares to 3 years ago when they made a profit of $481m, representing a CAGR of -0.5%.
A pulse check on ASX shares
The next thing we need to consider is the capital ‘health’ of the company. What we’re trying to assess here is whether they’re generating a reasonable return on their equity (the total shareholder value) and have a decent safety buffer. One measure we can look at is net debt. This is simply the total debt minus the company’s cash holdings. In the case of ASX, the current net debt sits at -$1,915m.
A high number here means that a company has a lot of debt which potentially means higher interest payments, greater instability, and higher sensitivity to interest rates. A negative value on the other hand indicates the company has more cash than debt (a useful safety buffer).
Another figure we can look at is the debt/equity percentage. This tells us how much debt the company has relative to shareholder ownership. In other words, how leveraged is the company? ASX has a debt/equity ratio of 9.0%, which means they have more equity than debt.
Finally, we can look at the return on equity (ROE). The ROE tells us how much profit a company is generating as a percentage of its total equity – high numbers indicate the company is allocating capital well and generating value, while a low number suggests the profits might offer more value if they were paid to shareholders as a dividend. ASX generated an ROE of 12.9% in FY24.
What to make of ASX shares?
With a high ROE and strong revenue growth over the last 3 years, ASX shares look like a good option to add to your ASX share price watchlist. However, take note of the negative trend in profits – this is something to keep an eye on.
Please keep in mind this should only be the beginning of your research. It’s important to get a good grasp of the company’s financials and compare it to its peers. It’s also important to make sure the company is priced fairly. To learn more about share price valuation, you can sign up for one of our many free online investing courses.
