Two of the biggest gaming shares inside the ASX 200 index have unwrapped their results today.
Pokie machine-making mammoths Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL) and Light & Wonder Inc (ASX: LNW) are garnering attention as shareholders react to the companies' latest financial figures. It's been an enormous year for these businesses, and today marks a moment of truth for shareholders to understand whether the excitement is warranted.
Heading towards midday, shares in Aristocrat are a smidgen higher at $65.49 apiece, while its rival Light & Wonder is being beaten down to the tune of 6.7%. The latter now trades hands at $148.35 per share, mostly mirroring the 7.3% plunge in after-hours trading of its Nasdaq counterpart.
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What are the results?
While both ASX 200 shares reported growth, the share prices of Aristocrat and Light & Wonder are going in opposite directions. Let's inspect the numbers to try and understand why investors are embracing one and trampling on the other.
Aristocrat Leisure
For Aristocrat, we're looking at the company's full-year performance for FY2024.
The ASX 200 share behind the wildly popular Dragon Link and Lightning Link titles reported a 5% increase in revenue to A$6.60 billion. Meanwhile, operating earnings jumped a juicy 19% to A$2.47 billion, bolstered by strong gaming growth in North America and the integration of the NeoGames acquisition.
On a normalised basis, i.e. removing one-offs, earnings per share leapt 20% to A$2.269. However, when one-offs are included, the company's net profits ticked 8% lower to A$1.4 billion for the financial year.
Dividends per share were boosted by 22% to 78 cents.
Light & Wonder
Light & Wonder's figures are only for the third quarter ending in September.
Don't let the plunging share price fool you. The Las Vegas-based casino mobile business posted a 12% increase in revenue year-on-year to US$817 million, with the greatest contributor to growth also being the pokie segment, jumping 15% from the same time last year.
However, it appears the bottom line may have left investors of this ASX 200 share with more to be desired. Light & Wonder's quarterly net profit slumped 20% from US$80 million to US$60 million amid increased costs caused by legal matters.
What's next for these ASX 200 shares?
Turning our heads towards the future, Aristocrat and Light & Wonder both expect growth ahead.
Light & Wonder forecasts a net profit after tax and amortisation (NPATA) range of US$565 million to US$635 million in FY2025. The key Aristocrat competitor also anticipates that growth in North America will persist despite 'some impact' from the injunction imposed on it over its Dragon Train title.
On the Aristocrat Leisure battlefront, NPATA growth in FY25 growth is in its sights, partially driven by "continued strong market share, revenue and profit growth from Aristocrat Gaming". Furthermore, the company is still adamant about achieving US$1 billion of revenue from its Aristocrat Interactive segment by FY2029.
Aristocrat is the better-performing ASX 200 share of the two this year. Light & Wonder shares are up 22% year-to-date versus Aristocrat's 60%, as shown in the chart above.
