Today’s list of reporting companies included an under the radar stock in the BNPL space and a company that had conducted 30 million COVID tests in the last 12 months.

 

Latitude Group (ASX:LFS)

Latitude is primarily a lender (offering personal and auto loans as well as credit cards and insurance) yet only listed earlier this year.

Its statutory half yearly net profit grew an impressive 524% to $89.5 million while its cash net profit was $121 million, up 81%.

Personal and auto loans grew 37% while the customer base of its BNPL product LatitudePay grew 73% to 458,000 accounts.

Latitude was one company, among several others this reporting season, that noted economic activity had temporarily slowed but it expected a rebound noting the lifting of Victoria’s long lockdown last year saw a 43% increase in lending volumes in just 1 month.

Latitude Group (ASX:LFS) share price chart

 

Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL)

There are several sectors that have indirectly benefited from COVID-19, from tech hardware companies to furniture outlets, but few that have directly benefited to the extent of pathology stocks.

Sonic and other pathology companies have undertaken COVID-19 testing and vaccination in addition to their standard laboratory and radiology services as well as pathology for other diseases.

Sonic grew its net profit 149% to $1.3 billion and its revenue by 28% to $8.8 billion.

CEO Colin Goldschmidt also said his company provided 30 million PCR tests and was the largest non-government provider of COVID vaccinations in Australia.

Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) share price chart

 

G8 Education (ASX:GEM)

G8 runs childcare centres, a sector that has been a mixed bag amidst COVID-19.

The company released half yearly results and these were more impressive than the same period last year with $421.5 million in revenue and a profit of $25.1 million, compare to $308.2 million in revenue and a $244 million loss in the first half of 2020.

However it announced recent lockdowns were impacting attendances and while these hadn’t begun to bite yet, these had potential to.

G8 Education (ASX:GEM) share price chart

 

Ampol (ASX:ALD)

The petrol company, which runs a large chain of services station as well as one refinery of its own, made a profit of $326 million.

But Ampol, like G8, had begun to see an impact from COVID-19 lockdowns limiting people’s ability to travel – over 5km in Sydney and Melbourne.

Nevertheless, Ampol tipped demand would recover once restrictions were lifted and used today to announce it was acquiring Kiwi fuel distributor Z Energy (NZX/ASX:ZEL) for over $1.5 billion.

Ampol (ASX:ALD) share price chart

 

Prospa (ASX:PGL)

Prospa is like Latitude a lender but is primarily focused on business lending.

Prospa’s loan originations grew 8.1% to $483.7 million and its earnings improved from $15.8 million in the red to $0.4 million in the black.

However its revenues fell 17.1% to $117.1 million and it still made a loss after tax of $9.5 million albeit less than $24.9 million in FY20.

The company also boasted that it was ranked as the top online lender to small business in Australia and New Zealand through customer review website Trustpilot.

Prospa (ASX:PGL) share price chart