Reporting season: All the latest news from companies releasing financial results to the ASX today

Baby Bunting’s turnaround strategy is finally starting to bear fruit, with the infant goods retailer reporting record sales of $556 million for the year to June 28.

The pro forma result was up 6.5 per cent on the previous year, which helped to drive up net profit almost 34 per cent to $16.1m.

On a statutory basis, profit was 17.5 per cent higher at $11.2m.

CEO Mark Teperson said rising interest rates and elevated fuel prices weighed on consumer spending through the second half, impacting some higher-priced prams and car safety categories.

“However, even in this more challenging consumer environment we delivered net profit after tax growth of 54 per cent in the second half, reflecting the underlying strength of the business,” he said.

“Our Store of the Future program remains the clearest proof of our strategy at work. We undertook 12 refurbishments during the year, and we now have a refurbished fleet of 15 stores, and the refurbished stores delivered 18 per cent sales growth in FY26 since re-opening.”

Gross margin came in at a record 41.2 per cent, supported by continued growth in exclusive and private label ranges which now represent more than half of our total sales.

Online sales grew by 16.7 per cent to now represent just over a quarter of total sales.

Warehouse and supply chain savings offset higher costs for promoting new stores and wage inflation.

Baby Bunting plans to complete another 10 to 12 refurbishments in FY27, with five to six expected to be completed in the first half.

Sales for the first six weeks of the new financial year are up 6.1 per cent, or 4.3 per cent on a comparable basis, mainly thanks to higher sales in New Zealand.

NRW has bagged a civil works contract in south-east Queensland.

The WA-headquartered firm’s subsidiary Golding will collect $130 million for work on Stockland Development’s Yarrabilba and Shoreline master planned communities.

At Shoreline, Golding will deliver three major work packages, including the upgrade of a road with a new signalised intersection and bridge, along with subdivision and associated infrastructure works south-east of Brisbane.

When all stages are completed, Shoreline is expected to become home to 10,000 people and 3000 dwellings.

Work is due to be completed by next July.

At Yarrabilba, the contractor will deliver subdivision and associated infrastructure works at a site 4km south of Logan Village. Yarrabilba is expected to accommodate more than 45,000 residents in about 17,000 dwellings.

“Since we commenced working in Yarrabilba in October 2017, we have delivered more than 3200 residential and commercial lots, providing necessary support to the Queensland housing market,” said NRW boss Jules Pemberton.

QBE Insurance will pay out a dividend of 33c a share after reporting a net profit of just over $US1 billion ($1.42b) for the the first half of its financial year.

Net cost of catastrophe claims reduced to $US445 million, or 4.7 per cent of net insurance revenue, down from $US479m a year earlier.

The result was below the first-half allowance of $US517m and helped to deliver the $US1.033b net profit.

Gross written premium rose 6 per cent compared to a year earlier to $US15.137b.

AustralianSuper has lifted its substantial holding in Qantas, jumping from 6.29 per cent of the Flying Kangaroo’s register to 7.32 per cent.

It now holds just under 111 million shares, valued at $1.114 billion at yesterday’s cloisng price of $10.07.

The super giant’s stake was lifted between May 18 and Tuesday.

The airline’s stock is down almost 2 per cent for the past month, and 3.4 per cent for the past six months.

Qantas, which has a market capitalisation of $15.23b, is due to report its full-year results on August 27.

The S&P 500 has notched a record-high close, fuelled by advances in Sandisk and other heavyweight technology stocks, as tame producer price inflation data supported expectations the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates at its September meeting.

Memory chip makers Sandisk and Micron Technology surged 13.7 per cent and 4.2 per cent respectively while Microsoft added almost 1.0 per cent and Meta Platforms rose 2.8 per cent.

Strong forecasts in recent weeks from companies including Microsoft and Amazon have reduced investors’ concerns about massive spending on AI data centres.

“The AI earnings-driven tech boom continues,” said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors in New York.

“It’s an earnings boom, not a bubble.”

The S&P 500 climbed 0.65 per cent to end the session at 7798.99 points - exceeding its record high close last Friday - while the Nasdaq gained 0.81 per cent to 26,803.03 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.13 per cent to 53,839.99 points.

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There was plenty of news to digest from reporting season yesterday.

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