Investor Insights

ARB’s financial year 2025 ( FY25) results reflect a challenging environment, with a four per cent profit before tax (PBT) miss driven by lower gross margins. The Thai Baht’s strength and lower factory recoveries (more on this below) squeezed margins, a trend exacerbated by ARB’s unhedged foreign exchange (FX) exposure.

In an interview earlier this month, Michael Howell of CrossBorder Capital  delivered his analysis of the global liquidity environment and its implications for financial markets. His message to investors was clear: liquidity, not interest rates or economic cycles, remains the true driver of asset performance – and right now, the liquidity tide is rising. But as always, tides reverse.

Commonwealth Bank’s (ASX:CBA) financial year 2025 (FY25) result might just have been a study in strategic restraint. Cash profit rose 4 per cent to $10. 3 billion – right on consensus –underpinned by stronger wholesale banking in the second half and solid growth in both home and business lending. But the headline number could have been higher.

Breville Group (ASX: BRG), the premium kitchen appliance maker behind brands like Breville and Sage, has released its full-year results for financial year 2025 (FY25). The company’s results largely met or slightly exceeded expectations, with strong revenue growth across regions and categories. Strategic initiatives including geographic expansion and manufacturing diversification were highlighted.

For the last month or two, I have been writing with increasing frequency about the possibility of the stock market boom transitioning into a bubble. There are a variety of reasons for this, and they usually fall under two broad headings. The first is technical and the second is behavioural.

Temple & Webster’s (ASX:TPW) financial year 2025 (FY25) results underline a business scaling rapidly in two markets still in the early innings of digital disruption. Revenue rose 21 per cent to $601 million, capped by a 28 per cent June surge that has flowed into FY26, where year-to-date (YTD) sales (1 July–11 August) are also up 28 per cent.

Cochlear’s financial year 2025 (FY25) results delivered a steady, if unspectacular, performance that broadly aligned with the company’s June guidance reset.  Revenue came in at $2. 34 billion, consistent with market expectations following the downgrade, while underlying net profit landed at $392 million – the low end of the revised $390-400 million range.

There’s some early evidence the equity boom is entering a bubble phase. Bubbles can last and keep inflating for a long time. Missing out can be costly, but predicting the exact moment of a bubble’s demise is a waste of time. So, the right strategy isn’t prediction but rebalancing and a little tactical asset allocation.

While Telstra’s share price is up about 80 per cent since the lows of Covid in 2020, the shares are trading at about where they were in 2003, and they are down 26 per cent from their 2015 highs and 45 per cent lower than their all-time highs in 1999.

In a significant step toward revolutionising clean energy production, Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactors (SMR) has inked a pivotal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Czech engineering powerhouse Škoda JS. At the heart of the initiative is Rolls-Royce’s innovative 470 megawatt-electric (MWe) pressurized water reactor design.

JB Hi-Fi Limited (ASX:JBH), stamped its leadership on Australia and New Zealand’s retail landscape again, delivering impressive financial year 2025 (FY25) results, and demonstrating exceptional resilience across its portfolio of brands – JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, and the recently acquired E&S.

QBE Insurance Group (ASX:QBE), a top 10 company in the portfolios of The Montgomery Fund and The Montgomery [Private] Fund, has delivered an impressive 2025 first-half result, significantly outperforming analyst expectations across key metrics. Bolstered by strong investment income, favourable underlying prior-year claims development (PYD), and below-budget catastrophe (CAT) claims, QBE’s results underline its operational strength and strategic progress.