Welcome to this week’s edition of top stock market highlights.
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
Investors have been eagerly waiting for Nvidia’s latest full-year fiscal 2025 (FY2025) earnings.
And the graphics processing unit (GPU) giant did not disappoint.
FY2025’s revenue more than doubled year on year to US$130.5 billion.
Gross margin increased by 2.3 percentage points from 72.7% to 75%.
Operating profit leapt 147% year on year to US$81.5 billion while net profit shot up 145% year on year to US$72.9 billion.
The strong performance was driven by Nvidia’s data centre division, which made up 88.3% of the company’s total revenue.
For this division, revenue for FY2025 soared 142% year on year to a record US$115.2 billion.
Nvidia’s cash flow also saw a sharp improvement.
Free cash flow surged 125% year on year to US$60.9 billion for FY2025.
CEO Jensen Huang remarked that the company ramped up its production of Blackwell artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers.
Blackwell is Nvidia’s latest and most advanced GPU.
He added that AI is advancing at “light speed” as more organisations adopt agentic and physical AI.
Nvidia expects revenue of US$43 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (1Q FY2026).
If the company achieves this, it will be a 65% year-on-year increase over 1Q FY2025’s revenue of US$26 billion.
City Developments Limited (SGX: C09)
City Developments Limited, or CDL, witnessed a tense boardroom drama last week as executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng accused his son, Sherman Kwek, of acting with a group of directors to consolidate control of the board.
The issue involved the appointment of two new directors who the elder Kwek claims were “irregularly and hastily appointed”.
He also accused Sherman, the CEO of CDL, of staging an “attempted coup”.
Kwek Leng Beng then filed court papers on 25 February to deal with this issue and a court hearing was held on 26 February.
As a result of this debacle, shares of the property giant were halted on the morning of 26 February and a results briefing was also cancelled at the eleventh hour.
Following this court hearing, the two new directors have agreed not to exercise any powers as directors until further notice is given by the court.
These two directors are Jennifer Duong Young and Wong Su Yen, who were originally appointed as independent non-executive directors via a directors’ resolution in writing.
Despite the suspension of share trading, CDL affirmed that it was business as usual and that Sherman will continue to remain as group CEO until there is a board resolution to change the group’s leadership.
Elsewhere, the blue-chip group also released its 2024 earnings on the day of its trading halt.
Revenue fell by 33.8% year on year to S$3.3 billion because of “substantially lower” contributions from the group’s property development arm.
Net profit plunged by 36.6% year on year to S$201.3 million.
CDL declared a final dividend of S$0.08, unchanged from a year ago.
Sembcorp Industries (SGX: U96)
We move on from one blue-chip company to another, with Sembcorp Industries, or SCI, also releasing its 2024 earnings a few days ago.
Revenue fell by 9% year on year to S$6.4 billion as the business was impacted by a planned major maintenance of a cogeneration plant in Singapore.
Wholesale electricity prices in Singapore also declined by 34% during the year.
However, both its Renewables and Integrated Urban Solutions divisions saw single-digit year-on-year revenue growth.
Despite the lower revenue, net profit managed to eke out a 7% year-on-year increase to S$1 billion.
Excluding exceptional items such as gains/losses on disposal and impairment losses, net profit would have stayed the same as in 2023.
For its main Gas and Related Services division, 98% of the group’s gas-fired power portfolio was underpinned by offtake contracts, thereby providing revenue visibility.
This division has now become the “anchor” for SCI’s earnings.
The Renewables division saw the continued growth of its gross renewables capacity, going from 12.9 GW at the end of 2023 to 17 GW as of February 2025.
The division’s target is to reach 25 GW of installed capacity by 2028.
As for Integrated Urban Solutions, the division achieved higher land sales in Vietnam and Indonesia for 2024.
It also expanded into Batam in Indonesia through a joint venture with the Panbil Group.
In a show of confidence, SCI declared a final dividend of S$0.17, more than double the S$0.08 paid out last year.
The total dividend for 2024 came up to S$0.23, significantly above the S$0.13 declared for 2023.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
