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Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said first half profit rose 5 percent to a record high as strength in its growing international operations outweighed shrinking margins at home.

Australia's top four banks raked in record profits last fiscal year and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) remains on track to continue this streak with its push into Asia starting to pay off.

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"Their Asian strategy is probably one of the highlights, that is going quite well, and I think for the first time they can show the proof in their strategy, which is a very strong positive because that's only going to get better as time goes on," said Peter Vann, senior analyst at Constellation Capital Management, which owns ANZ shares.

The growth in profits comes at a time when funding costs are still elevated, competition for deposits is fierce and ANZ feels the tight market conditions warrant raising of interest rates independently of the central bank.

Underlying first-half profit at ANZ, Australia's fourth-largest bank, rose to A$2.97 billion ($3.07 billion) from A$2.82 billion a year ago. The earnings matched the average forecast of eight analysts surveyed by Reuters.

Underlying profit strips off one-offs and investment gains and losses.

ANZ is trying to model itself on HSBC

Mike Smith, ANZ Chief Executive Officer, said the strategy was paying off with good results outside of Australia and in its internationally focused Institutional division.

Net interest margins fell to 2.38 percent overall, with Australian margins down 13 points as competition for deposits heated up and funding costs rose.

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ANZ Posts Record First-Half as Offshore Ops Grow

By Angus Whitley and Brett Foley - Tue May 01 23:28:12 GMT 2012

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), Australias third-largest bank by market value, said first-half profit rose 10 percent on higher income from its offshore businesses.

Net income in the six months ended March 31 increased to A$2.92 billion ($3.02 billion) from A$2.66 billion a year earlier, the bank said in a statement today. It was expected to report profit of A$2.97 billion, according to the average of seven analysts estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Underlying profit from the Asia Pacific, Europe and America unit rose 21 percent from the previous six months.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Smith is cutting jobs, trimming expenses and turning to Asias faster-growing economies to help offset a struggling domestic housing market and rising funding costs. Australias central bank said yesterday that Europes debt crisis might deliver adverse shocks for some time as it cut benchmark borrowing costs at home by a larger- than-expected margin to spur economic growth.

We are managing in what could be described as a work out phase in the global economy with the situation most acute in Europe, Smith said in todays statement. This will continue to cause volatility in global markets for many years.

ANZ Bank stock has surged 17 percent this year, making it the best performer among a quartet of Australian banks that includes National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB), Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Westpac Banking Corp. (WBC) The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index has gained 9.2 percent.

Net loans and advances in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and America surged 32 percent from the same period a year earlier, more than four times the pace of growth in Australia, ANZ Bank said. Deposits at those offshore locations jumped 34 percent, more than double the advance at home.

At the banks institutional division, growth in profit, lending, and deposits also outpaced advances in Australia.

The result showed the value of reducing the banks reliance on Australia, which was a drag on earnings, Smith told reporters today. The profitability of lending in the banks domestic market is declining and theres a persistently lower demand for credit, he said.

The banks group net interest margin, a measure of the profitability of lending, fell 8.9 basis points to 238.3 basis points from 247.2 basis points a year earlier. The Australian business had the lowest margin, according to a presentation filed to the stock exchange.

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ANZ Bank First-Half Profit Rises 10% as Offshore Earnings Surge

Consistently rising profits are a good omen for a small-cap company. While the word "profit" has many different implications, here we focus on diluted normalized earnings per share values that have increased over three consecutive years.

Normalized EPS is a company's earnings per share without accounting for one-time earnings and irregular expenses. Unlike regular EPS, diluted EPS takes into account convertible securities such as options, warrants, and convertible preferred shares that could be exercised and lower net income.

Therefore, diluted normalized EPS is typically lower (and more conservative) than regular EPS.

Price-to-sales ratio The price-to-sales ratio tells you how much a stock's current price is worth relative to revenue per sale. Be mindful that this ratio does not account for expenses or debt, and that there is normal variation between industries.

Here we screened for companies with a price-to-sales ratio of 1.5 or below. In other words, one dollar of share price is worth at most $1.50 in sales. We chose this limit after speaking with Neil Hennessy, portfolio manager and chief investment officer of Hennessy Mutual Funds, who said this is one of his favorite investing strategies.

Business section: Investing ideas We ran a screen based on the following criteria:

Below are the stocks our screen pulled up.

(Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

1. Andersons (Nasdaq: ANDE) : Engages in the agriculture and transportation businesses in the United States. The company has a market cap of $929.6 million, most recent closing price at $51.01. Diluted normalized EPS increased from $1.79 to $2.08 during the first time interval (12 months ending Dec. 31, 2009 vs. 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2008). For the second time interval, diluted normalized EPS increased from $2.08 to $3.48 (12 months ending Dec. 31, 2010 vs. 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2009). And for the last time interval, the EPS increased from $3.48 to $5.09 (12 months ending Dec. 31, 2011 vs. 12 months ending Dec. 31, 2010). Price/sales ratio of 0.21. Shares shorted have decreased from 1.28 million to 1.10 million over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.04% of the company's float of 17.25 million shares. Days-to-cover ratio stands at 6.5 days.

2. AmeriGas Partners (NYSE: APU) : Operates as a retail and wholesale distributor of propane gas in the United States. The company has a market cap of $3.73 billion, most recent closing price at $40.20. Diluted normalized EPS increased from $2.70 to $2.85 during the first time interval (12 months ending Sept. 30, 2009 vs. 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2008). For the second time interval, diluted normalized EPS increased from $2.85 to $2.90 (12 months ending Sept. 30, 2010 vs. 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2009). And for the last time interval, the EPS increased from $2.90 to $2.93 (12 months ending Sept. 30, 2011 vs. 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2010). Price/sales ratio of 1.48. Shares shorted have decreased from 913,420 to 256,860 over the last month, a decrease which represents about 1.81% of the company's float of 36.28 million shares. Days-to-cover ratio stands at 0.8 days.

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6 Small-Cap Stocks That Look Good Today

Studies show that great workplaces enjoy lower turnover and better financial performance than industry peers. But do these companies really achieve greater financial success over the long haul? Here I'll examine whether companies praised by their employees also receive applause from shareholders.

The listFortune magazine publishes a list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" every year. In order to make the list, the companies are evaluated using a model developed by the Great Place to Work Institute. The model claims that employees value six attributes: trust, credibility, fairness, pride, respect, and camaraderie. The companies are rated based on what actions they take to foster these attributes in their work environments.

Just less than half of the companies on the list operate as either private businesses or non-profit entities. Some private businesses, such as Wegmans Food Markets, Container Store, and Edward Jones, have materialized near the top of the list for more than a decade. For my cursory analysis, I concentrated on the publically traded companies.

Crunching the numbersFor the 51 publically traded companies on the list, I homed in on the ones that consistently secured spots on the Fortune list over the past decade. That left me with a tidy group of 13 companies: five tech companies, four consumer goods producers, two financial-services providers, one retailer, and one telecom. I compared the performance of the five tech stocks to PowerShares QQQ, a surrogate for the NASDAQ 100 that takes dividend reinvestment into account, over the one-year, three-year, five-year, and 10-year periods. I compared the remaining eight non-tech stocks to the SPDR S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) , which I used as a proxy for the S&P 500.

The tech stocks outperformed the PowerShares ETF in the one-year and 10-year periods. Over the 10-year period, the basket of tech stocks outperformed the PowerShares ETF by nearly 60 percentage points -- 183% total return, versus 125%.

For the non-tech stocks, the SPDR ETF actually outperformed in each period except the 10-year period, when the basket returned 107% total return, versus 58% for the SPDR ETF.

Blue ribbons Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) -- so prevalent it's a verb -- secured the coveted No. 1 spot on Fortune's list. Applauded by employees for its nap rooms and onsite haircuts, the leading Internet search provider grew its workforce by 33% last year. And its stock performance has been nothing shy of amazing: It has quadrupled the performance of the PowerShares ETF since Google went public in 2004. The advent of Google Drive, the company's foray into cloud computing, positions the company well for the future.

Feel-good food retailer Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFM) also displayed impressive growth. Amazingly, Whole Foods pays 100% of its employees' health care premiums. The company posted performance five times better than the SPDR ETF during the one-year, three-year, and 10-year periods -- and an incredible 20 times better than the SPDR ETF during the five-year period. This grocer, known for good deeds among its employees and customers, continues to post impressive same-stores sales numbers and is positioned well for further growth.

Not too shabbyToymaker Mattel's (Nasdaq: MAT) stock appreciated significantly over the past decade with a 119% total return, pummeling the SPDR ETF's 58% total return. Mattel employees benefit from a compressed workweek schedule and on-site child care. Mattel continues to focus diligently on its international expansion and has been rewarded success, as overseas sales grew nearly 12% in 2011. And since the stock price recently pulled back, consider adding shares while the stock's on sale.

You gotta be kidding meDespite its recent floggings in the press, I was shocked to find Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) not only resting comfortably in the No. 33 spot for this year, but consistently appearing on the Fortune list. Not surprisingly, the biggest benefit cited was the pay; the average annual salary for a non-exempt professional employee is $139,200. The company lost a lot of ground in the one-year, three-year, and five-year periods, when its stock price dropped precipitously due to poor business decisions and a grave macroeconomic environment. Over the 10-year period, the financial-services company saw a total return of 60%, which only slightly edged out the SPDR ETF's 58% return during the same time period.

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Do Happier Employees Yield Healthier Stocks?

Posted: Apr. 30, 2012 | 3:47 p.m. Updated: May 1, 2012 | 9:18 a.m.

It's early in the quarterly earnings season, but initial reports have given a boost to the gaming sector.

For the fourth consecutive month, gaming stocks - on a whole - gained in value, according to Las Vegas-based financial consultant Applied Analysis, which charts the average daily stock prices for eight casino operators and four gaming equipment providers for its monthly Gaming Index.

Gaming operators posted mixed results; shares of Caesars Entertainment Corp. traded up more than 15 percent on an average daily basis during the month while shares of Ameristar Casinos took the largest tumble, off 7 percent in April.

All four gaming equipment makers had increased stock value in April, led by WMS Industries, which saw its average daily share price climb almost 7 percent.

Applied Analysis principal Brian Gordon said in a report to the firm's clients that positive first-quarter earnings reports suggest that market fundamentals are improving and investor expectations are on an upswing.

Last week, Las Vegas Sands Corp. told investors the company had net revenues of $2.76 billion and cash flow of more than $1 billion in the first quarter. Roughly 83 percent of the company's revenues came from its holdings in Macau and Singapore.

Meanwhile, Boyd Gaming Corp. and International Game Technology also released positive quarterly earnings.

"Strong growth in relatively new markets proved positive for the industry while demand for slot machines appears to be resuming," Gordon said.

The index, which is based on some 300 different market variables including average daily stock price, gained 8.24 points to reach 497.24.

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Gaming Stocks Gain For Fourth Straight Month