6th Sep 2023 12:54
(Alliance News) - Despite reporting a sharply higher profit and a rise in revenue on Wednesday, shares in Darktrace PLC fell 4.4% in London during early afternoon trade as markets eyed the firm's forward guidance with caution.
The Cambridge-based cybersecurity company reported revenue grew 31% to USD545.4 million in the year ended June 30, from USD415.5 million the year prior, boosted by multi-year contracts and its "flexible" cost structure.
Pretax profit multiplied to USD41.0 million from USD5.3 million the year prior, as the firm's finance income grew to USD8.0 million, from USD518,000.
Looking ahead, the firm upped its financial 2024 adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation guidance to growth between 22% and 24%, from at or around 22% in July.
In financial 2023, adjusted Ebitda was USD139.2 million, growing 52% from USD91.4 million.
Darktrace reaffirmed its previous outlook for constant currency annual recurring revenue, meanwhile. It predicts ARR at constant currency to grow between 21% and 23% in financial 2024.
However, the company said it is framing its current financial year as a "tale of two halves" with "first half stabilisation" and "second half re-acceleration."
Darktrace currently expects around 45% of financial 2024 net ARR added to be added in the first half and around 55% to be added in the second half. This, it explained, is "more second half weighted than is typical".
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said "bitter experience" has taught investors to be suspicious of situations where a company expects a second-half weighting to its results.
"What typically happens is a quieter first half leaves the firm in question with too much to do to hit full-year guidance and the inevitable result is a profit warning," he said.
As a result, Mould said it was "understandable" that the market was "not too enamoured" with the cyber security firm's guidance for a "year of two halves".
By Heather Rydings, Alliance News senior economics reporter
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