11th Sep 2018 10:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - Intellectual property lawyers Murgitroyd Group PLC hiked its dividend Tuesday despite reporting that profit was hurt by one-off costs amid broadly flat revenue.
For the financial year that ended in May, pretax profit slipped 5.3% to GBP3.6 million from GBP3.8 million the year prior. This was after revenue fell 0.9% to GBP43.9 million from GBP44.3 million.
Profit performance also was held back by a GBP504,000 exceptional cost during the period. This was associated with a provision against a single trade receivable balance. On an underlying basis - excluding the one-off provision - profit rose 7.9% to GBP4.1 million from GBP3.8 million the year before.
"I am pleased to report an increase in underlying pretax profit and record year-end cash balances for the period under review," Chairman Ian Murgitroyd said. "Four years of significant investment in our pan-European footprint, software and business development, as well as back office efficiencies has put us in a strong competitive position to help offset any weakness in individual markets and to remain at the cutting edge of client-service and productivity."
"The board remains confident that it can continue to deliver sustainable long-term growth and value to shareholders, which together with an increasingly strong balance sheet, has allowed us to again propose an increased final dividend, consistent with the board's progressive dividend policy", Murgitroyd added.
Murgitroyd proposed a 14.5 pence per share final dividend, up 21% from 12.0p the year prior. That means for the full year, the dividend rose 24% to 21.0p from 17.0p.
Shares in Murgitroyd were 2.6% higher at 743.75 pence on Tuesday.
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