11th Mar 2025 08:53
(Alliance News) - Persimmon PLC on Tuesday said it has made an encouraging start to the new financial year after reporting profit in 2024 ahead of market expectations.
The York, England-based housebuilder said pretax profit rose 2.1% to GBP359.1 million in 2024 from GBP351.8 million a year prior. Underlying pretax profit rose 10% to GBP395.1 million from GBP359.4 million, ahead of previous guidance for around the upper end of market expectations of GBP349 million to GBP390 million.
Revenue improved 15% to GBP3.20 billion in 2024 from GBP2.77 billion a year prior.
New home completions rose 7% to 10,664 from 9,922 and underlying operating margin improved to 14.1% from 14.0%.
"Persimmon's disciplined investment and significant operational improvements in recent years has created a stronger business. This is demonstrated by our growth in 2024, with completions, outlets and profit all up," Chief Executive Dean Finch said.
In response, shares in Persimmon were 4.0% higher at 1,217.53 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
"The underlying market fundamentals remain strong and we are encouraged by the further improvement in our sales rates in the early weeks of this year. The government's welcome planning reforms and pro-housebuilding agenda demands more of the high-quality, affordable homes which are Persimmon's core strength, providing a positive tailwind," Finch added.
Persimmon maintained its annual dividend at 60p per share, including a 40p final payout.
Persimmon said: "We entered 2025 with an improved forward order book and have continued to add to it since the start of the year. In the first nine weeks of 2025, our net private sales rate per outlet per week was 0.67, up 14% compared to the same period last year.
"With this progress in our forward order book, alongside an anticipated increase in the delivery of affordable homes, we are targeting 11,000 to 11,500 completions for 2025," it added.
"Alongside this we are targeting further growth in profit and returns, in line with market expectations, and an improved underlying operating margin in 2025," Persimmon continued.
The firm's medium-term ambition is to deliver an underlying operating margin and return on capital employed of 20%. In 2024, underlying return on average capital employed was 11.1% up from 10.5% from 2023.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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