24th May 2018 09:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - FTSE 250-listed aerospace and defence firm QinetiQ Group PLC boosted its dividend Thursday after its full-year profit and revenue rose, marking its second consecutive year of organic growth.
For the year ended March, pretax profit widened 10% to GBP144.8 million from GBP131.5 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 6.4% to GBP833.0 million from GBP783.1 million the year before.
QinetiQ proposed a 4.2 pence per share final dividend, up 5.0% from 4.0p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend grew 5.0% to 6.3p from 6.0p the year prior.
"This has been a year of significant progress for QinetiQ," Chief Executive Officer Steve Wadey said. "We delivered a strong operational performance in financial 2018, with a second successive year of organic growth and an increasing contribution from our international businesses overcoming the profit headwinds in the UK on single-sourced work."
"Our strategy is delivering as we continue to transform QinetiQ into a more customer focused and international company, well placed to deliver further long-term growth," Wadey added. "With more than two thirds of our financial 2019 revenue under contract, we enter the year in a position of strength and are maintaining expectations for group performance."
The order book - excluding long-term partnering agreement with the UK Ministry of Defence - dropped 13% to GBP587.2 million from GBP675.3 million the year prior. Adjusting for the GBP164 million multi-year contracts awarded in the prior year, the order book grew 15%.
Shares in QinetiQ were 0.1% higher at 244.80 pence on Thursday.
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