14th Nov 2024 11:05
(Alliance News) - Qinetiq Group PLC on Thursday said profit grew in the first half of its current financial year due to an increase in orders, and announced an extension of its share buyback programme.
The Farnborough, Hampshire-based defence technology company said pretax profit in the six months that ended September 30 was GBP86.5 million, up 0.8% from GBP85.8 million last year.
Revenue grew 7.0% to GBP946.8 million from GBP883.1 million the year before, while operating costs increased 6.8% to GBP821.6 million from GBP767.2 million.
Orders rose 7.8% to GBP1.03 billion from GBP952.7 million, and the group's order backlog reduced 6.3% to GBP2.94 billion from GBP3.13 billion.
Qinetiq declared an interim dividend of 2.8 pence per share, up 7.4% year-on-year from 2.6p.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Wadey said: "We have delivered a good operational and financial performance across the group, set against a backdrop of political change and an evolving threat environment. Our talented people do critical work, highly relevant to our customers' mission and this is driving increasing demand for our capabilities.
"As a result of our continued focus on disciplined capital allocation, we have extended our GBP100 million share buyback programme by GBP50 million to deliver increased shareholder returns. Guidance for financial 2025 is unchanged and we remain on track to deliver our financial 2027 outlook of around GBP2.4 billion organic revenue at around 12% margin. We are well-positioned for long-term sustainable growth with compelling value creation for shareholders."
The group expects to deliver high single-digit organic revenue growth in its full-year results, compared to GBP1.91 billion of revenue in financial 2024.
Shares in Qinetiq were down 2.2% at 456.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Emily Parsons, Alliance News reporter
Comments and questions to [email protected]
Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved