14th Apr 2021 09:16
(Alliance News) - QinetiQ Group PLC on Wednesday reported a "strong" operational performance in its fourth quarter through "continued disciplined execution" of its strategy.
The FTSE 250-listed defence technology firm said as a result of this, it has upgraded its full-year guidance and now expects its results for the year ended March 31 to be above both its previous guidance and market consensus expectations.
Shares in QinetiQ were up 7.0% at 343.51 pence in London on Wednesday.
Farnborough, England-based QinetiQ said its full-year order intake has been "strong", resulting in an expectation of a high teens percentage revenue growth and a high single digit percentage revenue growth on an organic basis.
The company also expects its full-year underlying operating profit margin percentage to be "modestly ahead" of that delivered in the first half, resulting in underlying operating profit for the full year of at least GBP147 million.
Back in January, QinetiQ said the average forecast for financial 2021 put revenue at GBP1.15 billion and operating profit at GBP130 million. For comparison, revenue for financial 2020 was GBP1.07 billion and operating profit was GBP117.6 million.
QinetiQ said it believes its strong performance is due to the overachievement across its Europe, Middle East & Africa Services portfolio. This offset the "modest" Covid-19 impacts seen earlier in the year in Global Products, which affected the US and Target Systems, it added.
Looking ahead, the company said it retains its medium to long-term guidance.
"We are targeting mid-single digit percentage compound annual organic revenue growth over the next five years, with strategic acquisitions further enhancing this growth. We are targeting operating profit margin of between 12% and 13%, although in the short-term we continue to anticipate margins being 100bps lower, driven by increased investment on our digital transformation programme and by the evolution of our business mix. Capital expenditure is expected to be in the region of GBP90 million to GBP120 million per annum for the next two years," said QinetiQ.
The company plans to publish its full-year results on May 20.
By Zoe Wickens; [email protected]
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