6th May 2015 06:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - The Sage Group PLC said Wednesday it remains on track to meet its financial targets for its current financial year, as it saw revenue rise 6.5% in its first half.
The company is targeting 6% organic revenue growth and 28% operating margin in its current financial year.
In the half year to end-March, the company posted a pretax profit of GBP172.6 million, up from GBP170.9 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP699.2 million from GBP656.5 million.
Sage attributed its revenue growth to a strong performance from subscriptions, and a temporary acceleration of growth in software and software-related services, although this was offset by weaker performances in other segments of the business including its Enterprise Europe division, and its Payments and Small Medium Business segments in North America.
The weaker performance in these parts of the business leads it to have a cautious outlook for these areas, Sage said.
The company said its organic operating profit margin in the first half improved to 28.1% from 27.4% in the same period in the previous year.
Sage proposed an interim dividend of 4.45 pence, up from 4.12 pence a year before.
"The business also enjoyed a number of benefits in the second quarter which, though encouraging, are unlikely to recur in the second half, and so our expectations for the current year remain unchanged," said Chief Executive Officer Stephen Kelly in a statement.
"We have already started making changes to facilitate and underpin our longer-term growth plans. These changes are being carefully introduced to ensure minimum risk to the business," Kelly added.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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