24th Oct 2024 11:40
(Alliance News) - Softcat PLC on Thursday announced a comfortably higher payout than a year ago as it expected to further grow in the current financial year.
Softcat shares rose 12% to 1,721.00 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
The Buckinghamshire-based provider of IT infrastructure technology and services said pretax profit rose 12% to GBP159.4 million in the financial year ended July 31, from GBP141.9 million a year ago.
Revenue fell 2.3% to GBP962.6 million from GBP985.3 million.
"This progress comes despite general weakness in UK economic conditions, which had a dampening effect on customer demand throughout the year, resulting in longer sales cycles and deferred spending. We observed customers prioritising cost optimisation and sweating existing assets ahead of committing to major new projects and while, for example, sales of client devices delivered growth for the year, this was an area of our industry that was especially impacted," Softcat said.
Administrative costs increased 13% to GBP263.7 million from GBP232.9 million. Cost of sales however reduced 11% to GBP544.9 million from GBP611.5 million.
Softcat recommended a final dividend of 18.1 pence per share, up 6.5% from 17.0p a year ago. This brings the total ordinary payout to 26.6p, up 6.4% from 25.0p.
Further, it proposed a special dividend of 20.9p, up 66% from 12.6p.
Chief Executive Officer Graham Charlton said: "During the year we made further progress against our two key strategic goals: expanding our position with existing customers whilst also adding to our customer base. We also continued to evolve our technology and service proposition, reframing and strengthening our offer to enable further strategic progress in the years to come."
He added: "The group's financial position is as strong as ever, with cash generation continuing to support our progressive ordinary dividend and once again also enabling the recommendation of a special dividend."
Looking ahead, Softcat expects to again deliver double-digit gross profit growth in current financial year 2025, as well as high single-digit operating profit growth.
In financial 2024, gross profit grew 12% to GBP417.8 million from GBP373.8 million a year prior, while operating profit came in 9.3% higher at GBP154.1 million compared to GBP140.9 million.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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