12th Jul 2019 10:16
(Alliance News) - Sophos Group PLC on Friday said it is well positioned for growth despite swinging to loss in the first quarter of its current financial year.
In addition, the cyber security services provider said Chief Financial Officer Nick Bray will leave in November after nine years with the firm. He will take up a position at a private equity-owned business in the technology market, operating in a different segment to Sophos, it said.
The company said Bray will stand for re-election during Sophos's annual general meeting in September and will remain with the company until mid-November, regardless of the poll results.
Sophos added that it has already begun the recruitment process to appoint a new CFO.
Turning back to quarterly results, the FTSE 250-listed company said it swung to a pretax loss of USD4.0 million for the three months to the end of June compard to a pretax profit of USD7.3 million reported in the first quarter last year.
More positively for Sophos, its adjusted operating profit increased to USD24.1 million from USD21.9 million and its renewal rate as of June 30 stood at 118% compared to 115% a year ago.
Revenue, meanwhile, increased by 2.7% to USD180.2 million from USD175.5 million year-on-year.
Sophos explained that in the first quarter its subscription revenue growth of 10% in constant currency offset an 11% fall in hardware revenue.
Chief Executive Kris Hagermann said: "This has been an encouraging start to the year which underpins our confidence in our prospects for the full year. The demand environment continues to be strong, and as we noted at the full-year, we believe we have a highly effective and differentiated next-generation security product portfolio that positions Sophos very well."
Shares in Sophos were up 4.1% at 429.80 pence each in London on Friday morning.
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