7th Mar 2019 09:05
LONDON (Alliance News) - Spirent Communications PLC on Thursday reported a strong rise in its annual profit but declared no special payout to shareholders for the 2018.
Spirent hiked its ordinary dividend to 4.49 US cents per share from 4.08 cents a year prior, after declaring a final dividend of 2.73 cents.
However the FTSE 250 company did not declare any special dividend for the year. A year ago the firm's special payout amounted to 5.0 cents per share.
For 2018, Spirent, which offers testing and analytics for networks and devices, posted pretax profit up 31% to USD61.2 million from USD46.6 million a year prior.
Revenue increased 5% year-on-year to USD476.9 million from USD454.8 million, on the back of rising order intake across all business segments.
"We are delighted to see our previously communicated strategy in action, delivering on Spirent's potential as we continue to maintain market leadership in our major revenue streams and continue to develop solutions to match new growth drivers such as 5G," Chief Executive Officer Eric Hutchinson said.
He added: "We remain well positioned for future growth, enabling our customers to accelerate time to market and increase their service quality at lower operating costs and we are confident for further progress in the year ahead."
Spirent shares were trading up 2.5% at 154.92 pence each.
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