18th Mar 2020 09:55
(Alliance News) - Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC on Wednesday reported a rise in annual profit but deferred declaring a special dividend.
The stock was trading 5.4% higher at 190.00 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.
The grocer declared a final ordinary dividend of 4.84 pence per share, taking the full-year payout to 8.77p. The supermarket did not declare a special dividend, choosing to defer it in order to preserve cash amid uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 outbreak.
The year prior, Morrisons paid a dividend of 12.60p, made up of a total ordinary dividend of 6.60p and a special dividend of 6.0p.
Analysts had expected Morrisons to declare a total ordinary dividend of 6.55p, plus a 4.72p special payout, for 11.27p in total.
As at February 2, the company had cash and cash-equivalents of GBP305 million and access to undrawn revolving credit facilities of GBP1.45 billion, it noted.
For its year ended February 2, the FTSE 100-listed grocer said pretax profit jumped 44% to GBP435 million from GBP303 million the year before. Wm Morrison booked a GBP27 million exceptional gain in financial 2020 versus a loss of GBP93 million in financial 2019.
Profit before tax and exceptional items rose 3.0% to GBP408 million from GBP396 million, in line with analyst's expectations.
Revenue fell to GBP17.54 billion from GBP17.74 billion with like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT down 0.8% compared to a 4.4% rise the previous year. Fuel sales were down 2.5% to GBP3.7 billion.
Looking ahead, WM Morrison sales have continued to improve as customers have stocked up to prepare for the impact of the outbreak.
"During the last two weeks, there has been considerable stocking up and sales pull-forward as customers plan for the impact of Covid-19. Overall, for the first six weeks of 2020-21, retail contribution to LFL was 5.0%."
It added that over 240 additional McColl's stores will convert to Morrisons wholesale supply, stating that its plan for GBP1 billion of wholesale supply sales remains unchanged.
By Ife Taiwo; [email protected]
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