Ultra Electronics profit drops but revenue beats expectations
Ultra Electronics posted a drop in full-year profit on Wednesday but revenue beat expectations and the FTSE 250 defence company lifted its dividend.
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Ultra Electronics Holdings
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In the year to 31 December 2018, underlying pre-tax profit fell 7.8% to £101.4m, while statutory pre-tax profit declined 29.7% to £42.6m, on revenue of £766.7m, down 1.1% on a reported basis but ahead of ahead of analysts’ expectations of £757m.
Meanwhile, underlying operating profit was down 6.2% to £112.7m due in part to the previously announced £6.3m cost overruns at the Herley business in the US on specific development contracts.
The order book grew 9.6% during the year to £983.9m and the final dividend was boosted 5.7% to 37p a share, taking the total dividend for the year to 51.6p a share, up 4%.
Chief executive officer Simon Pryce said: "After a good second half and having addressed a number of legacy issues, we delivered an encouraging set of results in 2018. While there is much work to be done in the next phase of Ultra's development, we now have a solid platform from which to grow and deliver against our goal of creating long term, sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
"Significant additional potential exists in Ultra through focusing the group on where we add value, improving core processes and better leveraging the combined group's strengths and capabilities. We anticipate that 2019 will be a year of good underlying progress and we look forward to an exciting future of growth with confidence."