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Qinetiq Group PLC on Thursday said profit grew in the first half of its current financial year due to an increase in orders, and announced an extension of its share buyback programme.
The Farnborough, Hampshire-based defence technology company said pretax profit in the six months that ended September 30 was £86.5 million, up 0.8% from £85.8 million last year.
Revenue grew 7.0% to £946.8 million from £883.1 million the year before, while operating costs increased 6.8% to £821.6 million from £767.2 million.
Orders rose 7.8% to £1.03 billion from £952.7 million, and the group’s order backlog reduced 6.3% to £2.94 billion from £3.13 billion.
Qinetiq declared an interim dividend of 2.8 pence per share, up 7.4% year-on-year from 2.6p.
Chief Executive Officer Steve Wadey said: ‘We have delivered a good operational and financial performance across the group, set against a backdrop of political change and an evolving threat environment. Our talented people do critical work, highly relevant to our customers’ mission and this is driving increasing demand for our capabilities.
‘As a result of our continued focus on disciplined capital allocation, we have extended our £100 million share buyback programme by £50 million to deliver increased shareholder returns. Guidance for financial 2025 is unchanged and we remain on track to deliver our financial 2027 outlook of around £2.4 billion organic revenue at around 12% margin. We are well-positioned for long-term sustainable growth with compelling value creation for shareholders.’
The group expects to deliver high single-digit organic revenue growth in its full-year results, compared to £1.91 billion of revenue in financial 2024.
Shares in Qinetiq were down 2.2% at 456.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
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