Oxford Instruments PLC on Friday reported a drop in pretax profit, despite a rise in annual revenue, with its top line beating the £500 million threshold for the first time.
The Abingdon, England-based provider of high technology products and services to industry and scientific research communities said pretax profit declined 44% to £39.8 million in the year that ended March 31 from £71.3 million a year prior.
Stripping out charges for amortisation, impairment and non-recurring items, adjusted operating profit rose by 2.4% to £82.2 million from £80.3 million, although operating profit margin fell to 16.4% from 17.1%.
Adjusted operating profit included adverse currency movements of £8.5 million, reflecting the weaker dollar.
Revenue increased 6.4% to £500.6 million from £470.4 million driven by good growth in semiconductor and materials analysis, offsetting continued weakness in healthcare and life science.
In response, shares in Oxford Instruments were down 3.2% at 1,812.00 pence each in London on Friday morning.
The company highlighted strong performance across North America, Asia and Europe, with a successful pivot to new markets in China, now complete.
The order book stood at £463.7 million, up 1.0% from £459.1 million a year ago.
‘With good growth in orders and a robust order book, we have good visibility of planned revenues for the coming year, with order book to revenue ratios in line with historical patterns,’ the company said in a statement.
‘We have mitigated the direct impacts of tariffs on existing orders through positive engagement with customers. With key semiconductor product lines currently exempt from the 10% US universal tariff, and with further mitigating actions at our disposal, we are confident we can continue to navigate this dynamic situation,’ it added.
Oxford Instruments lifted its final dividend by 7.5% to 17.1p per share from 15.9p. Its total dividend amounted to 22.2p, up 6.7% from 20.8p.
On Tuesday, Oxford Instruments had said it plans to return £50 million to shareholders after announcing the £60 million sale of Oxford Instruments NanoScience.
On Friday, the company said there are ‘further benefits to be realised from our strategic initiatives to transform the business, and our revenue visibility is healthy.’
‘We are confident that our differentiated higher margin business will continue to deliver attractive profitable growth,’ it added.
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