Gentrack Group has confirmed a 3 per cent gain in full-year profit and bumped up its final dividend as margins widened. The utilities software developer said pretax earnings are expected to grow 10 per cent in 2017.
Net profit rose to $9.6 million in the 12 months ended September 30, from $9.4m a year earlier, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Sales jumped 25 per cent to $56.7m.
Gentrack first flagged its full-year results in summarised form on November 4 including a 16 per cent gain in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were about $16.7m, beating its guidance. It will pay a final dividend of 7.7 cents a share, up from 7.2 per cent a year earlier.
"We enter FY2017 with a solid order book and pipeline of opportunities and we expect to continue to deliver long-term revenue and ebitda growth of 10 per cent-plus per annum, albeit that our results may be impacted by the timing of projects," said chief executive Ian Black.
The shares rose 2.6 per cent to $3.50, having gained 36 per cent so far this year. The stock was punished after releasing a major profit warning five weeks after listing which earned it a rebuke from the Financial Markets Authority which said the company could have been clearer when flagging certain risks. The share price has recovered since September last year and is now trading above its 2014 initial public offering price of $2.40.
