Porvair share price falls despite record revenues and profits plus a higher dividend
Porvair plc, the specialist filtration, lab and environmental tech group, posted record revenues and profits for the year to November 30 – and promptly saw its UK share price fall 22p to 638p per share.
Profit taking or stockholders failing to spot a good result when they see it?
The performance by the King’s Lynn group was nevertheless outstanding in a year when the macro-economic backdrop was tricky, to say the least. Revenue was two per cent ahead to £176 million and pre-tax profit up seven per cent to £20.1m.
Porvair ended the year with net cash of £14.1m (2022: £18.3m) despite having invested £18.7m in capital expenditure and acquisitions. Two acquisitions were completed in the year in the Aerospace & Industrial division and one in Laboratory.
The company even hiked the recommended final dividend to 4p a share from 3.8p last time – taking the full-year dividend to 6p from 5.7p.
And chief executive Ben Stocks believes there is more to come. He says: “After a record 2023 the board is optimistic for 2024 and beyond. There is much to look forward to as the year unfolds: opportunities afforded by acquisitions; strong order books in aerospace and petrochemical; demand recovery in Laboratory; and new products in Seal Analytical and elsewhere.
“In the first half of 2024 these should offset near-term headwinds of adverse foreign exchange and de-stocking in US industrial consumables, which seems to have a few more months to run.
“The group's fundamental demand drivers have not changed. Porvair remains well positioned to take advantage of tightening environmental regulation; the growth of analytical science; the need for clean water; the development of carbon-efficient transportation; the replacement of plastic and steel by aluminium; and the drive for manufacturing process quality and efficiency. It is these trends that drive the group's consistent longer-term trading record and enables the Board to look ahead with confidence.”
