Shares in engineering group Meggitt (LON:MGGT) fell over 1.5 percent at market open on Tuesday, despite a sharp increase in pre-tax profit.
The group’s pre-tax profits rose 34 percent to £262.4 million, with revenue growing by 2 percent to £2.03 billion. Meggitt, who specialise in the production of engineering components, saw its order book grow by 5 percent over the course of the year to £2.08 billion, and the company said it expected continued revenue growth into 2018.
“2017 trading was in line with our expectations with the stronger second half contributing to good organic growth across the group, a 10 basis point improvement in margin and 42 percent growth in free cash flow,” chief executive Tony Wood said.
“Following organic order growth of 6 percent in 2017, we expect these trends to continue into 2018, with expected revenue growth of 2 percent -to-4 percent and continued operating margin improvement, prior to the impact of new accounting standards.”
Shares in Meggitt are currently trading down 2.68 percent at 454.10 (0949GMT).