Growth in North America helped payments security technology company Eckoh (LON: ECK) increase annualised recurring revenues in the region by one-third to $15.9m and group operating margins were higher than expected at 19.5%. There was cash of £5.7m at the end of March 2023. Full year pre-tax profit is estimated to be at least £7.6m and it could rise to £8.3m in 2023-24. The share price rose by one-fifth to 39p.
N4 Pharma (LON: N4P) has risen on news that in vitro studies indicate a similar inhibition of cell growth for either EGFR or BCL-2 loaded on the Nuvec delivery system to two commercial therapies. Further work will be carried out to assess the minimal loading of siRNA on Nuvec. The share price increased 13.2% to 2.15p.
Management process automation software provider ActiveOps (LON: AOM) made better gross margins on forecast revenues of £25m and a positive EBITDA in the year to March 2023. A £500,000 loss was forecast. There was £15.4m in cash at the year-end. The newly launched CaseWorkIQ software is starting to gain momentum. The full year figures will be published in July. The share price is 9.46% higher at 81p, but it is still not much higher than its low for 2023.
IT training provider Northcoders (LON: CODE) reported an 86% increase in revenues to £5.6m in 2022 and pre-tax profit jumped from £100,000 to £600,000. There was net cash of £1.7m at the end of 2022. Revenues of £6.1m are already in the order book for 2023 and the full year forecast is £9.5m. The pre-tax profit should double to £1.2m. The share price is 8.11% ahead at 320p.
Fire Angel Safety Technology (LON: FA.) has been hit by supply problems and that particularly hampered sales of higher margin products. A delayed contract has also held back progress. Costs have fallen but EBITDA will be below expectations in 2023. Price increases will help revenues from the second quarter onwards. Shore Capital has withdrawn its forecasts. The share price dived by 26.7% to 8.25p.
Strategic Minerals (LON: SML) revenues from magnetite sales in New Mexico fell from $663,000 to $415,000. There was cash of $281,000 at the end of March 2023. Jeffreys Henry has been replaced as auditor by Shipleys. Management is finding it difficult to fund the restart of production at the Leigh Creek copper mine. The share price slumped by one-fifth to 0.2p.
Translation services provider RWS (LON: RWS) grew interim revenues by 2.5% to £366.3m but underlying pre-tax profit will fall from £60.7m to £54m. Organic growth should accelerate in the second half, reflecting the additional investment in the first half that held back profit. Even so, full year profit is likely to be lower than expected. The share price declined 15.8% to 240.8p. Trading conditions were tougher for Focusrite (LON: TUNE) in the content creation market and that was only partly offset by a bounce back in the audio reproduction sector as live events returned to past levels. Group interim revenues fell from £92.9m to £86.2m, even after the inclusion of recent acquisitions. A fall in freight charges helped gross margin edge up to 47.1%. Even so, pre-tax profit fell from £16.3m to £10.9m. Net debt was £13.2m after the cost of acquisitions. The dividend was still raised from 1.85p a share to 2.1p a share. The share price fell 8.7% to 525p. That is the lowest level for three years.
