Producer and distributor of animal feed additives Anpario PLC (LON: ANP) saw its share price dip on Wednesday morning, with the company reporting a varied set of financial results.
The overview wasn’t too positive this morning, with their headline statistic being a dip in first half sales in a year-on-year comparison, down from £14.8 million to £14.3 million.
However, Anpario did see progress in its profit indices, with a 2% on-year increase in gross profits, up to £7.1 million, and a 1% advance in profit before tax, up to £2.3 million.
Further, the Group’s shareholders enjoyed some progress, with a 3% lift in EPS to 8.88p, and a 14% hike in interim dividends, up to 2.5p per share.
The Company added that it had performed strong sales recovery in Latin America and the Middle East, that it had completed a £1 million investment in automated bottling and had launched Anpario Direct Online to access smaller customers.
Anpario comments
Peter Lawrence, Chairman, commented:
“The board is encouraged by the continued recovery in a number of our markets which struggled during 2018. Latin America and the Middle East delivered strong performances and the United States continued its double-digit sales growth. As expected, China and certain territories in South East Asia experienced weak trading, where the impact of African Swine Fever put farmers under significant strain. As our improved profitability demonstrates, the geographic and species diversity of the Group is a major strength when facing such external challenges and we have been able to mitigate some of the impact by focusing on higher value-added products and developing more direct routes to market, which have helped to improve gross margins.”
“Expanding profitable sales and distribution channels around the world remains our priority. Our strong balance sheet and cash generation capability provide Anpario with a firm platform from which to invest in new products and to develop the exciting Anpario Direct opportunity. Our business development initiatives, backed by the quality and ability of our employees worldwide, give me confidence that we are in line for our full year management expectations.”
Investor notes
After a slight recovery and second dip, the Company’s shares are down 1.92% or 6.35p to 323.66p per share 11/09/19 10:03 BST. Analysts from Peel Hunt reiterated their ‘Hold’ stance on Anpario stock. The Group’s p/e ratio is 17.46, their dividend yield is modest at 2.18%.
Elsewhere in food and agribusiness, there have been updates from; Bakkavor Group Plc (LON: BAKK), Avangardco Investments Public Limited (LON: AVGR), Loungers PLC (LON: LGRS), The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO), Devro plc (LON: DVO), Greencore Group plc, (LON: GNC) and NWF Group plc (LON: NWF).
