Micro Focus one year through three-year turnaround plan

Micro Focus, the FTSE 250 listed IT company, has resumed its dividend payment following “solid progress” towards its three-year turnaround plan.

The company reported a fall in earnings of $1.2bn for the year ending in October 2020, which was towards the upper end of expectations. This figure is down from the $1.4bn fall in earnings reported the year before. 

Total revenue dropped by 10% to $3bn.

On account of a better than expected cash performance, Micro Focus decided to reinstate its dividend to 15.5p per share. 

In March 2020 the company decided not to pay out a dividend in order to protect itself against the oncoming pandemic. This caused shares in the company to plunge by 15.6% to 340p. 

Upon today’s news of the dividend being resumed, the Micro Focus share price jumped up by over 4% to over 517p. 

Stephen Murdoch, the chief executive of Micro Focus, praised the company’s performance over the year, while reaffirming that the company is only one year into its turnaround plan. 

“We are now 12 months into our three-year turnaround plan and whilst there remains a great deal to do, we have made solid progress in delivery of our key strategic objectives and improvements in operational effectiveness. 

We continue to work closely with our customers around the world enabling them to build on their existing IT investments with the latest innovations to help accelerate their digital transformation programmes,” Murdoch said.

Micro Focus’ most recent dividend payment of over 46p per share came in September 2019.