Morgan Advanced Materials enjoyed an 8.7% of its share price to 312p in early morning Friday trading upon the release of strong 2021 financial results.
The materials company reported a 4.4% increase in revenue, up to £950.5 million from £910.7 million in 2020.
Moran Advanced Materials posted an adjusted operating profit increase of 35.8% to £124.5 million compared to £91.7 million in 2020.
The Group further reported an adjusted earnings-per-share increase of 43.2% to 27.2p.
Morgan Advanced Materials announced that it expects a revenue growth of 4-7% over 2022.
The company is also scheduled to increase its exposure to faster growing sectors including clean energy, semiconductors, clean transportation and healthcare.
The Group added that it had severed all its ties to Russia, which accounted for less than 0.5% (£4 million) of all company revenues.
“2021 was the second challenging year with the COVID-19 pandemic driving various restrictions on mobility and activity around the world,” said Morgan Advanced Materials CEO Pete Raby.
“Demand recovered strongly across the global economy following the sharp slowdown in 2020, and the combination of high demand and the pandemic led to supply chain disruptions and inflation in materials and labour in various parts of our business.”
“Nevertheless, in spite of these challenges, we have made good progress as a business, with further implementation of our strategy and progress against our long-term goals.”
“This resulted in strong growth and saw margins at their highest point in more than 20 years.”
The strong results gave the board the confidence to hike the dividend to 9.1p which is well cover by adjusted EPS 27.2p.