QinetiQ Group plc (LON: QQ) have seen their shares jump on Thursday morning after they reported impressive interim results to shareholders.
QinetiQ maintained their annual forecasts unchanged after they update shareholders with double digit earnings growth in the first six months of its financial year.
Shares of QinetiQ jumped 4.6% on Thursday to 336p. 14/11/19 11:11BST.
The FTSE250 (INDEXFTSE: MCX) listed firm reported a pretax profit of £71.3 million for the interim period ending in September.
This saw an impressive increase of 35% compared to the £52.7 million figure one year ago. Additionally, revenue grew by 16% from £486.5 million from £420.3 million.
“We delivered a strong first half result, with organic growth in orders, revenue and profit driven by a good performance across our businesses, both in the UK and internationally,” said Chief Executive Steve Wadey.Q
QinetiQ declared an interim dividend of 2.2p a share, slightly higher than 2.1p it paid a year before.
With the update, QinetiQ maintained their expectations for full year operating profit, and forecasted high single digit revenue growth.
“Our focus for the remainder of the year is to win further campaigns globally, successfully deliver key programmes, and complete the acquisition of MTEQ to transform the scale of our US operations as we build an integrated, global defence and security company,” added Wadey.
QinetiQ announced the acquisition of sensing solutions firm Manufacturing Techniques Inc – or MTEQ – in the beginning of October for up to $125 million.
QinetiQ still remains a relatively young company in the market, but these results will certainly please shareholders about the potential of the defense technology company.
The Farnborough based firm still has a long way till it competes with the big gun such as Ultra Electronics (LON: ULE) who met market expectations in their most recent updates.
Certainly, for the foreseeable future the domination of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Boeing (NYSE: BA) will continue in the defense technology industry unless major breakthrough’s are made.
