Gooch & Housego PLC on Tuesday announced a swing to an annual loss, but boasted a record order book due to strong market demand.
The Somerset-based maker of photonics components and systems recorded a pretax loss for the year ended September 30 of £2.3 million, swinging from a profit of £4.7 million the year prior.
Gooch & Housego shares were down 11% trading at 412.56 pence per share on Monday morning in London.
Gooch & Housego said that revenue edged up by 0.6% to £124.8 million, up from £124.1 million a year ago. However, the company’s order book increased 51% to record levels at £147.7 million, or 35% on a constant currency basis, as a result of strong end market demand.
‘While mindful of the uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical landscape, G&H is positioned for growth with a robust order pipeline across all our end markets,’ Chief Executive Officer Charlie Peppiatt said.
The company proposed a final dividend of 7.90p per share, bringing the total dividend for financial 2022 to 12.6p per share, reflecting ‘the strength of the group’s order book and the positive outlook for the forthcoming trading period’. The total payout in financial 2021 was 12.2p.
Gooch & Housego said it is targeting growth in revenue and adjusted pretax profit growth, but at a lower level than previously assumed.
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