Oxford Instruments PLC on Tuesday said it lifted its half-year dividend, as both revenue and profit increased due to its ‘leading positions in key markets’.

The Abingdon, England-headquartered company, which provides technology and services to industrial companies and scientific researchers, said pretax profit increased 11% in the half year that ended September 30 to £29.6 million from £26.6 million the prior year.

Revenue increased 4.6% to £209.7 million from £200.5 million, ‘driven by particularly good growth in Research & Discovery’ and by the FTSE 250 firm’s ‘leading positions in key markets’ for the Healthcare & Life Science, Semiconductor and Advanced Materials divisions. Revenue in Research & Discovery rose 15% to £66.6 million.

Oxford Instruments increased its interim dividend by 6.5% to 4.9 pence per share from 4.6p.

Chief Executive Officer Richard Tyson praised the ‘very robust set of results’ thanks to the firm’s ‘focus on specialist niches within structural growth markets’.

He continued: ‘We enter the second half with a strong order book and a good pipeline, remaining mindful of the current macroeconomic and political climate.

‘Our operational improvement programme is expected to support an increase in production, underpinning our confidence in an improvement in second half trading, with our normal seasonal second half weighting. Our expectations for the full year trading performance are unchanged.’

Oxford Instruments said its total order book grew by to £331.7 million at September 30, up 5.1% from the same day in 2022.

Oxford Instruments shares were up 5.1% at 2,022.27 pence in London on Tuesday morning.

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