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- Full-year revenue down 6 per cent to £41.5mn
- Adjusted pre-tax profit halved to £3.7mn
- Underlying earnings per share (EPS) down from 5.3p to 3p
- Dividend per share up 18 per cent to 3.25p
- Closing net cash of £50.7mn (39p)
- 5.5 per cent dividend yield
Smart sensing and software group Oxford Metrics (OMG:59.5p) issued a profit warning at the end of its financial year, so the sharp fall in profits had been well flagged (‘Oxford Metrics’ warning hits shares – but all is not lost’, 23 September 2024).
The issue is that customers are being more cautious, which has lengthened buying cycles and pushed several opportunities in the sales pipeline into the new financial year. In particular, the entertainment sector was impacted by the slowdown in the global games industry and subsequent contraction in content creation. The segment reported 23 per cent lower revenue of £15.9mn, representing 38 per cent of the group total. Both the life sciences and engineering segments, accounting for 56 per cent of Oxford Metrics’ annual revenue, performed better but still reported single-digit revenue declines due to delays in academic funding.