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Oxford Instruments PLC on Tuesday said profit grew in the first half of its current financial year, due to ‘strong demand’ in its semiconductor and materials analysis sectors. The Oxfordshire-based provider of technology and services to industrial companies and scientific researchers said pretax profit for the six months that ended September 30 was £31.7 million, up 7.1% from £29.6 million the year before. Revenue grew 7.7% to £225.8 million from £209.7 million last year, while cost of sales rose 9.9% to £108.5 million from £98.7 million. Oxford Instruments declared an interim dividend of 5.1 pence per share, up 4.1% year-on-year from 4.9p. Chief Executive Officer Richard Tyson said: ‘The group has delivered a good first half performance, with both divisions growing, reflecting strong demand in our semiconductor and materials analysis markets which more than offset the well-documented softer demand from the healthcare & life science market. ‘We expect to deliver our typical stronger trading performance in the second half, supported by delivery of some larger orders in Advanced Technologies and efficiency improvements. As a result, we expect to report a performance for the full year in line with expectations on a constant currency basis. ‘We have made good progress with our medium-term strategic priorities. Our actions to rebalance our regional activity are driving strong growth, particularly in North America and Asia ex-China, the simplification of the business is well underway, and the first phases of our operational performance programme have identified further value creation opportunities ahead. This underlines our confidence that we can improve the returns from the business in the medium term.’ Though Oxford Instruments did not on Tuesday outline its full-year expectations, the company said in its financial 2024 results in June that it expected headwinds of £8.4 million in revenue and £6.2 million in profit for financial 2025. Broker Shore Capital, however, has forecasted revenue of £490.9 million, which would represent a 4.4% rise from £470.4 million last year, and adjusted pretax profit of £81.5 million, a 2.2% decrease from £83.3 million. Shares in Oxford Instruments were down 3.2% at 2,062.50 pence each in London on Tuesday morning. Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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