Pets At Home FY23 Profit Down, Lifts Dividend; Expects To Meet Market View; Stock Dips

Pets at Home Group Plc, (PETS.L), a pet related products retailer, Thursday, reported lower earnings for the year 2023. However, revenue grew by 6.6%. Looking ahead for fiscal 2024, the company expects to meet the market view for underlying earnings.

For the year, profit before tax decreased 17.7 percent to 122.5 million pounds from 148.7 million pounds in the prior year. Earnings per share fell to 20.2 pence from 24.5 pence last year. The results were hurt by the absence of gain on sale of the specialist group in fiscal 2022 and the cost of bringing new DC onstream.

Adjusted profit before tax was 136.4 million pounds, compared to 130.1 million pounds a year ago, on strong trading performance.

Adjusted profit per share was 22.8 pence, compared to 21.2 pence last year.

Revenue increased 6.6% to 1.40 billion pounds from 1.31 billion pounds of last year. Group like-for-like revenue went up 7.9%.

The company has declared a dividend of 8.3 pence per share, up 10.7 percent from last year. This brings the total dividend to 12.8 pence per share for the year, up 8.5 percent from the prior year. The final dividend is payable on July 11, to shareholders of record on June 16.

Looking ahead for the year, the company expects sales to grow in line with its medium-term ambition of 7 percent.

Pets at home further said it is comfortable with current analyst consensus for underlying profit before tax, currently at around 136 million pounds.

Currently, shares of Pets at home are trading at 353.00 pence down 3.87% or 14.20 pence on the London Stock Exchange.

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