Computacenter has reported its nineteenth year of growth in a row, for the 12 months ending 31 December, 2023, with sales, gross profits and earnings per share all up. But the market was obviously looking for a bit more in the details, as the share price was down this morning.
Total group sales were up 7% annually to almost £7 billion. The gross profit was up over 10% to over £1 billion, and the gross margin rose 0.5%.
The adjusted profit before tax went up 5.4% to £278m.
There was gross invoiced income of over £10 billion, up 11.4%, driven by “strong growth” in Technology Sourcing and “solid growth” in Services, said the international VAR and cloud services player.
The proposed final dividend is 47.4p, increasing the full year dividend by 3.1% to 70p.
“Given the strength of our balance sheet, we continue to evaluate a number of capital allocation options,” said the firm. Maybe the market thought the dividend should have been higher?
The company added: “[We] expect to make further progress in 2024, with growth weighted to the second half of the year, reflecting a significantly more challenging comparison in the first half of the year than in the second half.” Maybe that spooked the market too?
For his part, Mike Norris (pictured), chief executive officer of Computacenter plc, said: "We delivered our nineteenth consecutive year of growth in adjusted earnings per share, outperforming our markets in 2023, as our large customers continued to invest heavily in new technology.
“We managed an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop and inflationary pressures effectively, and reduced our inventory significantly, resulting in a record net cash position. As planned, we stepped up our investment in strategic initiatives to underpin our competitiveness and future growth.”
As of 1pm GMT today, the share price of Computacenter is down over 7%.
