An 18 per cent jump in touchscreen sensor sales helped Zytronic (ZYT) deliver another strong set of annual numbers. Used in everything from shopping malls to museums, casinos to bus stops, the high-margin sensors now make up 79 per cent of revenues.
Their rapid growth has also boosted the gross margin, which reached 37 per cent last year, up from 28 per cent in 2012-13. Growth was particularly strong in the ultra-sized sensor range, with sales of screens sized 30 inches and up almost tripling to 6,400 units, thanks mainly to rising demand for signage displays and gaming screens sold to casinos.
Zytronic's non-touch product range didn't fare as well. Though demand for ATM display filters remained strong, it was offset by a sharp fall in sales of bill-payment kiosks to both Russia and Ukraine, due to the ongoing conflict between the countries.
Boss Mark Cambridge told us that the group will continue to focus on higher-margin touch sensors, which remain popular in all of Zytronic's markets – Europe, the UK, North America and Asia Pacific. He’s not too worried about weaker GDP growth, either, claiming that any effect would take a few years to have an impact. It took almost four years for the 2008 crisis to sap demand for Zytronic's products.
House broker N+1 Singer has upgraded its pre-tax profit forecast by 6 per cent to £3.6m, giving adjusted EPS of 19.9p.
| ZYTRONIC (ZYT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 290p | MARKET VALUE: | £44m | |
| TOUCH: | 285-295p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 290p | LOW:185p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.4% | PE RATIO: | 15 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 119p | NET CASH: | £6.1m | |
| Year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 18.5 | 2.9 | 14.9 | 7.0 |
| 2011 | 20.5 | 3.6 | 18.3 | 7.7 |
| 2012 | 20.4 | 4.2 | 22.2 | 8.5 |
| 2013 | 17.3 | 1.9 | 11.1 | 9.1 |
| 2014 | 18.9 | 3.3 | 19.6 | 10.0 |
| % change | +9 | +68 | +77 | +10 |
Ex-div:26 Feb Payment:13 Mar | ||||
