- 2022 adjusted pre-tax profit of £6.7mn smashes analysts’ £5.3mn forecast
- Cash profit margin up from 7.4 to 17.9 per cent, ahead of 13-15 per cent guidance
- Record order book of £76mn, up 65 per cent year on year
- Record net cash of £28.4mn (4.2p)
- Pre-tax profit estimates upgraded by 12 per cent and 5 per cent to £5.6mn (2023) and £6.6mn (2024)
hVIVO (HVO:16p), a rapidly growing specialist contract research organisation (CRO), has smashed house broker FinnCap’s estimates for pre-tax profit for the 2022 financial year. Such is the strength of trading that analysts raised their 2023 and 2024 estimates, too, post-results.
The broking house had predicted hVIVO would move from breakeven in 2021 to underlying pre-tax profit of £5.3mn on a third higher revenue of £48.5mn in 2022. However, buoyed by an increase in cash profit margins (up more than 10 percentage points to 17.9 per cent – substantially ahead of forecast and management’s previous guidance), cash profit more than trebled from £2.9mn to £9.1mn, or £0.5mn above forecast. A key driver was the higher gross margin earned (33.8 per cent compared with 27.4 per cent in 2021), reflecting the leverage afforded by higher occupancy in the group’s quarantine facilities, cross-selling and operational efficiencies.