Investing.com -- Avon Protection plc (LON:AVON) reported a swing to pretax profit for the first half of its fiscal year, supported by a stronger order book and higher revenue, and said it remains on track for full-year growth.
The company’s shares rose around 2.5% in London trading after the report.
For the six months to March 31, the defense equipment maker posted a pretax profit of $3.1 million, recovering from a $1.5 million loss in the same period a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, excluding exceptional and one-off items, pretax profit rose to $14.8 million from $8.8 million.
Revenue increased to $148.7 million, up from $127.1 million a year ago. The company said its order book grew 24% over the period, ending at $247 million. While total new orders declined 10% to $170.5 million, Avon noted that the stronger backlog supports confidence in its outlook.
The U.K.-based manufacturer of protective gear, including gas masks and helmets, said it doesn’t expect U.S. policy under President Trump to impact its medium-term margin targets. It acknowledged some disruption to certain development programs, but said key funded projects remain on track.
An interim dividend of 7.6 cents per share was proposed, up from 7.2 cents the previous year.
Looking ahead, the company expects to achieve double-digit revenue growth in fiscal 2025, with stronger performance anticipated in the second half as benefits from its operational improvement initiatives continue to take hold. Full-year revenue for fiscal 2024 came in at $275 million.
Avon has firmed up its target of a 14% to 16% EBITA margin for fiscal 2026.
"Avon made good progress in 1H25, across the board, and management is confident of double-digit growth this year (OCC) and improving EBITA in 2H25F," Jefferies analysts said in a post-earnings note.
The reaffirmation of the EBITA margin outlook serves as "a testament to the operational improvements coming through, although we recognise mgmt’s comments that there is still plenty of heavy lifting to do," they added.
"We remain positive on the group’s equity story; we expect the current positive momentum to continue into FY26F and beyond, and while there may be little change to consensus post this update, we retain our positive stance," the analysts wrote.
Avon’s guidance for fiscal 2025 remains unchanged, with the company expecting sales growth of over 10% and EBITA margins above 12%.