dpa
Arlington
Earnings and revenue rose at British arms, security, and aerospace firm BAE Systems Plc in the first half of the year compared to the same period of last year, prompting the company to raise its full year outlook for 2023.
BAE Systems said on Wednesday the results came amidst a record order backlog and continued good operational performance.
For the six-month period to June 30, the UK-based firm registered a pre-tax income of £1.198 billion ($1.532 billion), a jump from £779 million, recorded for the same period of 2022.
Post-tax profit stood at £1.005 billion or 31.4 pence per share, compared with last year’s £647 million or 19.4 pence per share.
Operating earnings were at £1.233 billion as against £1.028 billion of 2022.
Underlying EBIT improved to £1.258 billion from £1.112 billion a year ago.
Underlying earnings per share were at 29.6 pence, versus last year’s 24.5 pence per share.
Net finance costs plunged to £35 million from £249 million in the previous year.
The order book was at £55.3 billion, versus the previous year’s £42.5 billion. Order intake rose to £21.1 billion from £18 billion a year ago.
The order backlog stood at £66.2 billion as against previous year’s £52.7 billion.
The company’s revenue improved to £10.997 billion from £9.739 billion a year ago.
For the first-half, the board has declared an interim dividend of 11.5 pence per share, to be paid on November 30 to the shareholders registered on October 20.
The dividend represents an increase of 11 percent compared with the interim dividend paid for the first half of 2022.
Looking ahead, for full year 2023, BAE Systems now expects its sales growth to be in the range of 5 percent to 7 percent as against its previous outlook for 3 percent to 5 percent.
Underlying earnings per share now projected to grow by 10 percent to 12 percent as against previous expectation of 5 percent to 7 percent.
The company now expects its underlying earnings before interest, taxes (EBIT) to rise by 6 percent to 8 percent, higher than its previous outlook for 4 percent to 6 percent growth.
