Oxford Instruments PLC shares jumped on Tuesday as it reported revenue growth, and said it boasts a strong order book that gives it confidence going forward.

Oxford Instruments shares were up 12% at 2,749.50 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.

The Abingdon, England-based company is a provider of technology products and services for industrial companies and research communities.

In the year ended March 31, statutory pretax profit decreased 3.0% to £71.3 million from £73.5 million the year prior.

Revenue rose 5.8% to £470.4 million from £444.7 million over the same period.

Oxford Instruments announced a final dividend of 15.90 pence per share, up 6.7% from 14.90 pence.

This brings the total dividend paid in the year to 20.80p, reflecting a 6.7% increase from 19.50p.

Chief Executive Officer Richard Tyson said: ‘We have rebalanced our positions in regional markets in the face of geopolitical shifts, focusing our resources on non-sensitive areas in China, and successfully growing revenue and orders in Europe and elsewhere in Asia. We have continued to make organic investments to support our future growth, with our state-of-the-art compound semiconductor facility now operational.

The company’s order book stood at £302 million at years end, down 5.6% from £320 million previously.

‘Given our strong order book and pipeline, coupled with positive business improvement actions, we expect to make good constant currency progress in the full year ending March 2025,’ Tyson added.

Looking ahead, the company has set a target of organic growth at a 5% to 8% compound annual growth rate alongside an improved adjusted operating margin of 20% from 17%.

Management will commit 8% to 9% of revenue to investing in research and development while also looking for opportunities to make acquisitions that can add complementary capabilities.

Also on Tuesday, Oxford Instruments said it entered into an agreement to acquire FemtoTools AG, a Swiss developer of nano-indentation instruments which generated £9.3 million revenue in 2023.

The terms of the agreement outline an initial fr.17 million cash consideration, approximately £14.9 million, that is to be followed by a fr.7 million performance related payment.

This second payment will be dependent on how well FemtoTool performs over a 33 month period following completion.

Oxford Instruments hopes the acquisition will provide it with a greater array of materials analysis techniques to improve the offering of insights to customers.

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