Ricardo PLC on Wednesday offered a positive outlook on the year ahead, despite seeing order intake weaken, as it swung back to profit.
For the year ended June 30, the strategic, environmental and engineering consulting company swung to a pretax profit of £4.3 million from a loss of £8.0 million the year previously.
On a similarly positive note, revenue rose 6.6% to £474.7 million from £445.2 million. However, order intake weakened by 4.9% to £496.1 million from £521.5 million.
Ricardo announced a final dividend of 8.9 pence, making a total dividend of 12.7p, compared to 11.96p a year prior.
‘This was a year of material change for Ricardo, whilst still delivering consistent financial performance in line with commitments. This was achieved with strong momentum in H2,’ said Chief Executive Officer Graham Ritchie.
‘At Ricardo, we are more conscious than ever of the importance of the work that we do, demonstrating the commitment to being purpose-led in the projects that we work on. Our record order book for the next twelve months provides confidence in delivering further good growth in the year ahead.’
The firm added that a ‘robust year end order book and good pipeline visibility’ gave confidence for the year ahead.
Shares in Ricardo were trading 4.4% lower at 495.00 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
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