Halma PLC (LSE:HLMA) shares jumped 9% at the open after it announced another year of record profits and sales, leading it to raise its dividend for the 45th year in a row.
Annual pre-tax profits jumped 10% to £396.4 million for the year to March end, having risen from £361.3 million the year prior.
Sales increased to around £2.03 billion, with the lift in financials largely being attributed to acquisitions, strong demand across its products and services and outperformance of the safety and environmental & analysis divisions.
Halma's board recommended a 7% increase to its final dividend, bringing it to 13.20p per share. Together with the interim dividend of 8.41p per share, takes the total dividend per share for the year to 21.61p.
Chief executive Marc Ronchetti said: "2024 was another successful year for Halma. We delivered record revenue and profit, with continued high returns. Strong cash generation enabled us to make substantial investments in opportunities for future growth while maintaining a strong balance sheet.
"We have made a positive start to the new financial year. Our order intake in the year to date is ahead of both revenue and the comparable period last year.
"We expect to deliver good organic constant currency revenue growth in the year ahead, and an adjusted EBIT margin of around 21%, in the middle of our target range."
Shares rose 220p to 2,570p.