Moneysupermarket owner MONY Group PLC (LSE:MONY) shares rang up a 7% gain on Monday as mixed preliminary results were accompanied by a £30 million share buyback program.
Revenue for the past calendar year grew 2% to £439 million, with underlying profit (EBITDA) increasing 7% to £142 million.
Profit after tax rose 11% to £80.2 million.
As well as the buyback, the FTSE 250-listed company declared a total dividend of 12.5p per share, up 3% on the year before as it flipped into a net cash position of £8.4 million by year-end from net debt of £19 million after it paid down the loan for its 2021 acquisition of Quidco.
CEO Peter Duffy said: "We are proud to have helped customers save a record £2.9 billion - the more customers save, the more the group grows."
He hailed the strategy that included encouraging customers to join its member-based propositions like the SuperSaveClub, where membership has surpassed one million from 750k in October, which he said help the group reduce reliance on "increasingly expensive" pay-per-click marketing.
The dividend increase and share buyback "reflects our confidence in the continued execution of our strategy, and importantly, means we retain significant capacity to support future growth", he said, adding that the board is confident that adjusted EBITDA for 2025 will be "broadly within" the consensus City forecast, which is currently in a range of £143.1 million to £151.7 million.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said revenue for 2024 was 1% below its forecast, with EBITDA 1% ahead and cash £4 million lighter than it had pencilled in.