YouGov PLC (LON:YOU) has raised its dividend by one third, predicting that strong international sales growth will continue into next year.
Following five acquisitions over the last two years, including analytics platforms Crunch and Portent.io and sports data business SMG Insight, the market research company grew its full-year revenues 17% to £136.5mln in the 12 months to 31 July.
READ: YouGov outpaces market research sector with trading 'comfortably ahead of expectations'
Sales picked up fastest in the UK, but with the Americas currently topping the charts as YouGov’s biggest market, the survey group said that “the international spread” of its revenues will continue to cushion the company from Brexit-related volatility.
The AIM-listed company said the 33% dividend increase to 4p per share was enabled by the success of its acquisitions, the scalability of its products and its focus on technology-driven research.
The survey company’s statutory profit before tax shot up 65% to £19.5mln because of higher demand and a higher margin on its data products which accounted for over half of its sales.
YouGov’s chief executive Stephan Shakespeare called it a “milestone year” in which the company exceeded its targets and “consistently delivered growth ahead of the market”.
The outlook for the next year remains “strong” said Shakespeare, who plans to accelerate investment in technology and geographic expansion, while noting that the group is currently “winning more clients, taking on larger contracts and projects, and strengthening our position across the globe”.
The group also reported over £1mln in restructuring costs, due to reducing its non-core custom operations in Mainland Europe and the Middle East last year.
Shares were little moved at 536.2p in Tuesday morning trading.