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(Alliance News) - Auto Trader Group PLC on Thursday lifted its interim dividend and posted a revenue jump, but suffered a slight drop in profit due to higher operating costs.
Shares were down 3.3% at 536.00 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
The FTSE-100 Manchester-based digital automotive marketplace said group revenue jumped by 16% to GBP249.8 million for the six months that ended on September 30 from GBP215.4 million a year ago.
Pretax profit, however, was down by 1.3% to GBP148.0 million from GBP150.0 million, as operating costs ramped up to GBP101.8 million from GBP65.4 million.
Operating profit is down 1.7% to GBP149.1 million from GBP151.7 million, resulting in an operating profit margin of 60%, down from 70% a year earlier.
"We saw strong levels of product growth driven by further uptake of our prominence products", Auto Trader noted.
Chief Executive Officer Nathan Coe said: "Our first half results demonstrate the strength of our position with car buyers and the depth of partnership we are building with customers. Achieving this in a period impacted by high levels of economic uncertainty is a credit to both our people and customers, and provides confidence in navigating the rest of the year."
It declared an interim dividend of 2.8 pence per share, up 3.7% from 2.7p a year prior.
Looking ahead, Auto Trader warned on the uncertainty of the outlook for future years, but said the used car market is "far less cyclical" than the new car market. Hence, the company said it believes there are "significant opportunities for Auto Trader to grow revenue at high margins through our price and product levers".
It added that operating profit margin for the full year is expected to be in line with financial 2022's 70%.
By Xindi Wei; xindiwei@alliancenews.com
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