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(Alliance News) - Hargreaves Lansdown PLC on Tuesday remained optimistic for the year ahead, as it beat expectations for both annual revenue and profit.
For the 12 months ended June 30, the UK-based digital wealth management service reported pretax profit of GBP402.7 million, up 50% from GBP269.2 million a year prior.
Revenue rose 26% to GBP735.1 million from GBP583.0 million.
Diluted earnings per share were up 49% to 68.2 pence from 45.6p the previous year.
Both figures beat MarketScreener-cited forecasts, which put pretax profit at GBP380 million, and revenue at GBP717 million.
Newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer Dan Olley said: "As I begin my CEO tenure, it is clear to me that at its core this is a strong business with fantastic heritage that has significant potential to benefit from the structural, demographic, and regulatory shifts in the UK and the expected growth in the wealth market."
Total assets under administration ticked up 8.2% to GBP134.0 billion from GBP123.8 billion. Market growth of GBP5.4 billion contributed to the assets under administration improvement, Hargreaves Lansdown said. It also reported net new business inflows slipped of GBP4.8 billion, though this eased from GBP5.5 billion a year earlier.
Hargreaves declared a final dividend of 28.80p, up from 27.44p year-on-year. This brought the firm's total dividend to 41.50p, from 39.70p previously.
Looking ahead, CEO Olley warned that the current economic climate is "likely to remain much the same" for the coming financial year, and will continue to impact investor confidence.
This will provide a continued tailwind for flows into Active Savings, Olley noted, but could pose a potential constraint on net new investment flows and dealing volumes.
He added: "Against this backdrop, we have already started to take initial actions on cost and will continue to carefully manage all operating costs and efficiency improvements whilst balancing with the importance of providing the high level of service and support that our ever-growing client base demands."
Hargreaves Lansdown shares were trading 0.7% lower at 759.80 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Holly Beveridge, Alliance News reporter
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