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(Alliance News) - Taylor Wimpey PLC said Thursday its sales and orders were up and that trading remained in line with full-year expectations for 2021.
The housebuilder credited a "resilient" housing market for positive trading results and said that as of April 18 its order book was up 5.2% to GBP2.81 billion from GBP2.67 billion a year previous.
The FTSE 100 firm said net private sales for the year to April 18 had risen to 1.00 per outlet let per week on average compared to 0.90 a year ago. It confirmed that sale prices were also higher than at the end of last year.
Taylor Wimpey said it had made "good early progress" with achieving its aim of reaching an operating profit margin of between 21% and 22% in the medium term.
Tayloy Wimpey's pretax profit dropped to GBP264.4 million in 2020 from GBP835.9 million in 2019, as revenue sank 35% to GBP2.79 billion from GBP4.31 billion
"The UK housing market continues to be resilient, and we are trading in line with our full year expectations," said Chief Executive Pete Redfern.
"With strong market fundamentals, customer demand for our high-quality homes remains robust and we are achieving a strong sales rate and building a healthy forward order book.
"We are a cash generative business with a strong balance sheet and remain focused on our strategic priorities to drive operating profit margin while creating long term value for our customers and shareholders."
Taylor Wimpey confirmed it intends to pay a 2020 dividend of 4.14 pence per share on May 14 after it chose to not make a payment last year. An interim dividend of 4.14 pence per share also likely will be paid in November. No special dividend will be paid in 2021, the company said, though one will be considered in 2022.
Taylor Wimpey's annual general meeting will be held on Thursday morning.
Shares were trading 0.3% lower at 182.77 pence in London.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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