Craneware Confident On "Record" Sales Pipeline As Interim Profit Rises

LONDON (Alliance News) - Craneware PLC on Tuesday reported a "very positive" half year amid a rise in revenue and profit over the period as it hiked its interim dividend.

The software provider for the US healthcare market reported a pretax profit of USD8.7 million for the half year to the end of December, up 16% from USD7.5 million the prior year. Revenue grew 16% to USD31.1 million from USD26.8 million the year prior.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization up 18% to USD9.7 million compared with USD8.2 million the prior year. Craneware said its growth rate outperformed the US healthcare IT market.

Craneware Chief Executive Officer Keith Neilson said: "The investments made into Craneware's product suite and operations in recent years means we are now delivering growth rates which are outperforming our industry. We are seeing growing interest across our enlarged product suite and are particularly pleased with the high levels of interest and opportunities across our customer base for our newly launched cloud-based platform, Trisus."

At the end of first half, Craneware had USD52.0 million in cash, after returning USD4.1 million to its shareholders through dividends and investing USD2.1 million in new product development. In comparison, Craneware cash reserves were USD45.0 million for the same period the prior year.

Craneware proposed an interim dividend up 15% to 10.00 pence per share from 8.70p in the first half of 2017.

"With an ongoing, growing market opportunity, a record sales pipeline and increasing long-term revenue visibility, we enter the second half of the year with great confidence for the future and the ongoing success of the business," Neilson added.

Craneware shares were up 1.7% at 1,957.50 pence per share on Tuesday.