Shares in StatPro Group PLC (LON:SOG) nudged higher in a falling market after the provider of portfolio analysis tools posted an increase in underlying profits.
Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 9.7%, or 10.2% in constant currency terms, to £5.68mln in the first half of 2019 from £5.18mln in the same period of 2018.
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The EBITDA margin improved to 20.1% from 19.0% the year before.
The company made a loss before tax of £203,000 compared to a restated profit of £649,000 in the corresponding period of 2018.
Revenue improved by 3.7% to £28.25mln from £27.24mln the year before, while annualised recurring revenue jumped 8.1% to £56.48mln from £52.25mln. Recurring revenue now accounts for 98% of group revenue, up from 96% in the same period of 2018.
Software as a service revenue as a percentage of software annualised recurring revenue grew to 85% from 84% in the first half of last year.
Free cash flow (before acquisition and restructuring costs) in increased to £3.53mln in the reporting period from £3.16mln the previous year.
The interim dividend has been held at 0.85p.
"We have continued to execute on our strategy to grow organically whilst switching our clients from legacy software onto our expanding Revolution platform cloud service – which saw another period of strong ARR [annualised recurring revenue] growth,” said Justin Wheatley, the chief executive officer of StatPro.
"As we approach the end of our conversion programme – which will result in a marked improvement in margins – we are developing our routes to market and also expanding our services for both our fund administration and asset manager clients,” he added.
Shares in StatPro were up 1.1% at 143.5p in mid-morning trading.