It's a tough day on the market for companies reporting their results with the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) following global markets lower. Just before midday the index is trading down a massive 2.6%.
One stock which hasn't been spared today despite releasing an impressive set of full year results is niche telecommunications and IT retailer Vita Group Limited (ASX: VTG) which has seen its shares sold off around 7.5%.
Here are the key figures:
- Revenue up 34% to $601.4 million
- Underlying earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) up 68% to $27.4 million
- Existing store (like-for-like) EBITDA up 37%
- Underlying net profit after tax surged 76% to $18.1 million
- Underlying earnings per share correspondingly increased by 73% to 12.35 cents per share (cps)
- A 72% increase in the ordinary dividends to 7.98 cps. Shareholders have also benefitted from two special dividends.
- Vita Group continued to strengthen its balance sheet with net debt eliminated and the group finishing the year with a net cash balance of $2.1 million
Outlook:
Vita Group operates under brands including Fone Zone, Next Byte, Telstra and Telstra Business Centre (TBC). The key division is the Telecommunications division which houses the Telstra brands – obviously Vita's relationship with Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) is important to the future success of the company. In financial year (FY) 2015, Vita added five Telstra stores and four TBCs taking Vita Group's Telstra-branded store network to 116.
Like Telstra, Vita Group has been a great source of dividends for shareholders particularly when the special dividends of 8 cents are included. The sell-off in the shares today is perhaps a reflection of the market's uncertainty as to what level of total dividends to expect in respect of FY 2016 and uncertainty surrounding what level of earnings growth to expect as well.
