Tesco: full-year results ahead of expectations, shares up
(CercleFinance.com) - Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, has beaten forecasts with a 34% rise in full-year operating profit on Wednesday, and said it was confident in continuing to meet the goals of its turnaround plan.
The world's number 11 retailer by revenue said group operating profit rose by 34% to 2.2 billion pounds for the year ended 28 February 2019, on sales that are up 11.5% at 56.9 billion pounds.
Tesco said full-year figures were boosted by Booker, which has been consolidated since 5 March 2018, and therefore included in the 2018/19 results over 51 weeks.
UK like-for-like sales growth reached 2.9%.
The group's full-year margin of 3.45% represents "clear progress," Tesco said, and was 3.79% in the second-half, even before the beneficial impact of Booker, putting the group "comfortably" in the range it set four years ago, it added.
Tesco said it remained "comfortable" with the consensus for earnings for 2019/20, aiming at profitability (excluding Booker) within a margin range of 3.5%-4%.
The group almost doubled its interim dividend from 3 pence to 5.77 pence.
Shares in the supermarket group rose 0.8% in early trading on Wednesday, slightly outperforming a 0.5% rise on the STOXX Europe 600 Optimised Retail index and valuing the business at about 23 billion pounds.
Copyright (c) 2019 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.
The world's number 11 retailer by revenue said group operating profit rose by 34% to 2.2 billion pounds for the year ended 28 February 2019, on sales that are up 11.5% at 56.9 billion pounds.
Tesco said full-year figures were boosted by Booker, which has been consolidated since 5 March 2018, and therefore included in the 2018/19 results over 51 weeks.
UK like-for-like sales growth reached 2.9%.
The group's full-year margin of 3.45% represents "clear progress," Tesco said, and was 3.79% in the second-half, even before the beneficial impact of Booker, putting the group "comfortably" in the range it set four years ago, it added.
Tesco said it remained "comfortable" with the consensus for earnings for 2019/20, aiming at profitability (excluding Booker) within a margin range of 3.5%-4%.
The group almost doubled its interim dividend from 3 pence to 5.77 pence.
Shares in the supermarket group rose 0.8% in early trading on Wednesday, slightly outperforming a 0.5% rise on the STOXX Europe 600 Optimised Retail index and valuing the business at about 23 billion pounds.
Copyright (c) 2019 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.