Wolseley Posts Rise In FY14 Profit, Lifts Dividend

Wolseley PLC

reported a gain in its fiscal year 2014 profit and announced its palns to lift its dividend by a quarter. It also announced a £250 million ($409.5 million) share buyback programme. Wolseley posted a net profit of GBP504 million for the year, versus a year-ago profit of GBP296 million. However, profit attributable before items, gained to 488 million pounds from 438 million pounds. Headline earnings per share jumped to 195.2 pence from 176.9 pence. Its annual pre-tax profit surged 51.7% to 698 million pounds from 460 million pounds, while earnings per share rose to 188.8 pence versus 106.4 pence. Excluding exceptional items, the company's pre-tax profit climbed to 679 million pounds from 624 million pounds. Trading profit from ongoing businesses jumped 4.1% to 761 million pounds. Its revenue fell to GBP13.13 billion from GBP13.15 billion, while revenue from ongoing businesses rose 2.2% to 12.77 billion pounds. Ian Meakins Chief Executive, said, “The overall like-for-like revenue growth rate for the Group since the beginning of the new financial year has been broadly in line with Q4. Overall we expect the Group's like-for-like revenue growth rate for the next six months to be about 5 per cent.” Wolseley shares fell 1.45% to close at $5.2920 yesterday.