Report
Mike Jeremy

FY25 results - new records and more to come

For the year to 30 April 2025 Cohort reported record revenue of £270.0m, +33%YoY, record (adj.) EBIT of £27.5m, 10.2% margin, and a new high closing order book of £616.4m. Underlying order intake (i.e. excluding acquisition-related) grew 11%YoY, with the closing order book underpinning 79% of FY26 revenue. EPS (adj., basic) rose 27%YoY to 54.4p, with dividend per share up 10%YoY to 16.3p.

Cohort's expertise and market reach is attenuated to three major defence drivers: the ongoing backdrop of multiple stimuli to defence measures from instability, conflicts and geo-political tensions in Europe (Ukraine), the Middle East (Israel, Gaza, Iran) and Asia-Pacific (Sino-US and Australia; the trend towards materially increased spend on defence as a percentage of GDP by NATO member countries in particular.

The Group indicates that FY26 EPS should be above prior expectations – we have raised our outlook from 56.8p to 60.1p (adj. dil.) - is confident of c.10% earnings growth and a target of a “low to mid-teens” (adj.) EBIT margin (ED FY27 estimate 13.0%).

The combination of accelerated earnings momentum, order book visibility and the opportunities evident in the UK Strategic Defence Review mean that we raise our Fair Value to 1930p / share:
Underlying
Cohort

Cohort is a holding company. Co. operates through its subsidiaries: Empresa de Investigacao e Desenvolvimento de Electronica, S.A., which is engaged in the fields of electronics, tactical and naval communications, command and control; MASS Consultants Limited, which is an electronic warfare operational support, cyber security, secure ICT networks and support to operations business serving customers primarily in defense and security markets; and Marlborough Communications Limited, which is a supplier of electronic communications, information systems and signals intelligence technology to the defense and security sectors.

Provider
Equity Development
Equity Development

​Equity Development enables companies to become better understood and supported by investors. Since our launch in 1996 we have consistently focused on helping our clients improve their communication and relationships with both existing and potential shareholders. Our clients have come from a wide variety of sectors and domiciles, are both private and quoted and range in size from micro-cap to $multi-billions. We offer free access to company research notes written by experienced analysts. These notes include detailed forecasts, financial models and a fair value. We host regular Private Investor Forums at which investors have the opportunity to hear company directors present, and to ask questions. These are free to attend. We broadcast live Webinars with company management that include active Q&A. We also make the recordings available online. We arrange face to face meetings between private investors and company management. We are active users of Twitter, commenting daily on company news, share price moves, Directors’ Dealings, Equity Development Research Notes & Events.

Analysts
Mike Jeremy

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