Ashtead Group has reported over the three months to 30 April strong growth with revenues soaring by 17% to £1.1bn, whilst pre-tax profits climbed by 10% to £208.6m.
Revenues for the full year were 19% higher at £4.5bn and pre-tax profits climbed 20% to £1.06bn.
Brendan Horgan, chief executive said, “We continue to experience strong end markets in North America and are executing well on our strategy of organic growth supplemented by targeted bolt-on acquisitions.
“We invested £1.6bn in capital and a further £622m on bolt-on acquisitions in the period, which has added 146 locations across the group.”
Ed Monk, associate director from Fidelity Personal Investing’s share dealing service said, “The company’s biggest market by far is the US, where trading has been strong.
“Increased activity relating to hurricane’s Florence and Michael added to the numbers, although clean-up operations were smaller in scale than last year when Irma struck.
“For investors, a 21% increase in the dividend will be welcome after recent falls in the share price.
“Ashtead is currently allocating a lot of capital to acquisitions with a whole stream of purchases of regional rental firms in the US and Canada this year, and that appears to be paying off.”
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