UK share markets are continuing to struggle on Thursday as Covid-19 fears sap investor confidence. The FTSE 100 remains static around the 6,500-point marker as worrying news surrounding virus variants emerges. Animalcare giant ECO Animal Health Group (LSE: EAH) is having no such struggles, however, following the release of some barnstorming financials.
This UK share was last trading at a whopping 31% premium to its previous closing price. At 325p it’s soared to levels not seen since November 2019.
ECO Animal Health’s shares began trading again on Thursday after being suspended in December. They were pulled from AIM on the delayed release of full-year financials for the period to March 2020. Back then it advised that the release hiccup was caused by “continuing difficulties associated with remotely auditing the Company’s International operations and the need to audit the previously announced prior year adjustments during a period of Covid-19 restrictions.”
Animal magic!
Financial statements from ECO Animal Health are like London buses at the moment. You wait ages for one then two come along at once. And the company has really impressed the market with recent trading on Thursday.
The UK share — which develops and markets pharmaceutical products for animals — said that sales rocketed to £42.5m in the six months to September. This compares with revenues of £28.3m it generated in the same 2019 period. Margins also improved to 48% from 43% thanks to a recovery in US pork markets, ECO Animal Health noted.
All of this helped the healthcare giant’s pre-tax profit improve to £4.5m from £1.1m a year earlier. Meanwhile, cash generated by operations soared to £3.5m in the six months to September from £1.3m previously.
ECO Animal Health said that it has seen an “exceptionally strong recovery in China following the African Swine Fever impact in 2019.” It has also enjoyed a recovery in the US as trade tensions between China and the US eased. At the same time, the firm’s Latin American markets “performed strongly.”
In that full-year financial statement also released today, the firm said revenues rose to £72.1m in the period to last March. This compared to £67.3m in the prior financial year. However, higher cost of sales and administrative expenses caused pre-tax profit to almost halve to £5.2m.
ECO Animal Health continues to impress
In further good news ECO Animal Health announced that business has remained solid since September too. It said that “the strength seen in both our Chinese and US markets [is] continuing” during the second half.
This is the latest in a string of positive releases from the company since the autumn. Last time out in January it announced that sales and EBITDA for the full year to March 2021 would be “significantly ahead of market expectations.” In particular it said that the rebuilding of Chinese pig herds and high pork prices had continued into quarter three and looked set to persist through the final fiscal quarter too.
