Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX: SHL) released its 2018 financial results to the market today revealing an 11.2% increase in net profit.
Sonic is a global healthcare business that offers laboratory pathology, radiology & diagnostic imaging and primary care medical services.
Here are some of the highlights from the report:
- Revenue grew by 8.2% to $5.5 billion
- Underlying EBITDA grew by 8.3% to $962 million (click here to learn what EBITDA means)
- Net profit grew by 11.2% to $476 million
- Earnings per share (EPS) grew by 9.9% to $1.12
- Full year dividends grew by 5.2% to $0.81
According to Bloomberg, analysts were expecting Sonic Healthcare to report a profit of $473.3 million. A dividend of $0.79 was also expected. The result appears to have slightly beat expectations, however, the share price is currently down 0.3%.
Dr Colin Goldschmidt, the CEO of Sonic, said: “Milestones achieved during the year included winning the national bowel screening program contract for Australia, as well as the Barnet & Chase Farm and Zug Cantonal hospital laboratory outsourcing contracts.”
Sonic was pleased to point out that this result was driven by organic growth in Australia with the laboratory business achieving revenue growth of 6% and the diagnostic imaging business revealing organic revenue growth of 7%.
Dr Goldschmidt also commented on business improvement initiatives made during the year, “In addition, we completed a number of important restructuring and synergy extraction steps, particularly in Germany and the USA,”
The Sonic share price has risen by around 17% since the start of 2018, according to Google Finance.
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