In morning trade the Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME) share price is amongst the best performers on the ASX 200 index.
At the time of writing the health imaging company's shares are up 5.5% to $28.85.
How did Pro Medicus perform in the first half of FY 2020?
Pro Medicus continued its positive form and delivered further strong revenue and profit growth in the first half of FY 2020.
For the six months ended December 31, the company posted a 15.7% increase in revenue from operations to $29.3 million.
On an underlying basis, which excludes a one-off capital sale to the German Government made in the first half of FY 2019, revenue would have grown 39.1% over the prior corresponding period.
This was driven by solid growth in all key jurisdictions. North American revenue grew 43.1%, European revenue jumped 52%, and Australian revenue lifted 21.5% during the half.
Once again, the company's profit growth grew quicker than its revenue. Underlying profit before tax jumped 45.3% to $14.8 million and net profit after tax rose 32.7% to $12.1 million.
But growing the quickest of all was Pro Medicus' dividend. The company's board has declared an interim fully franked dividend of 6 cents per share. This is a 71.4% increase on last year's interim dividend.
At the end of the period the company's cash reserves had grown 20.2% to $38.8 million. It continues to have no debt on its balance sheet.
Management commentary.
Pro Medicus' CEO, Dr Sam Hupert, was pleased with the half, noting that all its "numbers moved in the right direction."
He added: "We surpassed last year's revenue by over 15% taking into account the $3.0M one-off capital sale from the previous period which we told the market would unlikely to be repeated this half."
"If you exclude the one off capital sale in HY19 the underlying revenue growth figure is 39.1%. We were able to achieve this as a result of the significant step-up in our transaction revenue which grew by 30% compared to the previous 6 month period. The added benefit is that this revenue is recurring rather than one off so provides us with a good base for growth in the next half and future periods," he added.
Outlook.
Pro Medicus hasn't provided any guidance for the second half, but Dr Hupert appears positive on its prospects.
He advised that the company's pipeline remains strong and continues to grow following the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual conference.
He said: "The RSNA has served to strengthen our pipeline, progressing existing opportunities as well as presenting us with a number of new ones, more so than at any other RSNA in the past. There is no doubt we are experiencing an increased network effect generated by our growing customer base in North America, not just in the Tier 1 academic space but also other segments of the market as witnessed by the recent Nines contract."
