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 means that we raise our Fair Value to 1930p/share
