Monash IVF Group Ltd (ASX: MVF), the company behind the world’s first IVF baby, today reported a 3% fall in revenue to $151 million and a profit of $21 million, down 28%.
The specialist healthcare company announced it will pay investors a final dividend of 2.6 cents per share, fully franked. That takes the full-year dividends to 6 cents per share, in-line with last year.
Revenue was impacted by a specialist’s departure from the company and a broad decline in demand for reproductive services, the company said. However, Monash IVF claims to have increased its market share.
In Australia, total IVF patient treatments fell 9.4% to 14,553. International patient numbers rose 24% to 1,672.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had been expecting Monash IVF to report a full-year profit of $22.5 million and pay full-year dividends of 6.75 cents per share. Therefore, it seems the official result was slightly behind analyst forecasts.
“We anticipate delivering NPAT growth in FY19 on pcp,” Monash IVF’s investor presentation read. “However, 1H19 NPAT is expected to decline by approximately 15% on pcp, as 1H18 included one quarter of ARS activity from a departed Specialist.”
Last week, Monash’s key IVF competitor, Virtus Health Ltd (ASX: VRT), reported a 2% increase in revenue and a 9% jump in profit for its 2018 financial year.
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