Sage: Profit booms sends FTSE 100 tech shares flying

Enterprise technology firm Sage has reported a boom in revenue and profit as the UK tech champion has capitalised on artificial intelligence.

Underlying operating profit at the Newcastle-based firm rose 21 per cent over the last year to £529m. Its operating profit margin grew 220 basis points to 22.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, Sage’s annualised recurring revenue grew 11 per cent to £2.3bn, with a seven per cent jump in statutory revenue.

The strong results led the group’s share price to surge 17 per cent in the hour after market open, bringing it to the brink of its all-time high.

Off the back of the strong results, the company announced another £400m share buyback.

The business’s growth came largely from Sage Business Cloud. Revenue from this product increased 16 per cent to £1.9bn

Sage’s growth was distributed across all regions, with North America leading the way with a 12 per cent increase in underlying total revenue, followed by the UK, Ireland, Africa, and APAC at eight per cent and Europe at six per cent.

The FTSE 100 firm also announced that its new AI assistant Sage Copilot was now available to over 8,000 customers of its accounting and business management software.

Sage’s subscription penetration increased from 79 per cent to 82 per cent throughout the year.

“Sage has delivered another successful year, achieving strong, broad-based revenue growth together with significantly higher profits and cash flows,” said Sage CEO Steve Hare.

“We also invested further in our products and continued to execute well against our strategic priorities. Our high pace of innovation continues, as we enhance existing products and expand key cloud solutions throughout our markets.”

Sage’s outlook guidance placed organic total revenue growth for the next year at nine per cent or above, while operating margins are expected to “trend upwards”.