Growth accelerates at CVS Group

5th Dec 2013 08:16

Veterinary services provider CVS Group provided an encouraging trading update with like-for-like sales growth accelerating. In the four months to October 31st, like-for-like sales grew by 4.3% compared to the same period last year, the company said in a statement prepared ahead of its annual general meeting. Like-for-likes were up 3.4% in the last full year.This reflected continuing growth in the Practice Division at the same underlying rate as for the full year and stronger growth in other divisions, while profitability for the recent period was in line with management expectations.House broker N+1 Singer said it understood the Practice division accounted for 1.9% of the four-month uplift and E-Commerce 2%, with Labs and Crematoria making up the balance. AIM 100-listed CVS also pointed to the acquisition of 10 surgeries in to its Practice Division since June 30th with a combined £7.4m revenue and aggregate earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of approximately £1.6m.The broker added that the accelerated growth fed through to low single-digit earnings per share upgrades, lifting its three year compound annual growth rate from 7% to 9%.Shares in CVS hopped up 1% to 258.5 at 08:20 on Thursday.OH