Shares in high-end devices and instruments group Gooch & Housego gained ground today, following forecast-beating financials for the year to September.

The group makes acousto-optic devices and precision optical components, as well as crystals, and instruments measuring optical radiation for the medical and industrial. It reported a 14 per cent top line advance to £25.4 million, with pre-tax profits spiralling £1.1 million higher to £6.2 million. Basking in the glow of these forceful numbers, the board raised the final dividend 8 per cent to 4.2p, giving a year’s total of 4.2p, comfortably covered by earnings.

Speaking to Growth Company Investor, chief executive Gareth Jones said favourable market winds, particularly in the last quarter, helped drive performance, with demand for products high. The market for Q-switches, still the group’s most significant product, was soft in the first quarter, though it picked up and remained buoyant throughout the second. ‘Our Super Q-switch was one of the success stories of the year’, he added.

Jones lauded ‘star performances’ from US businesses NEOS and Cleveland Crystals, and expressed excitement about the new markets opened up through the acquisition of ChromoDynamics, a New Jersey-based biomedical imaging systems business.

In other areas, Jones said significant inroads had been made in reorganising the group’s optoelectronic components businesses to create a more efficient global operation that can take a greater slice of the market.

The shares, which have traded between 52-week highs and lows of 417.5p and 269p, gathered up 12.5p to finish at 377.5p on Wednesday, valuing the business at £68 million.