XP Power (LSE: XPP) — a leading developer and manufacturer of critical power control components for the electronics industry — published a trading update for the fourth quarter, to 31 December 2013, this morning, and its share price is currently up 1.3%.
The update revealed that fourth quarter revenues were up 8% on 2012 (6% on a constant currency basis), thanks, the company said, to the recovering demand for its customers’ products that was first seen in the third quarter continuing into the quarter four.Â
XP Power also reported that  improved loading at its Chinese factory and “a positive contribution” from its magnetics facility in Vietnam both contributed to an improvement in gross margins in the second half of the year.
The company said that its nebt debt stood at £3.7m as oi 31 December 2013, down from ÂŁ10.6 million at the end of 2012 (and it’s the same on constant currency basis).
A dividend of 13p per share is being paid today, and the board will announce its recommended dividend for the fourth quarter in the 2013 final results, due to be published on 24 February. However, the company says that it’s not expected to be less than 17p per share, which would bring  the total dividend paid for 2013 to 53p per share — an increase of 6% over the total dividend of 50p per share paid in 2012. For shareholders who bought at the start of 2013 and who are still holding for the final dividend , that’s a yield of 5.3%.
Looking ahead, the company says that the macro-economic outlook for its customers appears to have slightly improved during the second half of 2013 and its believes that it is “well placed to benefit” from this improvement, with the expectation that there will be further “modest growth” in revenues during 2014.Â
At  1,718p, XP Power’s share price is up 73% on this time last year, outstripping the 10.5% gain made by the FTSE 100 over the same period.