Berenberg Bank Reaffirms Hold Rating for Smiths Group (LON:SMIN)

Smiths Group (LON:SMIN)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by equities research analysts at Berenberg Bank in a research note issued on Friday,Digital Look reports. They currently have a GBX 2,750 target price on the stock. Berenberg Bank’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 12.52% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on SMIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Smiths Group in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Panmure Gordon reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 2,870 price objective on shares of Smiths Group in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 2,810.

Smiths Group Price Performance

SMIN traded up GBX 6 during midday trading on Friday, hitting GBX 2,444. The stock had a trading volume of 820,134 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,133,771. Smiths Group has a 1 year low of GBX 1,671 and a 1 year high of GBX 2,561. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.55, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of GBX 2,430.28 and a 200 day moving average of GBX 2,325.40. The company has a market cap of £7.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 0.66.

Smiths Group (LON:SMIN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, September 23rd. The company reported GBX 85.70 EPS for the quarter. Smiths Group had a net margin of 7.98% and a return on equity of 11.54%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Smiths Group will post 85.1295337 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Smiths Group announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, November 19th that permits the company to repurchase 0 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Roland Carter sold 29,313 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 2,421, for a total value of £709,667.73. Also, insider Karin Hoeing purchased 224 shares of Smiths Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of GBX 2,522 per share, for a total transaction of £5,649.28. 0.78% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Smiths Group Company Profile

Smiths Group plc operates as an industrial engineering company in Americas, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through four businesses: John Crane, Smiths Detection, Flex-Tek, and Smiths Interconnect. The John Crane business engineers mechanical seals, seal support systems, power transmission couplings, and specialized filtration systems.