Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms Hold Rating for Halma (LON:HLMA)

Key Points

• Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed its Hold rating on Halma, with a GBX 3,660 price target implying approximately 1.16% upside from the current price.
• Analyst sentiment remains moderately positive overall: five analysts rate Halma a Buy and four rate it Hold, producing a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating.
• Halma shares opened at GBX 3,618 and are trading below their 52-week high of GBX 4,902; insiders have sold 122,188 shares worth approximately £470.2 million over the past 90 days.

Halma (LON:HLMA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, London Stock Exchange reports. They presently have a GBX 3,660 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group's target price suggests a potential upside of 1.16% from the stock's current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on HLMA. Berenberg Bank reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a GBX 4,200 price objective on shares of Halma in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a £47,750 target price on shares of Halma in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Halma from GBX 3,700 to GBX 4,600 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of £6,003.71.

Halma Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of LON:HLMA opened at GBX 3,618 on Friday. Halma has a 1 year low of GBX 3,251.40 and a 1 year high of GBX 4,902. The stock's fifty day moving average price is GBX 3,643.43 and its 200-day moving average price is GBX 3,998.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 42.13, a current ratio of 2.14 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of £13.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 0.97.

Halma (LON:HLMA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 11th. The company reported GBX 114.05 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of GBX 258.23 billion for the quarter. Halma had a net margin of 14.42% and a return on equity of 17.92%. Sell-side analysts expect that Halma will post 90.5626134 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Halma

In other Halma news, insider Marc Ronchetti sold 49,664 shares of Halma stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 3,934, for a total value of £1,953,781.76. Also, insider Jennifer Ward sold 13,145 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 3,645, for a total transaction of £479,135.25. Insiders sold 122,188 shares of company stock worth $470,218,831 over the last 90 days. 0.82% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Halma Company Profile

Halma is a global group of life-saving technology companies, focused on growing a safer, cleaner, healthier future for everyone, every day. Its purpose defines the three broad markets it operates in: - Safety - Protecting people's safety and the environment as populations grow, and enhancing worker safety. - Environment - Addressing the impacts of climate change, pollution and waste, protecting life-critical resources and supporting scientific research. - Health - Meeting the increasing demand for better healthcare as chronic illness rises, driven by growing and ageing populations and lifestyle changes. Halma employs over 9,000 people in more than 20 countries, with major operations in the UK, Mainland Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific.

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