Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms "Hold" Rating for Hunting (LON:HTG)

Key Points

• Jefferies reissued a "hold" on Hunting with a GBX 400 price target, implying about a 17.4% downside from the previous close.
• Other brokers are mostly more bullish—four "buy" ratings and one "hold"—leaving a MarketBeat consensus of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target of GBX 536, well above Jefferies' target.
• Hunting's board authorised a $40 million share buyback (up to 5.3% of shares), while insider Bruce Ferguson sold 66,154 shares at GBX 507, indicating mixed signals from management and insiders.

Hunting (LON:HTG - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "hold" rating reissued by Jefferies Financial Group in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Digital Look reports. They currently have a GBX 400 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group's price target points to a potential downside of 17.44% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on HTG. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Hunting from GBX 440 to GBX 500 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on Hunting from GBX 450 to GBX 580 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a GBX 600 price objective on shares of Hunting in a research report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Hunting currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of GBX 536.

Hunting Stock Performance

Shares of Hunting stock opened at GBX 484.50 on Thursday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is GBX 496.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 416.15. Hunting has a 12 month low of GBX 245 and a 12 month high of GBX 553. The stock has a market capitalization of £710.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.70, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.38, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.08.

Hunting announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 5th that allows the company to repurchase $40.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 5.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bruce Ferguson sold 66,154 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 507, for a total value of £335,400.78. Company insiders own 3.40% of the company's stock.

About Hunting

Hunting is a global precision engineering group, which provides quality-assured products and services for the energy, aviation, commercial space, defence, medical, and power generation sectors. Our strong focus on quality assured products, supported by rigorous health and safety procedures, ensures we assist in the delivery of energy safely and it is also the basis of our standing in this critical, global industry. Our intellectual property portfolio enables the Hunting Group to maintain a leading technology edge, so that energy projects are delivered quicker and at lower cost with minimal impact on the environment. Our people are our most important asset.

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