The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) Stock Price Crosses Above 200-Day Moving Average - Here's Why

The Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR - Get Free Report) crossed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Wednesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of GBX 2,243.97 ($29.81) and traded as high as GBX 2,264 ($30.08). The Weir Group shares last traded at GBX 2,240.82 ($29.77), with a volume of 843,223 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WEIR. Shore Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of The Weir Group in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on The Weir Group from GBX 2,500 ($33.21) to GBX 2,700 ($35.87) and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd.

The Weir Group Price Performance

The firm's fifty day moving average is GBX 2,275.26 and its 200 day moving average is GBX 2,245.09. The company has a market capitalization of £5.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 80.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 2.07.

The Weir Group (LON:WEIR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The company reported GBX 120 ($1.59) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The Weir Group had a return on equity of 12.79% and a net margin of 8.60%. As a group, analysts predict that The Weir Group PLC will post 136.0509554 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The Weir Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 17th will be issued a GBX 22.10 ($0.29) dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This is a boost from The Weir Group's previous dividend of $17.90. This represents a dividend yield of 0.92%. The Weir Group's dividend payout ratio is presently 45.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jon Stanton sold 29,222 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 2,183 ($29.00), for a total transaction of £637,916.26 ($847,504.00). Also, insider Graham Vanhegan sold 3,491 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 2,022 ($26.86), for a total value of £70,588.02 ($93,779.75). Insiders have sold 75,092 shares of company stock valued at $168,505,609 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

The Weir Group Company Profile

The Weir Group PLC produces and sells highly engineered original equipment worldwide. It operates in two segments, Minerals and ESCO. The Minerals segment offers engineering, manufacturing, and service processing technology for the use in abrasive high-wear mining applications; and differentiated technology for the use in infrastructure and general industrial markets.

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