Spectris plc (LON:SXS) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Spectris plc (LON:SXS) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 3,597.50 ($47.09).

SXS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Berenberg Bank reduced their price target on shares of Spectris from GBX 3,180 ($41.62) to GBX 3,000 ($39.27) and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Shore Capital reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Spectris in a report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Insider Activity at Spectris

In related news, insider Derek Harding acquired 3,741 shares of Spectris stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of GBX 2,085 ($27.29) per share, for a total transaction of £77,999.85 ($102,094.04). Also, insider Andrew Heath sold 8,848 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 2,532 ($33.14), for a total transaction of £224,031.36 ($293,234.76). Insiders acquired a total of 3,752 shares of company stock worth $7,831,047 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.21% of the company’s stock.

Spectris Trading Down 6.3 %

LON SXS opened at GBX 1,953 ($25.56) on Tuesday. Spectris has a 12-month low of GBX 1,877 ($24.57) and a 12-month high of GBX 3,430 ($44.90). The company has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 2,578.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 2,587.61. The company has a current ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37. The stock has a market cap of £1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.61.

Spectris (LON:SXS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The company reported GBX 148.10 ($1.94) earnings per share for the quarter. Spectris had a return on equity of 20.13% and a net margin of 20.44%. On average, analysts forecast that Spectris will post 194.7972456 earnings per share for the current year.

Spectris Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of GBX 56.60 ($0.74) per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This is a boost from Spectris’s previous dividend of $26.60. This represents a dividend yield of 2.25%. Spectris’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.00%.

About Spectris

The experts in providing insight through precision measurement.

Our purpose is to deliver value beyond measure – going beyond just the measurement.

Precision is at the heart of what we do. Spectris provides global customers with specialist insight through our high-tech instruments and test equipment, augmented by the power of our software.

Through a combination of our hardware, analytical and simulation software, we provide our customers with superior data and invaluable insights that enable them to work faster, smarter and more efficiently.

This equips them with the ability to reduce time to market, improve processes, quality and yield.