Spectris plc (LON:SXS) Insider Sells £546,363.40 in Stock

Spectris plc (LON:SXS) insider Derek Harding sold 22,577 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 2,420 ($31.16), for a total transaction of £546,363.40 ($703,442.00).

Derek Harding also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, March 7th, Derek Harding bought 6 shares of Spectris stock. The shares were purchased at an average price of GBX 2,667 ($34.34) per share, for a total transaction of £160.02 ($206.03).

Spectris Stock Performance

SXS traded up GBX 10 ($0.13) on Thursday, hitting GBX 2,410 ($31.03). 40,856,590 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,882,153. The company has a 50 day moving average of GBX 2,786.43 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 2,649.55. Spectris plc has a 12-month low of GBX 2,366 ($30.46) and a 12-month high of GBX 3,430 ($44.16). The stock has a market capitalization of £2.40 billion, a PE ratio of 8.93, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37.

Spectris (LON:SXS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The company reported GBX 148.10 ($1.91) earnings per share for the quarter. Spectris had a return on equity of 20.13% and a net margin of 20.44%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Spectris plc will post 194.7972456 earnings per share for the current year.

Spectris Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a GBX 56.60 ($0.73) dividend. This is an increase from Spectris’s previous dividend of $26.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.25%. Spectris’s payout ratio is presently 30.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Berenberg Bank cut their price target on Spectris from GBX 3,180 ($40.94) to GBX 3,000 ($38.62) and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Shore Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Spectris in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Spectris currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 3,765 ($48.47).

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.