The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) Announces Earnings Results

The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported GBX 54.60 EPS for the quarter, Digital Look Earnings reports. The Weir Group had a return on equity of 13.42% and a net margin of 9.63%.

Here are the key takeaways from The Weir Group’s conference call:

• Orders increased 8% year over year on a constant-currency basis, with Q2 acceleration, a 1.12 book-to-bill ratio, and approximately £150 million added to the order book. Management said this provides strong momentum for the second half and supports full-year guidance.
• First-half operating margin was 18.8%, pressured by product mix and production-transfer delays, but management expects those headwinds to reverse and margins to exceed 20% for the full year as the £90 million Performance Excellence savings program is completed.
• Free operating cash conversion fell to 41% and net debt to EBITDA rose to 2.2 times, reflecting higher inventory, delayed customer collections, production transfers, and acquisition-related interest costs. Weir expects working capital to unwind and leverage to move back toward its target range by year-end.
• Weir reported continued market-share gains and strong technology traction, including more than 90% success in competitive pump trials, 10 orders for its new Optimil vertical stirred mills, and Micromine annual recurring revenue growth expected above 25%.
• Andrew Neilson will become CEO next week, succeeding John, who leaves after a decade focused on transforming Weir into a mining technology company spanning engineered hardware and software.

The Weir Group Stock Up 9.3%

Shares of LON:WEIR traded up GBX 234 on Wednesday, hitting GBX 2,758. 7,673,617 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,456,500. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of GBX 2,435.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of GBX 2,823.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 93.56. The company has a market cap of £7.16 billion, a PE ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.07. The Weir Group has a 52 week low of GBX 2,254 and a 52 week high of GBX 3,580.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WEIR has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup lowered The Weir Group to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,555 price objective on shares of The Weir Group in a research report on Wednesday. Shore Capital Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of The Weir Group in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Panmure Gordon upgraded shares of The Weir Group to a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,490 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of The Weir Group from GBX 3,500 to GBX 3,800 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 3,435.33.

Insider Transactions at The Weir Group

In other news, insider Penelope Anne Freer purchased 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 2,729 per share, for a total transaction of £24,561. 0.73% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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. The ESCO segment provides ground engaging tools for large mining machines. This segment also offers cloud-based Artificial Intelligence solutions to the mining industry; manufactures and distributes highly engineered wear parts; and offers aftermarket services to the mining industry.