- Smiths Group’s underlying revenue slides 2% in the first quarter.
- The engineering company values its cash balance at £413 million.
- Smiths says its strategic restructuring is progressing as planned.
Smiths Group plc (LON: SMIN) published its financial report for the fiscal first quarter on Monday that highlighted a 2% year over year decline in underlying revenue. The company also expressed confidence that its full-year performance will come in line with market expectations.
Smiths Group was reported over 1% up in premarket trading on Monday and gained another 1% on market open. Including the price action, its shares are now exchanging hands at £15.43 versus a sharply lower £8.14 per share in mid-March due to the COVID-19 crisis that has so far infected more than 1.3 million people in the United Kingdom and caused a little under 52 thousand deaths.
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Smiths had a per-share price of £17.26 at the start of the year. Learn more about how to pick winning stocks.
Smiths Group values its cash balance at £413 million
In the quarter that concluded on 31st October, the British multinational said that underlying revenue from Smiths Medical printed 4% higher than last year. The global technology company had expressed plans of de-merging Smiths Medical in March 2019, and listing it as a separate company in the United Kingdom.
In its largest division, John Crane Group, performance was in line with expectations in the recent quarter. Smiths Detection, the London-based company added, posted robust results in Q1. Thanks to strong industrial sales, Flex-Tek also showed encouraging performance in the first quarter. As of the end of the first quarter, Smiths Group valued its cash balance at £413 million.
Smiths says its strategic restructuring is progressing as planned
Smiths Group also said on Monday that its strategic restructuring is ongoing as planned and is likely to result in annual savings worth £30 million in fiscal 2021. In the next financial year, the restructuring is expected to deliver £70 million of annual savings. In separate news from the United Kingdom, Diploma plc raised its annual dividend on Monday as performance recovered in Q4.
According to the diversified engineering business, Smiths Industries Pension Scheme trustee signed a bulk annuity buy-in agreement worth £146.5 million with Canada Life Assurance Co. The deal, Smiths Group said, will further help de-risk its pension liabilities.
Smith’s performance in the stock market remained fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of more than 25%. At the time of writing, the British multinational has a market cap of £6.15 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 92.34.
