Smiths Share Discussion Threads

[bigboots] 11/8/2006 13:18

Chart says broken down through support at 8.50 and now down to 8.25, if it breaks there 7.75

[tigersim] 10/8/2006 15:59

Just a thought - they do make alot of the scanner, x-ray and detector equipment for security searching at airports? Todays antics maybe positive for smiths, if increased attention is turned to hand baggage screening at airports.

[1inamilion] 08/6/2006 08:45

same here not much to say but this has come down from over 10 quid. what's going on?

[11entrepreneur11] 07/6/2006 05:49

i envite you all to my new website where you can discuss shares and world issues the site is:

[1inamilion] 31/5/2006 00:55

Credit Suisse has an outperform rating for Smiths Group, cutting target to £10.85 from £11.125

* SG Securities has upgraded its rating for Smiths Group to buy from hold and its rating for Invensys to hold from sell

[1inamilion] 31/5/2006 00:08

These must be a buy now at this price.. thinking of going long.

[georged] 22/5/2006 16:06

Shuisky. Dollar related earnings is the problem i think. But i am looking to buy in at these levels. This I feel has been overdone. Do you have any other brokers recs one way or tother?

[shuisky] 19/5/2006 15:15

Another analyst downgrade..



..citing...

'ABN Amro cuts Smiths (SMIN.LN) to sell from hold, ups target price to 900p from 850p. Says its performance is due to strong end markets and returns have declined over time. Notes Aerospace's competitive pressures have increased on the civil side and that Medical will find it difficult to achieve sustained organic growth. "If Smiths Group is going to generate lower returns than in the past, there is a price that must be paid,"'

Sounds like nonsense to me. I suspect the fact that returns have declined because of investment in order to service growth markets and to integrate Medex (healthcare) might be lost on the an analyst. Boeing & Airbus have huge backlogs of orders, Energy CapEx is set for a good few years of investment, Medical has consistent growth rates and Detection is only set to increase as Airports/ports are built/upgraded and applications are widened to things like commercial offices and transport facilities.

What's funny about SMIN is it's the larger players like ABN and UBS that are negative on the stock whilst the likes of Numis and Panmure are positive.


Meanwhile back in the real World, Aerospace has just won an order potentially worth $100m for the fast selling Boeing 747-8, there is a new $27m contract with the D of Defense, and Detection has just trialled out scanners at London Underground.

[cimbom] 26/4/2006 02:49

Smiths Group is one of the few stocks outside the commodity sectors to have clawed its way back to the dizzy heights of the top of the market, and is now trading at levels not seen since December 1999, when the market was nudging 7,000 and brokers thought that Time Warner merging with AOL was a good idea.

Although Smiths finished yesterday's session unchanged at 1,034.5p, the talk around the market was that the US aerospace and materials group Honeywell is considering a bid for the global engineering group, with one trader saying the bidding would have to start "at a minimum of 1,250p". More than 8 million Smiths Group shares were traded, more than double the daily average.

Honeywell, with a market capitalisation of $35bn (£20bn), is big enough to swallow Smiths, currently worth about £6.7bn. Traders speculated that Honeywell would sell the medical division of Smiths, responsible for 16 per cent of group profits. One said: "There would be no shortage of buyers for the medical business, and with 60 per cent of Smiths' profits coming from the US there would also be plenty of synergies and cost-cutting opportunities. Smiths definitely looks like a good fit for Honeywell."

[sahara] 25/4/2006 11:02

+ a $33m Dollar contract.

S.

[sahara] 21/4/2006 10:00

Looking Good yeah,

No surprise there then.

Queens award to boot.

S.

[meisun] 29/3/2006 15:26

This news are not to be ignored !!!!!

[sahara] 29/3/2006 15:25

I have!

S.

[bidman] 29/3/2006 13:43

why are these coming back? is this the time to buy?

[1inamilion] 28/3/2006 00:14

JP Morgan has overweight on Smiths Group (LSE: SMIN.L - news) (1040p target price)

[1inamilion] 24/3/2006 10:26

Smiths selected to make runway debris detection system in USA

[spacemoggy] 24/3/2006 09:50

Yes its looking very nice,plenty of upside imho....Rick

[sahara] 24/3/2006 09:45

Looking good yeah?

Might have to load up some more, we seem to have broken to the upside of a Sym Tri.

S.

[1inamilion] 23/3/2006 20:25

Smiths Group's aerospace ops win contract with US Navy worth up to 34.5 mln usd

[1inamilion] 22/3/2006 22:06

so what is the significance of "register on 24 March"? thanks

[tole] 22/3/2006 18:36

!inamillion - in answer YES.

The Board has raised the interim dividend by 6.5% to 9.85p. It will be paid on
21 April to shareholders listed on the register on 24 March. The ex-dividend
date is 22 March.

Tipped on uk-analyst today - although taken from UK350 site where it had been available for some time now.


Buy Smiths Group at 977.5p
Says Robert Sutherland Smith,editor of UK350.com

The great quality of the Smith's group of companies (SMIN) is its solidity. That is best summed up by its dividend record. When it raised its dividend by 7.5% for last year to 31 July 2005, it was the 35th year in which the dividend payout to shareholders had been increased. It reminds us that Smiths has been doing a satisfactorily commercial and economic job for shareholders for a large part of a lifetime. A specialist engineering company best known for aeronautical engineering, it last year produced sales of over three billion pounds and underlying operating profits of 420 million pounds employing total assets 2.4 billion pounds. It now employs over 30,000 people of whom 17,600 were working in North America. Even the name of the company's Chief Executive is full of reassuring undertones. Keith Butler-Wheelhouse is a name that the most imaginative of corporate identity specialists would have done well to imagine; an example of life copying corporate relations art.

Smith's has four businesses. Aerospace engineering, Detection and security, Medical instruments and devices and Specialist Engineering. In terms of sales revenue last year, Aerospace engineering was the biggest business and in terms of profitability specialist engineering made the biggest contribution to operating profits. The Aerospace business, inevitably, is one of change and technological innovation requiring continuing routine research and development. Last year, R&D amounted to just under 10%of group revenue at 295 million pounds. However, indicating the nature of the relationship it has with customers like Boeing and Airbus, around half was funded by the customers themselves. To summarise, Aerospace last year had sales of 1.15 billion pounds producing operating profits of 118 million pounds. Speciality engineering produced sales revenue of 929 million pounds turning in operating profits of 127 million pounds. The Medical division, significantly enlarged by the recent purchase of the US company Medex, obtained sales revenue 563 million pounds from which generated operating profits of 108 million pounds. Finally the fast growing detection company - the world's airports are important customers - showed revenue income of 376 million pounds producing operating profits of 67 million pounds. In terms of geography, North America was the largest market generating 58% of Group sales and 48% of operating profits.

Smiths Group is driven by a strategy which includes the following objectives. Choosing markets with above average long term growth prospects with the aim of becoming a competitive leader in such markets. A continuing emphasis on the need for productive efficiency. Building and maintaining a commercial, global corporate infrastructure to efficiently sustain worldwide production and customer support and service. Maintaining competitive research and development programmes. Achieving 'critical mass' and technological edge through acquisitions. Most of Smiths acquisitions tend to be small rather than large, so as to add new technological capabilities. As an example, the recent acquisition of Lorch Microwave which brought a leading microwave filter technology for use in Smiths communication and defence systems cost 25 million pounds. In contrast and atypically, the US medical devices company acquired last year cost 499 million pounds and is estimated to add a further 35% to medical sales revenues.

So why look at Smiths now? Firstly, as a growth company with good management and technologically competitive products in major world markets, Smith's is always on my prospective watch list. Second, the group published an impressive set of interim results to January 2006. Sales were up 19% to 1.5 million pounds and headline operating profits were up 22% at 194 million pounds. Earnings increased 18% to 24p. Interim dividends were increased by 6.5% to 9.85p. For the year as a whole the company was happy to guide the market to look for a 14% increase in pre tax profits; one supposes that is a conservative indication of potential.

Thirdly, the company has moved manufacturing facilities from Hythe in Kent Mexico, initiating another cost cutting exercise in order to improve efficiency. And fourth, the shares have come down from the pre Christmas high of 1068p. The retreat looks a perfectly natural short term market adjustment that presents an opportunity for buying the shares. The market is estimating earnings to increase 10% this year - conservative in relation to the latest corporate guidance - and 16% next year. That puts the share on a forward estimated price to earnings ratio of 16 for the current year dropping to an estimated 13.9 for next year to July 2007. The dividend payout next year is estimated to be 32.65p putting the shares on a prospective estimated dividend yield of 3.42%. Excellent value in my opinion. Buy for continuing growth.

Key Data

EPIC: SMIN
Price: 977 - 977.5p
Market : Fully listed

[1inamilion] 22/3/2006 16:12

Did this go XDIV today. Does that mean anyone holding these by close yesterday will receive div?