Barclays Reiterates “Overweight” Rating for Spectris (LON:SXS)

Barclays restated their overweight rating on shares of Spectris (LON:SXS) in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a GBX 4,250 ($53.39) price target on the stock.

SXS has been the topic of several other research reports. Berenberg Bank cut their price target on Spectris from GBX 3,780 ($47.49) to GBX 3,520 ($44.22) and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus lowered Spectris to a sell rating and set a GBX 8,500 ($106.78) target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Shore Capital lowered Spectris to a sell rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Numis Securities restated a buy rating and issued a GBX 4,435 ($55.72) price target on shares of Spectris in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of GBX 6,078.33 ($76.36).

Spectris Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of SXS opened at GBX 3,306 ($41.53) on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.76. Spectris has a 12-month low of GBX 2,917 ($36.65) and a 12-month high of GBX 3,883.85 ($48.79). The firm has a market capitalization of £3.33 billion, a PE ratio of 2,361.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.72. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 3,295.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 3,424.12.

Spectris Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of GBX 53.90 ($0.68) per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from Spectris’s previous dividend of $25.30. This represents a dividend yield of 1.49%. Spectris’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5,642.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Derek Harding sold 1,909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 3,201 ($40.21), for a total transaction of £61,107.09 ($76,767.70). 1.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Spectris Company Profile

Spectris plc provides precision measurement solutions worldwide. It operates through Spectris Scientific, Spectris Dynamics, and Other segments. The Spectris Scientific segment provides advanced sensors and instruments used to measure, analyze, and characterize materials; and monitor ultra-clean manufacturing environments.