Diploma (LON:DPLM) Sets New 52-Week High – Should You Buy?

Diploma PLC (LON:DPLM)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as GBX 4,654 ($58.49) and last traded at GBX 4,644 ($58.36), with a volume of 1254410 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at GBX 4,612 ($57.96).

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a GBX 5,100 ($64.09) target price on shares of Diploma in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Diploma from GBX 4,370 ($54.92) to GBX 4,420 ($55.55) and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Shore Capital cut shares of Diploma to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Diploma currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of GBX 4,567.50 ($57.40).

Diploma Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of £6.38 billion, a PE ratio of 54.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 62.17, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 2.17. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is GBX 4,382.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 4,371.18.

Diploma (LON:DPLM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 19th. The company reported GBX 96.50 ($1.21) earnings per share for the quarter. Diploma had a net margin of 9.25% and a return on equity of 13.18%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Diploma PLC will post 163.7995512 EPS for the current year.

Diploma Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were issued a GBX 42 ($0.53) dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 0.93%. This is a boost from Diploma’s previous dividend of $17.30. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. Diploma’s payout ratio is 65.52%.

Insider Activity at Diploma

In other Diploma news, insider Chris Davies bought 3,917 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of GBX 4,280 ($53.79) per share, for a total transaction of £167,647.60 ($210,691.97). Also, insider Johnny Thomson sold 26,794 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 4,536 ($57.01), for a total transaction of £1,215,375.84 ($1,527,429.73). 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Diploma Company Profile

Diploma PLC, together with its subsidiaries, supplies specialized technical products and services in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, North America, and internationally. It operates through three business sectors: Life Sciences, Seals, and Controls. The Life Sciences sector supplies technology-enabled products used in surgical procedures in operating theatres and endoscopy; testing equipment and services for clinical laboratories; and bio-pharma, food safety and testing, and other research-oriented products.