The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) Sets New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

The Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on the stock from GBX 2,500 to GBX 2,700. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. The Weir Group traded as high as GBX 2,442.24 ($31.24) and last traded at GBX 2,438 ($31.19), with a volume of 890680 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at GBX 2,430 ($31.09).

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on The Weir Group from GBX 2,075 ($26.54) to GBX 2,300 ($29.42) and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Brian Puffer sold 9,794 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 2,414 ($30.88), for a total transaction of £236,427.16 ($302,452.55). 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

The Weir Group Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of £6.28 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 2,299.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is GBX 2,181.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 80.30, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 1.16.

The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The company reported GBX 120 ($1.54) earnings per share for the quarter. The Weir Group had a net margin of 8.60% and a return on equity of 12.79%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Weir Group PLC will post 136.0509554 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.