The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) Shares Up 8.7% After Insider Buying Activity

The Weir Group PLC (LON:WEIR)’s share price rose 8.7% during trading on Wednesday following insider buying activity. The stock traded as high as GBX 2,802 and last traded at GBX 2,744. Approximately 3,137,856 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 9,425,219 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 2,524.

Specifically, insider Penelope Anne Freer acquired 900 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 2,729 per share, for a total transaction of £24,561.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Shore Capital Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of The Weir Group in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Panmure Gordon raised shares of The Weir Group to a “buy” rating and set a GBX 3,490 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on The Weir Group from GBX 3,500 to GBX 3,800 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Citigroup downgraded shares of The Weir Group to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 3,555 price target on shares of The Weir Group in a research report on Wednesday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, The Weir Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of GBX 3,435.33.

The Weir Group Stock Up 8.7%

The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 93.56. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 2,435.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 2,823.47. The company has a market capitalization of £7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.07.

The Weir Group (LON:WEIR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported GBX 54.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The Weir Group had a return on equity of 13.42% and a net margin of 9.63%. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Weir Group PLC will post 136.0509554 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About The Weir Group

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. The ESCO segment provides ground engaging tools for large mining machines. This segment also offers cloud-based Artificial Intelligence solutions to the mining industry; manufactures and distributes highly engineered wear parts; and offers aftermarket services to the mining industry.