Health, safety and environmental electronics equipment designer Halma (HLMA) gains 1.9% to £31.82 as it unveils a modest acquisition and as the market continued to reappraise its reaction to yesterday's results.
Halma, which has an exceptional track record and has delivered a 10-year total return of more than 900% according to SharePad data, initially saw its shares slump despite reporting record first-half results (18 Nov).
However, the stock recovered ground throughout the afternoon leading into today's rise.
It is now up 1.5% on the levels at which it closed on Wednesday night on the eve of the numbers.
The results themselves were typically strong but investors may have been spooked by references to the impact of supply chain, logistics and labour market disruption.
Since then the focus seems to have switched to the fact that, despite these challenges, full-year guidance remains unchanged. In a show of confidence the dividend was also hiked 7% to 7.35p.
'ATTRACTIVE AND RESILIENT END MARKETS'
Shore Capital analysts Akhil Patel and Tom Fraine commented on the results that: 'Overall, Halma has continued to make strong progress in H1 with record revenue and profit as the group continues to benefit from its long-term growth drivers across its attractive and resilient end markets given its breadth of its product portfolio.'
As they suggest the company's outstanding performance is underpinned by a successful strategy built on modest acquisitions and exposure to trends around health and safety regulation and demand for healthcare and life-critical resources.
The deal announced today is a perfect example of this strategy in action, Halma buying Infinite Leap to slot into its medical sector business CenTrak in a deal worth up to $47 million.
Infinite Leap is a healthcare consulting and services provider for real-time location technologies, based in Fargo, North Dakota.
Halma notes it is also developing unique new hardware and software solutions for applications adjacent to CenTrak's core market.
