Balfour Beatty (LON:BBY) Hits New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Balfour Beatty plc (LON:BBY)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as GBX 874 and last traded at GBX 873.25, with a volume of 1428219 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at GBX 865.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BBY. Berenberg Bank boosted their target price on Balfour Beatty from GBX 800 to GBX 870 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a GBX 985 price objective on shares of Balfour Beatty in a report on Monday, June 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of GBX 856.67.

Balfour Beatty Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 817.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 763.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 89.50. The stock has a market cap of £4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.60.

Balfour Beatty announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, March 11th that permits the company to buyback 0 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Balfour Beatty news, insider Philip Harrison sold 109,744 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 799, for a total transaction of £876,854.56. Also, insider Philip Hoare sold 121,214 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 799, for a total value of £968,499.86. 1.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Balfour Beatty Company Profile

Balfour Beatty is a leading international infrastructure group. With 26,000 employees across the UK, US and Hong Kong, we’re leading the transformation of our industry to meet the challenges of the future.

Trusted by our customers to deliver sustainable solutions and strengthen communities, we finance, develop, build, maintain and operate the increasingly complex and critical infrastructure that supports national economies and deliver projects at the heart of local communities.

Collaborating with governments, our customers and partners, we deliver powerful new solutions, shape thinking, create skylines and inspire a new generation of talent to be the change-makers of tomorrow.