LONDON, June 27, 2026, 23:06 BST
- Funds tied to Cevian bumped up their voting rights to 13.06%, up from 12.24%.
- Smith & Nephew has bought back $136.9 million so far, about 55% of the initial $250 million tranche.
- The shares ended Friday down 0.65% at 1,138.5p. Still, they rose 1.2% for the week.
Smith & Nephew plc (LON:SN) is heading into next week with its buyback still running near the market. Funds tied to Cevian have taken their voting stake past 13%, bringing capital returns and governance issues back to the front. Shares ended Friday’s session at 1,138.5p, down 0.65% after trading wrapped in London.
Cevian Capital II GP Limited increased its stake to 13.056468%, or about 110.5 million voting rights, after crossing a threshold on June 23, according to a Form 6-K filed June 25. That’s up from 12.235936% earlier. The filing said Cevian held no position via financial instruments.
The company acquired 1.421 million shares between June 19 and June 25, paying a volume-weighted average price of 1,132.60p. Since May 8, buybacks have totaled 9.077 million shares, costing $136.9 million, or roughly 54.7% of the first $250 million allotted for repurchases.
What matters for investors is how fast shares are being taken off the table compared to Cevian’s bigger voting bloc, but the stock continues to trail badly. Smith & Nephew shares are down 8.1% so far this year, according to a London Stock Exchange/FTSE Russell tearsheet dated June 26. That’s 13.6 percentage points behind the FTSE 350. Over five years, the shares have dropped 27.5%. The index is up 39.6% in that time.
Smith & Nephew shares had a small gain last week. The stock was at 1,125p on June 19, slipped to 1,113.5p Monday, jumped to 1,152.5p Wednesday, and then finished Friday at 1,138.5p, according to Investing.com data. That’s a 1.2% increase for the week.
Knees and timing of a second-half lift are still behind the range. Smith & Nephew logged first-quarter revenue at $1.50 billion, up 3.1% underlying. Sports Medicine & ENT grew 6.7% underlying, Orthopaedics came in up just 0.8%. U.S. Knee Implants dropped 10.3%. “The quarter was in line with our expectations,” CEO Deepak Nath said. “Sports Medicine is now larger than Orthopaedic Reconstruction and Robotics.” Smith & Nephew
Smith+Nephew’s CFO John Rogers told investors after the Q1 update that first-half sales growth would probably come in around 3.5%, according to Reuters. That’s under consensus, which is about 4.2%, but he said growth should pick up to about 8% in the second half. ODDO BHF’s Oliver Metzger noted, “back-end phasing is often not so attractive for investors.” Reuters
Smith & Nephew is sticking with its guidance for 2026, targeting about 6% underlying revenue growth, organic trading profit growth of about 8%, free cash flow of around $800 million, and adjusted ROIC above 10%—not counting Integrity Orthopaedics. The company is still planning for a tariff drag of about $60 million and a $20 million to $40 million impact from the skin-substitute reimbursement reset.
Smith & Nephew hasn’t scheduled any results next week. Its next set of numbers is due Aug. 4, when it reports second-quarter and half-year figures. After that, the Q3 trading update is set for Nov. 4.
