LONDON, July 7, 2026, 00:01 BST
- Smiths Group (LON:SMIN) lost 1.56% to 2,593p on Monday, behind the FTSE 100’s 0.26% decline.
- Smiths Group said it bought back another 855,000 shares for cancellation. The RNS pricing suggests the company spent roughly £22.1 million on the buyback.
- Smiths’ first £600 million tranche is now within roughly £11 million of being finished, according to spending disclosed through June 26 and Monday’s RNS data.
- The next £400 million tranche is set to begin after that, but as of Monday’s close, current buyback authority may be enough for just £188 million more.
Smiths Group Plc (LON:SMIN) dropped more than the wider London market on Monday, after the engineering group gave more details on its big buyback. Shares finished at 2,593p, down 1.56%. The FTSE 100 lost 0.26%. Volume came in at 542,116, or 56% of the stock’s 65-day average. Smiths is now 5.58% off its Feb. 27 peak at £27.46.
Monday’s RNS was more about the run-rate than the drop. Smiths said it picked up 855,000 shares from HSBC Bank plc between June 29 and July 3, buying them across London venues. All of those shares are set to be cancelled. Based on the reported volume-weighted prices, the average purchase came to roughly 2,585.64p, costing Smiths around £22.1 million in total.
Smiths said June 30 it had bought back £567 million out of its £1 billion buyback as of June 26. The company is aiming to finish its first £600 million tranche by the end of July. With the most recent purchases, total spend is close to £589 million, so about £11 million left before the next tranche kicks in.
Cash isn’t the issue; it’s the authorization. Smiths’ 2025 AGM greenlight allowed buybacks up to 32,653,430 shares. As of June 30, Smiths reported 24,562,861 shares already bought. The latest 855,000 share purchase leaves about 7.24 million shares of capacity, valued at about £188 million at Monday’s close. That’s less than half of the planned £400 million for the second tranche.
Smiths called a general meeting for July 23 asking for expanded authority on market buys. Shareholders now get a look at the share count impact. If the extra authority doesn’t pass, Tranche 2 could still kick off, but the current headroom falls short at this price.
| Market measure | Latest / forecast | Investor read-through |
|---|---|---|
| Smiths ended July 6 | 2,593p | down 1.56% for the day |
| FTSE 100 finished | 10,651.77 | off 0.26% on the day |
| Median 12-month target | 2,780p | up 7.2% from Monday’s close |
| 12-month high target | 3,070p | up 18.4% |
| 12-month low target | 2,330p | down 10.1% |
Smiths has a market cap of £7.86 billion and about 300.02 million shares out, according to MarketWatch. The £1 billion buyback now running with the extra £1.5 billion planned from Smiths Detection sale add up to around 32% of the company’s value as of Monday. How many shares end up canceled will depend on price, timing, and what shareholders approve.
Smiths is launching the buyback after breaking up its old business lines. The company wrapped up the sale of Smiths Detection to funds managed by CVC on June 30, valuing the deal at £2 billion and taking in over £1.9 billion net cash. Disposals including Smiths Interconnect came to a combined £3.3 billion enterprise value. CEO Roland Carter said Smiths “realised a combined enterprise value of £3.3bn,” and described what’s left as a “focused premium industrial engineering company.” Smiths Group
Smiths’ valuation story now rests on a smaller share count and hopes for stronger margins. The sales growth outlook is murkier. In May, Smiths lowered its FY2026 organic revenue growth target for ongoing businesses to around 2%, down from the previous 3%-4%, after John Crane took a £10 million hit tied to Middle East issues. Profit guidance is unchanged. The headline operating margin is now set to come in just above 20%.
| FY2026 operating measure | Current company guide / latest data | Prior or market check |
|---|---|---|
| Organic revenue growth | Company now sees about 2% | Earlier guidance was 3%-4%; analysts were at 2.8% |
| Headline operating margin | Now guided a bit above 20% | Consensus was 20.1% |
| Q3 organic revenue | Came in flat | +0.2% for the nine months |
| John Crane Q3 organic revenue | Up 2.8% | Had a £10 million drag in Middle East |
| Flex-Tek Q3 organic revenue | Down 3.9% | US housing weak, tough prior year |
Jefferies analysts said following the May update that “sales expectations were a touch high,” Reuters reported on Investing.com. Carter said the group’s lower growth outlook came as demand stayed focused on energy security and resilience. Investing
That’s what made Monday’s price move worth watching. A mechanical buyer is almost set to start a new £400 million round, but shares dropped anyway. The market is figuring out how much the buyback can really do as organic growth stays weak in the two main Smiths businesses left after Detection and Interconnect.
Smiths will post its full-year numbers for the period to July 31 on Sept. 22.
