Halma has seen its share price target slashed by analysts at Swiss bank UBS even though they acknowledge that as companies go, it is better insulated than most against an adverse economic cycle or even recession.
Higher interest rates will put a cap on Halma’s M&A activity given the marginal cost, argues UBS, but the flip side is that this should lead to good progress by the engineering conglomerate on deleveraging.
Again if things do get difficult, UBS sees Halma as a defensive outperformer next year but destocking trends and a short downturn mean the shares are unlikely to make much headway.
Neutral with a 2,175p target, down from 2,600p previously, is the UBS stance.
Shares edged up 0.5% to 1,904p.