QinetiQ Group PLC was the biggest faller still, down almost 10% on Tuesday afternoon, but analysts at Shore Capital said this presented investors with an opportunity to buy shares in a fast-growing defence company for a cheaper price.
A trading update early in the day was "mixed", said analyst Jamie Murray in a note to clients, with pretty limited financial information from the FTSE 250-listed group apart from revealing that EMEA Services delivered revenue growth and that it was stable for the Global Solutions division.
While the full-year and medium-term outlook is unchanged, order intake "appears to be a little soft due", Murray said.
Expecting this to weigh on the shares, Murray said he remains "constructive on the medium term opportunity, and so buy any dip to capitalise on a fast growing defence stock with exposure to prime markets.".
He noted that order intake in Global Solutions remains robust and said he did not expect any changes to forecasts.
"Whilst order intake is less relevant to QinetiQ versus other defence peers with long-tailed programmes, there appears to be a risk that the full year book-to-bill might fall below the 1.0x threshold."
QinetiQ's enterprise value is 10 times 2026 forecast underlying profits (EBIT), which the analyst said is "materially below the peer average multiple".
Murray's analysis of growth, return on capital and risk suggests the shares can trade at an "undemanding" 2026 EV/EBITA of 12.0x driving a fair value of 520p compared to the 380p the shares fell to on Tuesday.