EKF Diagnostics Holdings PLC (LON:EKF) shares jumped more than 7% on Thursday after the medical equipment manufacturer said first-half earnings were ahead of its expectations and that it was confident that it would make further progress during the remainder of 2018.
The South Wales-based point-of-care company also said it had delivered extremely strong cash conversion - £9mln in the year to June 30 compared to £4mln in the same period a year earlier.
READ: Shares in EKF Diagnostics rise as underlying profits to be comfortably ahead of forecasts
In another positive development, EKF said that following significant investment in its Elkhart enzyme facility, it had secured a multi-million dollar enzyme contract with Oragenics, Inc. It added that it had also secured a distribution agreement with US-based McKesson Medical-Surgical for its haemoglobin analyser, DiaSpect, which recently received regulatory clearance.
In a note to clients, analysts at broker Finncap were positive on the tenders won by EKF and maintained its ‘buy’ recommendation on the stock.
Shares in EKF were up 7.6% at 39.48p in early afternoon trade.