Halma plc (HLMA) — Company Research

Last Updated: 29 October 2026

Halma plc is a group of specialist technology companies that make safety, environmental, analysis and healthcare products, such as fire detectors, water-quality sensors, optical components and medical devices. Its fiscal year ends on 31 March. Since the last version of this report (15 June 2026) Halma has bought Dreampath Diagnostics, Pyxis, itemedical and Näslund Medical, sold NovaBone, and on 24 September 2026 raised its FY2027 margin guidance to 23.5%–24%. H1 FY2027 results are due on 19 November 2026. Every figure below comes from Halma's results announcements, trading updates, annual report and RNS notifications. There are no analyst opinions, price targets or ratings anywhere in it.

Share prices, and figures worked out from them, are not shown for London-listed companies on ChartsView.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	HLMA — London Stock Exchange; also traded over the counter in the US as HLMAF
Sector	Industrials — safety, environmental and analysis, and healthcare technology
Revenue (FY2026)	£2,582.3m for the year to 31 March 2026 (FY2025: £2,248.1m), up 14.9%; organic constant-currency growth +16.6%
Adjusted EBIT (FY2026)	£594.5m, up 22.2%, at a 23.0% return on sales (22.7% excluding a £9.3m one-off licence gain); statutory profit before tax £490.7m, up 27.7%
EPS (FY2026)	Statutory basic EPS 98.57p, up 25.6%; adjusted EPS 114.05p, up 21.0%
Dividend per share	24.74p total dividend for FY2026 (interim 9.63p, final 15.11p), up 7%; the 47th year in a row of dividend increases of 5% or more
Net debt	£769.1m at 31 March 2026, including leases (FY2025: £535.8m); 1.16x adjusted EBITDA
Employees	9,461 on average in FY2026 (FY2025: 9,038), in more than 20 countries (2026 Annual Report)
CEO / Leadership	Marc Ronchetti, Group Chief Executive; Carole Cran, Chief Financial Officer; Dame Louise Makin, Chair
Shares in issue	379,645,332 ordinary shares at 31 March 2026, of which 1,967,057 held by the Employee Benefit Trust

2. The Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Fast organic growth: organic constant-currency revenue grew 16.6% in FY2026, and on 24 September 2026 Halma still expected low double-digit organic growth in FY2027, with order intake ahead of revenue and the prior year.
• Margin guidance raised: Halma raised its FY2027 adjusted EBIT margin guidance to 23.5%–24% from about 22.7%, after the return on sales rose to 23.0% in FY2026 from 21.6%.
• Long dividend record: the FY2026 dividend of 24.74p was the 47th consecutive year of 5%-plus increases, covered 4.73 times by adjusted earnings, and FY2026 was the 23rd year in a row of record adjusted profit.
• Acquisition engine: Halma completed a record £447m of acquisitions in FY2026 and six more worth up to £515m in FY2027 to 24 September 2026, while selling three businesses for about £83m.
• High returns on capital: adjusted return on total invested capital was 16.2% in FY2026, against a weighted average cost of capital Halma estimates at 10.2%.

Bear Case

• One large customer: a single data-centre photonics customer accounted for about 20% of group revenue in FY2026 (FY2025: 15%) and about half of Environmental & Analysis revenue.
• Photonics growth slowing: photonics revenue grew 52% in FY2026, but Halma expects about 30% in FY2027 and says trends in this market "remain dynamic".
• Weaker cash conversion and higher debt: adjusted cash conversion fell to 93% from 112%, and net debt rose to £769.1m from £535.8m after record acquisition spending.
• Dollar exposure: about 52% of revenue is in US dollars; Halma says a 1% move in the dollar changes revenue by about £13.6m and adjusted EBIT by about £3.7m.

3. Revenue Segments

Halma reports three sectors. Figures are for FY2026.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Environmental & Analysis (£1,037.7m)	40%	Environmental monitoring, water analysis and treatment, and optical and photonics products, including optical switches for data centres. Revenue +33.6% (organic +35.7%); profit £250.6m at a 24.1% margin.
Safety (£947.5m)	37%	Fire detection and suppression, safety interlocks, worker and public safety, emergency communications and infrastructure safety. Revenue +5.0% (organic +6.5%); profit £253.6m at a 26.8% margin.
Healthcare (£598.4m)	23%	Ophthalmology, vital signs monitoring, interventional and surgical devices, women's health and asset tracking. Revenue +4.9% (organic +6.3%); profit £143.1m at a 23.9% margin.

By destination, the US took £1,237.1m (48%, organic +26.2%), mainland Europe £500.2m (19%), the UK £344.7m (13%), Asia Pacific £333.1m (13%), Africa, Near and Middle East £86.2m (4%) and other countries £81.0m (3%). Follow sterling, the US dollar and industrial markets on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Halma's companies sell specialist products, often needed to meet safety, health or environmental rules, to industrial, building, utility and healthcare customers. Each company runs largely on its own within its sector, and the group adds to them by buying businesses in related niches. R&D spending was £122.6m in FY2026, 4.7% of revenue.

The moat. Many Halma products are small but important parts of safety or regulated systems, where approvals, reliability and know-how matter more than price. Spreading revenue over many niches and countries has helped Halma deliver 23 years in a row of record adjusted profit.

Capital allocation. Halma reinvests most of its cash in acquisitions and keeps leverage within an operating range of up to 2x net debt to adjusted EBITDA. In FY2026 it spent £428.7m on acquisitions (net of cash acquired), paid £89.7m of dividends and bought £33.5m of shares for employee share plans.

5. Financial Health

Halma reports in sterling under IFRS for years to 31 March. GAAP EPS is statutory basic EPS; Adjusted EPS is Halma's adjusted EPS, which excludes the amortisation of acquired intangibles and other adjusting items. Long-term debt is non-current borrowings at each year end (lease liabilities are shown separately).

Fiscal Year	Revenue (£m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2022	1,525.3	+15.7%	64.54p	65.48p	18.88p	£287.6m
FY2023	1,852.8	+21.5%	62.04p	76.34p	20.20p	£677.3m
FY2024	2,034.1	+9.8%	71.23p	82.40p	21.61p	£711.9m
FY2025	2,248.1	+10.5%	78.49p	94.23p	23.12p	£703.8m
FY2026	2,582.3	+14.9%	98.57p	114.05p	24.74p	£756.7m

FY2022 growth is against FY2021 revenue of £1,318.2m. Revenue and EPS are from the ten-year summary in the 2026 Annual Report; dividends from Halma's dividend history; borrowings from each year's balance sheet. Current borrowings were £72.5m, £1.0m, £0.3m, £35.6m and £48.9m for FY2022 to FY2026.

Quarter / Half	Revenue (£m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
H2 FY2026 (Oct 2025–Mar 2026)	1,344.9 (+14.6%)	58.73p (derived)	49.13p (derived)
H1 FY2026 (Apr–Sep 2025)	1,237.4 (+15.2%)	55.32p	49.44p
FY2026 total	2,582.3	114.05p	98.57p

Halma reports half-yearly. H2 figures are the full year less H1 and the H2 EPS figures are approximate because EPS is not strictly additive; Halma said H2 revenue was up 14.6% on a year earlier, with organic growth of 15.8%. H1 FY2027 (April to September 2026) results are due on 19 November 2026.

Cash flow and balance sheet. In FY2026 cash generated from operations was £593.1m and net cash inflow from operating activities, after £112.5m of tax, was £480.6m. Capital expenditure was £71.0m: property, plant and equipment £54.9m, software £1.0m, other intangibles £0.3m and capitalised development £14.8m. Depreciation and amortisation was £130.2m, made up of depreciation and impairment of property, plant and equipment £55.0m, software amortisation £1.3m, amortisation of development costs and other intangibles £11.5m, a £0.8m impairment reversal and amortisation of acquired intangibles £63.2m. At 31 March 2026 cash and bank balances were £143.4m, current borrowings £48.9m, non-current borrowings £756.7m and lease liabilities £107.8m.

Outlook. On 24 September 2026 Halma said it still expects low double-digit organic constant-currency revenue growth in FY2027, including about 5 percentage points from photonics, and raised its adjusted EBIT margin guidance to 23.5%–24%. At exchange rates of $1.35 and €1.17 to the pound it expects a currency headwind of about £8m on revenue and £2m on profit.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Adjusted EBIT	£594.5m for FY2026 at a 23.0% return on sales (£585.2m and 22.7% excluding the Nuvonic one-off); H1 FY2026 £282.0m at 22.8%
Adjusted EPS	114.05p for FY2026, up 21.0%; statutory basic EPS 98.57p
EBITDA (FY2026)	Adjusted EBITDA £661.5m (Halma measure); statutory EBITDA about £656.0m = operating profit before finance items and disposals £525.8m plus D&A £130.2m (wider total, including acquired-intangible amortisation, from the cash flow reconciliation)
Free cash flow	About £409.6m for FY2026: net cash inflow from operating activities £480.6m less capital expenditure £71.0m (FY2026 cash flow statement)
Net debt	Borrowings £805.6m (£48.9m current plus £756.7m non-current) plus leases £107.8m less cash £143.4m = about £770m; Halma reports £769.1m at 31 March 2026, 1.16x adjusted EBITDA
Return on total invested capital	Adjusted ROTIC 16.2% for FY2026 (FY2025: 15.0%)
Dividend per share	24.74p for FY2026, covered 4.73 times by adjusted earnings
Short interest (% of float)	No net short positions of 0.5% or more disclosed to the FCA at 29 October 2026 (latest disclosed: AQR Capital Management 0.5% on 23 June 2026, via Investegate's FCA list); US over-the-counter line HLMAF 355,580 shares short, 0.09% of float, at 31 August 2026 (MarketBeat)
Days to cover	21.3 days for the thinly traded HLMAF line (MarketBeat, 31 August 2026); not published for the London line

7. What Are They Building

Healthcare additions. On 7 July 2026 Halma bought Dreampath Diagnostics, which makes pathology sample-tracking products, for up to €279m. On 2 July it bought itemedical in the Netherlands for €23m and Näslund Medical in Sweden, maker of Gold Anchor fiducial markers, for $45m. Surgistar was bought for $90m in April 2026.

Water and environment. On 2 September 2026 Halma agreed to buy Pyxis, a Houston maker of water-quality sensors, for $170m plus up to $30m of earn-out. Pyxis expects revenue of about $39m in the year to March 2027 and joins the Environmental & Analysis sector as a standalone company.

Portfolio pruning. Halma sold NovaBone for $56m on 4 August 2026, after selling Labsphere and Cardios earlier in the year, and reorganised its Healthcare sector into three subsectors: Discovery, Prevention & Diagnostics; Therapeutic Solutions; and Healthcare Enablement.

Photonics. Optical products for data centres drove Environmental & Analysis growth of 35.7% organic in FY2026, and Halma expects photonics to add about 5 percentage points to group organic growth in FY2027.

8. Competitive Landscape

Halma competes with diversified industrial technology groups and with many small specialist companies in each of its niches.

Peer	Key latest fiscal-year metric
AMETEK (AME)	2025 sales $7.4bn, up 7%; adjusted operating margin 26.2% (AMETEK full-year 2025 results)
Roper Technologies (ROP)	2025 revenue $7.90bn, up 12% (organic +5%) (Roper Q4 2025 earnings release)
Smiths Group (SMIN)	FY2026 (to July) revenue about £1.94bn, organic growth +1.2%, adjusted operating margin 20.6% (results of 22 September 2026, as reported by interactive investor)
Diploma (DPLM)	FY2025 (to September) revenue £1,524.5m, up 12% (organic +11%) (Diploma preliminary results)
Judges Scientific (JDG)	2025 revenue £145.8m, up 9.1% (organic +6%) (Judges Scientific preliminary results)

Halma's FY2026 organic growth of 16.6% was higher than each of these peers reported for its latest year. Spectris, another former peer, is no longer listed.

9. Leadership and Insider Activity

Marc Ronchetti has been Group Chief Executive (CEO) since April 2023 and Carole Cran Chief Financial Officer since April 2025. Dame Louise Makin is Chair. Constance Baroudel, Sector Chief Executive of Environmental & Analysis, left at the end of August 2026 to become chief executive of Spectris; Steve Brown took over that sector on 1 September 2026 and Bill Stoval became Healthcare Sector Chief Executive. Jo Harlow stepped down from the board at the 23 July 2026 AGM.

The director and PDMR dealings below were disclosed through RNS notifications in 2026.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Plan Type
Ronchetti, Cran, Ward, Adegoke, Brown	01 Oct 2026	Free share award	102 each	Share Incentive Plan
Marc Ronchetti (CEO)	07 Aug 2026	Sale	47,000	Market sale
Jennifer Ward (PDMR)	22–23 Jul 2026	Sale	21,393	Market sale
Marc Ronchetti (CEO)	26 Jun 2026	Award	97,559 (81,218 performance, 16,341 deferred bonus)	Executive Share Plan
Carole Cran (CFO)	26 Jun 2026	Award	52,079 (42,773 performance, 9,306 deferred bonus)	Executive Share Plan
Marc Ronchetti (CEO)	24–26 Jun 2026	Vesting; 59,795 sold for tax	127,220 vested	Executive Share Plan
Constance Baroudel (Sector CEO)	22 Jun 2026	Sale	17,530	Market sale
Sharmila Nebhrajani (non-executive director)	15 Jun 2026	Purchase	248	Market purchase
Hudson La Force (non-executive director)	12 Jan 2026	Purchase	2,000	US over-the-counter purchase
Catherine Michel (Chief Technology Officer)	09 Jan 2026	Sale	14,586	Market sale

10. Key Risks

• Customer concentration (Commercial): one data-centre photonics customer was about 20% of group revenue in FY2026, so a change in its orders would have a large effect on growth and profit.
• Acquisitions and portfolio (Strategic): Halma relies on buying companies to grow, spending up to £515m in FY2027 to 24 September; paying too much or integrating badly is one of its principal risks.
• Economic and geopolitical uncertainty (Macro): Halma names US tariffs and trade policy, Middle East developments, supply chains and inflation as risks, and has seen project delays in US fire safety and infrastructure safety.
• Currency (Financial): about 52% of revenue is in US dollars and 14% in euros, so a stronger pound lowers reported results.
• Talent and innovation (Operational): Halma rates talent and diversity, and innovation, as its two highest residual principal risks, and several senior executives changed roles in 2026.
• Cyber and IT interruption (Operational): Halma's many separately run companies widen the area exposed to cyber attacks and IT failures, a medium residual principal risk.

11. Recent Developments

• 28 May 2026 — Sector chief executive changes. Halma said Constance Baroudel would leave to run Spectris, with Steve Brown moving to Environmental & Analysis and Bill Stoval promoted to lead Healthcare.
• 11 Jun 2026 — FY2026 results. Revenue rose 14.9% to £2,582.3m (organic +16.6%), adjusted EBIT rose 22.2% to £594.5m and adjusted EPS rose 21.0% to 114.05p; the total dividend rose 7% to 24.74p.
• 02 Jul 2026 — Two healthcare bolt-ons. Halma bought itemedical for €23m and Näslund Medical for $45m.
• 07 Jul 2026 — Dreampath Diagnostics acquired. Halma agreed to buy the pathology sample-tracking business for up to €279m.
• 23 Jul 2026 — AGM. All 21 resolutions passed; Jo Harlow stepped down as a director and Sharmila Nebhrajani became Senior Independent Director.
• 04 Aug 2026 — NovaBone sold. Halma sold NovaBone for $56m net of costs, with no material gain or loss expected.
• 02 Sep 2026 — Pyxis acquired. Halma agreed to buy the Houston water-quality sensor maker for $170m plus up to $30m of earn-out.
• 24 Sep 2026 — Trading update and margin guidance raised. Halma kept its low double-digit organic growth outlook, raised FY2027 margin guidance to 23.5%–24% and said order intake was ahead of revenue and the prior year.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 19 Nov 2026 — H1 FY2027 results for the six months to 30 September 2026, including the interim dividend
• Expected Jan 2027 — payment of the FY2027 interim dividend (last year: paid 30 January 2026); dates to be confirmed with the results
• 11 Mar 2027 — trading update (provisional date on Halma's financial calendar)
• 31 Mar 2027 — FY2027 year end
• 10 Jun 2027 — FY2027 full-year results (provisional)
• Expected Jul 2027 — 2027 Annual General Meeting (2026 AGM: 23 July 2026); date not yet confirmed

UK and US interest rate decisions and inflation data that move sterling and the US dollar are on the ChartsView Economic Calendar. Discuss Halma with other investors in the ChartsView Forum.

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