Loading…
UK maker of road safety barriers, signage and galvanized steel products for infrastructure projects.
UK maker of road safety barriers, signage and galvanized steel products for infrastructure projects.
Sells road barriers and signs to highway authorities and contractors, so sales follow public infrastructure budgets and safety rules, while its galvanizing plants charge per tonne for coating steel with zinc to stop rust. The US has become a large part of the group, helped by US federal infrastructure spending.
In one line: A UK niche infrastructure-products/galvanizing company.
Moat: narrow (scale, installed base, regulatory licence). Certified road-safety product standards and a national galvanizing plant network.
Headquarters: Solihull, UK · Founded: 1889 · Employees: 4,590
Size Hill & Smith (HILS.L) is a United Kingdom Industrials company (Miscellaneous Manufacturing) with a market value of $2.88B, the 135th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £2,765 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 9.9%, against -13.9% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 4th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 2.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +8.6%); the operating margin is 16.1% (peer median 11.8%).
Valuation It trades at 19.5× forward earnings against a peer median of 20.7× (10th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 19% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +14 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 4.0 points above its cost of capital (14.0% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 10 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £888M | £869M | £855M | £830M | £732M |
| Revenue growth | — | +2% | +3% | +13% | — |
| Gross profit | £346M | £341M | £331M | £307M | £262M |
| EBITDA | £186M | £183M | £175M | £161M | £125M |
| Net income | £70.7M | £82.5M | £76.4M | £68.8M | £56.7M |
| Free cash flow | £78.4M | £108M | £108M | £103M | £31.7M |
| Capital expenditure | £37.9M | £32.9M | £26.3M | £29.5M | £20.9M |
| Total debt | n/a | £121M | £146M | £143M | £144M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hill & Smith HILS.L | $2.88B | +10% | +3% | 16% | 19.5× | 19.4% |
| Valmont Industries VMI | $7.74B | -21% | +5% | 14% | 15.9× | 10.7% |
| AZZ AZZ | $3.76B | -15% | +10% | 17% | 16.9× | 9.8% |
| Lindsay LNN | $1.08B | -3% | -6% | 11% | 20.4× | 6.0% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | HILS.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -7.8% | -4.1% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +9.9% | -13.9% | 4th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -17.3% | -29.5% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +2.8% | +8.6% | 8th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 16.1% | 11.8% | 4th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 19.5× | 20.7× | 10th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 19.4% | 9.9% | 5th most demanding of 20 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.6% | +7.7% | 9th lowest of 20 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +13.7 pp | +3.3 pp | 4th most demanding of 20 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +4.0 pp | +2.3 pp | 9th highest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 12.2× | 10.5× | 5th most expensive of 13 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.7× | 0.9× | 7th least indebted of 13 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hill & Smith HILS.L | United Kingdom | $2.88B | +10% | +3% | 16% | 19.5× | 19.4% | +5.6% |
| Daetwyler DAE.SW | Switzerland | $2.72B | -21% | +2% | 10% | 24.7× | 9.3% | +6.0% |
| Hanshow Technology 301275.SZ | China | $2.68B | -5% | +42% | 13% | 27.7× | 10.0% | +13.6% |
| TOMRA Systems TOM.OL | Norway | $3.17B | +6% | +7% | 11% | 31.8× | 9.5% | +9.2% |
| Kurita Water Industries 6370.T | Japan | $3.47B | -39% | +1% | 14% | 11.3× | 5.6% | +8.5% |
| Astral ASTRAL.NS | India | $3.57B | -20% | +17% | 12% | 46.8× | 32.5% | +15.6% |
| Zhejiang Weixing New Building Materials 002372.SZ | China | $2.27B | -19% | -12% | 14% | 17.8× | 9.9% | +1.1% |
| Brady BRC | United States | $3.69B | 0% | +10% | 16% | 12.0× | 1.0% | +7.7% |
| Leyard Optoelectronic 300296.SZ | China | $2.20B | -14% | -14% | 4% | 28.8× | 17.1% | +1.2% |
| Zhejiang Weixing Industrial Development 002003.SZ | China | $2.17B | +28% | +14% | 16% | 20.7× | -4.2% | +14.0% |
| Supreme Industries SUPREMEIND.NS | India | $4.24B | -14% | +17% | 10% | 33.6× | 25.8% | +12.1% |
| Ansell ANN.AX | Australia | $4.42B | +79% | +2% | 15% | 19.2× | 10.3% | +3.0% |
| FP Corporation 7947.T | Japan | $1.61B | +35% | +4% | 9% | 15.5× | -1.0% | +5.1% |
| Jinfu Technology 003018.SZ | China | $1.51B | -30% | +85% | 26% | 39.3× | 18.0% | +8.2% |
| Vesuvius VSVS.L | United Kingdom | $1.49B | +2% | +2% | 7% | 14.7× | 8.2% | +4.4% |
| Xiamen Voke Mold & Plastic Engineering 301196.SZ | China | $1.48B | -34% | +34% | 12% | 32.6× | 19.6% | +19.4% |
| Shanghai PRET Composites 002324.SZ | China | $1.36B | -44% | +27% | 1% | 45.7× | n/a | n/a |
| Takuma 6013.T | Japan | $1.26B | -1% | +18% | 10% | 13.6× | -5.4% | +2.5% |
| PILLAR 6490.T | Japan | $1.25B | -9% | +10% | 22% | 11.5× | 18.0% | +14.5% |
| China Lesso 2128.HK | Hong Kong | $1.20B | -42% | -5% | 13% | 5.7× | -4.5% | -3.5% |
| Suzhou Victory Precision Manufacture 002426.SZ | China | $1.17B | -41% | +7% | -20% | n/a | 30.8% | -18.0% |