Loading…
British group of dozens of niche safety, health and environmental-technology businesses (fire/gas detection, medical diagnostics, water/air testing).
British group of dozens of niche safety, health and environmental-technology businesses (fire/gas detection, medical diagnostics, water/air testing).
Owns dozens of small niche companies, each run by its own managers, and keeps buying more in the same fields, so growth comes partly from acquisitions and partly from the units themselves. Products are often small safety-critical parts that customers must buy to meet regulations, which keeps demand steadier than the economy.
In one line: A smaller, safety/detection Roper Technologies.
Moat: wide (IP / patents, regulatory licence, distribution). Portfolio of number-one-or-two niche businesses protected by safety certification and long approval cycles.
Headquarters: Amersham, UK · Employees: 9,625
Size Halma (HLMA.L) is a United Kingdom Information Technology company (Electronic Equipment/Instruments) with a market value of $17.0B, the 37th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £3,352 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 25.5%, against -20.6% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 8th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 14.9% over the last twelve months (peer median +16.2%); the operating margin is 20.4% (peer median 21.0%).
Valuation It trades at 25.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 24.9× (11th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 22% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +14%, so the hurdle is +7 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 2.6 points above its cost of capital (10.9% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 19 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £2.58B | £2.58B | £2.25B | £2.03B | £1.85B |
| Revenue growth | — | +15% | +11% | +10% | — |
| Gross profit | n/a | £1.22B | £1.06B | £905M | £878M |
| EBITDA | £657M | £660M | £547M | £493M | £423M |
| Net income | £372M | £372M | £296M | £269M | £234M |
| Free cash flow | £399M | £399M | £425M | £324M | £212M |
| Capital expenditure | £71.0M | £71.0M | £59.4M | £51.6M | £45.9M |
| Total debt | n/a | £913M | £849M | £796M | £766M |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halma HLMA.L | $17.0B | -25% | +15% | 20% | 25.0× | 21.7% |
| Honeywell Technologies HON | $69.8B | -1% | -17% | 18% | 23.2× | 4.1% |
| Johnson Controls JCI | $81.8B | -3% | +9% | 16% | 21.3× | 17.8% |
| Roper Technologies ROP | $47.2B | +39% | +9% | 28% | 19.7× | 12.7% |
| Danaher DHR | $162B | +35% | +6% | 21% | 25.3× | 20.5% |
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 | HLMA.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -4.2% | -15.3% | 7th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -25.5% | -20.6% | 8th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -31.6% | -38.7% | 9th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +14.9% | +16.2% | 10th lowest of 20 |
| Operating margin | 20.4% | 21.0% | 10th lowest of 20 |
| Forward P/E | 25.0× | 24.9× | 11th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 21.7% | 21.5% | 9th least demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +14.4% | +9.9% | 6th highest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +7.3 pp | +6.2 pp | 7th most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +2.6 pp | +2.8 pp | 10th lowest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 20.4× | 26.4× | 3rd cheapest of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.2× | -0.7× | 3rd most indebted of 10 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halma HLMA.L | United Kingdom | $17.0B | -25% | +15% | 20% | 25.0× | 21.7% | +14.4% |
| Semight Instruments 688808.SS | China | $17.0B | n/a | n/a | n/a | 51.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Hangzhou Changchuan Technology 300604.SZ | China | $17.3B | +4% | +53% | 27% | 46.1× | 43.8% | +45.8% |
| Lasertec 6920.T | Japan | $18.2B | -25% | -19% | 44% | 28.7× | 28.9% | +26.8% |
| Chroma Ate 2360.TW | Taiwan | $15.4B | -46% | +101% | 39% | 18.5× | 19.3% | +12.8% |
| Hon Precision 7769.TW | Taiwan | $20.0B | -34% | +257% | 48% | 21.3× | 28.2% | +31.0% |
| Skyverse Technology 688361.SS | China | $13.8B | +33% | +39% | -12% | 563.2× | n/a | n/a |
| Sieyuan Electric 002028.SZ | China | $13.4B | -42% | +35% | 16% | 23.1× | 11.1% | +23.9% |
| Qnity Electronics Q | United States | $24.5B | -21% | +18% | 23% | 20.2× | 22.1% | 0.0% |
| BOE Technology 000725.SZ | China | $25.3B | +9% | -4% | 2% | 21.4× | -3.9% | +8.6% |
| AVIC Chengdu Aircraft 302132.SZ | China | $28.0B | +4% | +3% | 5% | 49.6× | n/a | n/a |
| NVMI NVMI | United States | $9.96B | -40% | +16% | 29% | 25.0× | 32.8% | +26.7% |
| Hexagon HEXA-B.ST | Sweden | $29.4B | +14% | -20% | -14% | 30.0× | 9.1% | +8.7% |
| ONTO ONTO | United States | $8.50B | -39% | +8% | 20% | 16.9× | 29.4% | +12.6% |
| Cognex CGNX | United States | $8.04B | -27% | +17% | 22% | 24.8× | 25.6% | +4.2% |
| Legrand LR.PA | France | $38.0B | -16% | +10% | 21% | 22.0× | 15.6% | +9.2% |
| China Railway Signal & Communication 688009.SS | China | $7.39B | 0% | +1% | 12% | 14.9× | -6.3% | -2.9% |
| Wuhan Guide Infrared 002414.SZ | China | $6.46B | -32% | +89% | 29% | 37.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Keysight Technologies KEYS | United States | $46.3B | -24% | +26% | 24% | 20.3× | 20.9% | +5.0% |
| Novanta NOVT | United States | $5.11B | -2% | +8% | 12% | 33.9× | 33.5% | +10.7% |
| INFICON IFCN.SW | Switzerland | $4.51B | 0% | -2% | 17% | 32.8× | 19.7% | +8.4% |