Shares in Rolls-Royce hit a record high – propelling its value over £40billion for the first time.
In another upbeat session for the engineering giant, analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their target price on the stock to 545p from 524p.
The upgrade helped push Rolls-Royce shares up 2.8 per cent, or 13p, to 485.5p, valuing it at £40.7billion.
That took gains since ‘Turbo’ Tufan Erginbilgic took over as chief executive in January 2023 – when the company was valued at less than £8billion – to nearly 420 per cent.
An investor who bought £1,000 of shares when he took the helm would now have a holding worth almost £5,200.
Shares up: In an upbeat session for engineering giant Rolls-Royce, analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their target price on the stock to 545p from 524p
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘Rolls-Royce has made huge strides over the past 18 months.
‘A restructuring programme has prompted improvements in productivity, while disposals have lightened the load of recent financial scars and lowered its debt.
‘Pent-up demand for travel which has spun out into strong airline bookings has been a positive tailwind for Rolls-Royce, given that huge amount of its revenue comes from servicing engines for larger long-haul planes.
‘Its position in the aerospace and defence industry is enviable, particularly given the high barriers to entry which means there are very few smaller competitors edging in on its space.
‘With the defence budget set to swell, that potentially puts the company in an even better position.’
With all eyes on the Bank of England, the FTSE 100 rose 0.8 per cent, or 67.35 points, to 8272.46 and the FTSE 250 added 0.6 per cent, or 117.67 points, to 20,498.72.
The Bank held rates at 5.25pc once again – but with inflation back at the 2 per cent target, it indicated that a cut is likely this summer.
Stock Watch – Time Out
Shares in Time Out rose after it said it is on track to beat earnings guidance.
The company hailed strong trading from both its media and markets businesses over the latest quarter.
It told shareholders that it expects earnings to ‘be ahead of current market expectations’ as a result.
Time Out Group boss Chris Ohlund said the firm will ‘look to the future with confidence’ after stronger recent sales.
Shares rose 1.9 per cent, or 1p, to 53p.
Precious metals were on the march as gold prices rose, with Fresnillo gaining 4.4 per cent, or 24p, to 565p and Hochschild surging 4.1 per cent, or 7.2p, to 184.8p.
CMC Markets soared 12.8 per cent, or 36p, to 317p after it reported a 21 per cent jump in annual profits to £63.3million as it benefited from strong retail and institutional trading and tight cost control measures.
Trading platforms such as CMC enjoyed a revenue boost during the pandemic and in 2022 due to increased market volatility from events like Russia’s Ukraine invasion.
Also, despite a quieter 2023, they saw a year-end revenue spike due to heightened volatility from the Middle East conflict.
Shares in Upper Crust owner SSP fell 6.1 per cent, or 9.7p, to 150.3p after analysts at Berenberg cut their target price on the stock to 180p from 280p.
Oil and gas producer Energean jumped 4 per cent, or 41p, to 1073p after it agreed to sell its assets in Egypt, Italy and Croatia to private equity fund Carlyle for up to £745million.
NCC Group said profits for the year to the end of May were higher than expected amid demand for cybersecurity.
Although annual revenues look to have slipped 1 per cent to £324million, operating profits were ahead of City expectations of under £30million at around £31million. Shares grew 8.5 per cent, or 12.2p, to 156p.
