The market would seem to have fallen out of love with Babcock International shares, which were above £12 towards the end of last year and rose 26p to £10.54 after a perfectly respectable trading update in which the order book combined with the supply of potential work at a new record level.
This seems to be one of those cases, though, where the market has been seeking a reason to take profits on shares that had hit uncomfortably high levels, trading on a multiple of almost 18 times earnings that seemed hard to justify.
There are three main causes for concern. As ever with a business that relies so heavily on public sector outsourcing, the first is political. The defence and security division works for