When Covid shut production lines across industry, Halma suffered just a blip in sales. Yet amid the current economic downturn, the manufacturing group has been priced for a worse slump.
The shares trade at 23 times forward earnings, a pumped-up multiple by the standards of the rest of the FTSE 100’s constituents. But it is at a six-year low and a discount to the depths of the pandemic. No stock is recession proof, but Halma’s defensive credentials still stand.
There is a reliability to its earnings stream and high barriers to entry in the niche, regulation-driven end markets that it sells its components to. Its portfolio of 48 companies designs and makes products for safety and hazard detection uses in three main divisions: safety, medical
