Panmure Liberum has upgraded Weir Group to Buy from Hold, and maintained a 3,490p price target, making the investment case the recent share de‑rating opens significant upside.
Analyst Alexandro da Silva O’Hanlon says the mining‑focused engineering group’s large order book and project pipeline, together with aftermarket strength from recent acquisitions, underpin the upgrade even as he leaves FY26 earnings broadly unchanged and trims FY27 fully diluted EPS by c.3% for higher expected interest costs while keeping a FY26 net debt estimate of £1,068m.
Panmure highlights Weir’s Q1 orders were up c.+4% year‑on‑year, book‑to‑bill improved to 1.14, recent buys (Micromine, Fast2Mine, Townley and ESEL) added c.+7% to group aftermarket orders and the shares, down c.27% since its 19 February Hold call, imply a CY27 P/E of c.17.2x.
The analyst does, however, flag softer Q1 order intake as the near‑term watchpoint, but points to scope for further M&A to crystallise a valuation reset as the key catalyst.
