Directors of infrastructure engineering business Hill & Smith (HILS) have gone on a stock buying spree in an attempt to shore up damaged investor sentiment towards the company following a profit warning on 8 August.

Led by chairman Jock Lennox and chief executive Derek Muir, stock worth just over £75,000 has been bought at prices ranging from £10.22 to £11.79. Senior non-executive director Alan Giddins also added to his personal stake in the business.

Hill & Smith is best known for manufacturing roadside crash barriers placed on bends or the central reservation of motorways. It also makes street lights, bridge-side fencing, pipe network support struts used by water companies and has a galvanising business.

Shares in the FTSE 250 constituent were sent spinning lower earlier this month after confirming a series of project delays, particularly on the UK roads part of the business.

Higher input costs from rising raw material prices also put the squeeze on profits. This led to an 11% decline in reported operating profit for the six months to 30 June as margins came under pressure.

Making matters worse, management were forced to accept that previous optimism about a pick-up in the pace of projects through the rest of 2018 now looks unlikely. That latter news will have particularly peeved investors after management resisted lowering full year guidance as recently as May.

Hill & Smith’s shares had enjoyed a firm run lasting for three years or more up until these latest developments, roughly doubling to more than £15 since August 2015. In the wake of the profit warning the stock is now trading at £11.06.

Optimistic analysts remains hopeful that a Roads Investment Strategy covering the 2020 to 2025 period, set to be unveiled by the UK Government by the end of September, could provide welcome visibility to future project workloads for Hill & Smith. (SF)

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