Ashtead Technology - building unrivalled capability, positioned for growth, shares 393p offer big upside, brokers' average TP is 653p

Mark Watson-Mitchell - 19.03.2026

On Tuesday 26^th August last year, I featured again the shares of Ashtead Technology (LON:AT.), then with its shares at 344p, it was capitalised at £276m.

The shares went on to score Lows of 297p last November and repeated in January this year, since when they have rebounded to 445p – showing that there is quite an active market range for the company’s equity.

On Tuesday of this week, the group reported an impressive set of Final Results for the year to end-December 2025.

In reaction, the shares bounced up from 367p to 408p, easing to 393p on profit-taking.

The Business

Now capitalised at £317m, the Aberdeen-based group is a leading subsea technology solutions provider to the global offshore energy sector.

Its specialist equipment, engineered solutions, technical expertise and support services enable its customers to understand the subsea environment and manage offshore energy production infrastructure.

Employing more than 650 people, the group operates globally, servicing customers from its ten facilities located in key offshore energy hubs in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Through its three service lines: Survey & Robotics, Mechanical Solutions and Asset Integrity, it supports the installation, inspection, maintenance & repair (IMR), and decommissioning of offshore energy infrastructure.

It provides specialist and engineering support in all areas of asset integrity, including design, construction and installation, mechanical integrity, life of field inspection and maintenance, and risk analysis.

The company’s suite of mechanical solutions includes subsea coating removal and cleaning, cutting and dredging services, and a range of remotely operated vehicle and diver tooling, topside support and additional project support packages.

Its survey and robotics solutions include environmental, geophysical, geospatial, hydrographic and metocean surveys and others.

Latest Results

The company reported a strong financial performance for the full year 2025, with revenue increasing by 21% to £203.2m, driven by acquisitions and organic growth.

Adjusted EBITA rose by 17.5% to £59.1m, resulting in an Adjusted EBITA margin of 29.1%.

The company also saw its proforma leverage decrease to 1.3x and proposed a final dividend of 1.3p per share, an 8.3% increase from the previous year.

The outlook for 2026 remains confident, supported by strong market fundamentals and a substantial customer backlog, although the company is monitoring geopolitical volatility in the Middle East.

Management Comment

CEO Allan Pirie stated that:

"We delivered a strong performance in 2025, making significant financial, strategic and operational progress against a challenging and unpredictable geopolitical and market backdrop.

Our flexible operating model and integrated offering supports the full lifecycle of offshore energy infrastructure, allowing us to capitalise on offshore activity irrespective of geography or end market.

This inherent agility has underpinned our resilience over the past year, enabling us to deliver another year of organic growth and strong returns.

Our strategy remains to further internationalise and diversify our business, expanding our differentiated global services platform, our scaled, diversified footprint, and the mission-critical solutions we offer to our customers operating in the growing offshore oil and gas and renewables markets.  

Our highly cash generative business model and strong balance sheet positions us well to benefit from the attractive long-term structural growth drivers across our end markets.

We are mindful of the evolving situation in the Middle East and continue to monitor this closely.

The conflict further reinforces the importance of energy security, which coupled with a growing demand for energy creates an enduring platform for long-term growth across the markets in which we operate.  

Our focus remains on delivering our strategy to create and capture more opportunities to grow and strengthen the Group."

The Equity

There are some 80.3m shares in issue.

The larger holders include Aberdeen Investment Management (9.14%), JP Morgan Asset Management (UK) (7.69%), Fidelity Management and Research (5.23%), Schroder Investment Management (5.04%), Lothian Pension Fund (5.02%), Rathbones Investment Management (4.95%), Aberforth Partners (4.23%), Jupiter Asset Management (3.98%), Pentwater Capital Management (3.72%) and BlackRock Investment Management (UK) (3.22%).

Broker’s View

There are some nine analysts following the company, eight of whom call the shares as a Buy, the other as an Outperform.

The consensus average Target Price is 653p, while the Lowest call is for 560p, and the Highest at 725p.

Analyst Daniel Slater, at Zeus Capital, rates the group’s shares as a Buy, with a 600p Target Price.

He notes that the group’s Outlook is steady, expecting organic growth in 2026.

“Trading in early 2026 has been in line with management expectations, and there is no change to guidance for the full year.

While the current situation in the Middle East (discussed below) continues to develop, Ashtead is a globally diverse business and exposure here is limited.

While organic growth is likely to be relatively steady, we also continue to look out for more acquisitions, as integration of Seatronics/J2 is now complete, and we could hence see new deals during 2026.”

For the current year to end-December he looks for £217.8m (£203.2m) sales, with adjusted pre-tax profits of £52.1m (£44.1m), lifting earnings to 47.6p (43.1p) and increasing its dividend to 1.4p (1.3p) per share.

Slater suggests that:

“On valuation, Ashtead is currently trading on a 2026 EV/EBITDA of 5.0x and PER of 7.9x.

This compares with UK oil services peers which are trading on 5.0x and 8.0x, and UK industrial rental peers which are on 4.5x and 8.0x.

For valuing Ashtead, we have also looked at historic peer multiples, which includes an EV/EBITDA of around 7x and PER of around 14x.

On this basis we have a 600p price target.”

My View

This group has an expanding market for its rental fleet of over 30,000 assets.

It has both the ambition and the facility to consider more acquisitions as it builds up its corporate and operational strength.

There really is a lot more to come from the shares, now 393p, as they reflect the group’s business potential, I see its shares rising back fairly soon over the 450p level and then going even higher.

However, after the recent rapid rise, it would be sensible to expect some profit-taking to provide a cheaper buying opportunity.

(Profile 26.08.25 @ 344p set a Target Price of 430p*

Ashtead - Inspection

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