Filtronic – within a whisker of ‘space’ to the 150p level, will the Trump/Musk fall-out hit this Sedgefield-based equipment group – where to now?

Mark Watson-Mitchell
Jun 6
3 min read

Mark Watson-Mitchell, SQC Research - 06.06.2025

Four months ago, when concluding a conversation with CEO Nat Edington and CFO Michael Tyerman, my parting words suggested 150p a share for Filtronics (LON:FTC).

That was on Tuesday 4th February, when the group was declaring its Interim Results.

The shares were then 99.50p, in early April they were down to 72p, by the first week in May they had recovered to break above the 100p level.

Since then, they have progressively climbed higher still, hitting an all-time High of 147p yesterday, before closing last night at 146p following some 2,688,830 shares having been traded on the day.

And that is just 4p below the 150p Target Price I declared in my feature on Monday 10th February –

“Yet further SpaceX orders continue to drive this group, broker upgrades 2025 and 2026 year estimates, I see the shares, now 103p, going to 150p in due course.”

The Orders Keep Coming

The Sedgefield, County Durham-based group is an expert in the design, manufacture, and testing of high-performance radio frequency components.

It designs and manufactures products that transmit, receive and condition radio waves, particularly at microwave and mmWave frequencies.

Mission-critical communication networks depend on its systems and components.

The group’s markets are: Telecommunications infrastructure (4G and 5G); Critical communications; Space; Aerospace and defence; Trackside to train; and Test and measurement.

Since the Interim Results the group has expanded its Strategic Agreement with Elon Musk’s SpaceX group, it has a new contract with Viasat for the European Space Agency, less than a month ago it declared a contract award with Airbus Defence and Space for the Eutelsat OneWeb, and then last week it announced a new contract with the defence prime customer Leonardo.

Broker’s Views

Analysts Edward Stacey and Kimberley Carstens at Cavendish Capital Markets now have a 158p a share Target Price on the group.

For the year to end-May 2025 they estimate revenues will have more than doubled to £55.0m (£25.4m), with adjusted pre-tax profits quadrupling to £14.1m (£3.4m), with earnings rising from 1.4p to 5.9p per share.

However, for the current year, now underway, they assess £50.0m sales, £8.3m profits and 3.2p earnings per share.

At Edison Investment Research, analyst Katherine Thompson estimates £54.9m revenues for the 2025 year, with £14.1m profits, and 5.78p per share earnings.

For the year to end-May 2026 she goes for £50.0m sales, £7.4m profits and just 2.82p per share in earnings.

My View

Our market is all about supporting corporate growth and Filtronic is an excellent example of just how it all works.

However, even though I am a massive fan of just what the group is doing, I feel it sensible to remind investors that, based upon those brokers estimates, the group’s figures do not support such a current valuation.

Give it time to drop some real profits to the ‘bottom line’ from the mass of orders over the next few years, then the rating will be much more representative.

But I do feel that the shares have the ‘gamblers feel’ that the broker’s 158p Target Price will soon be left behind.