Judges Scientific reports subdued start to year

Scientific instrument specialist Judges Scientific reported a subdued start to the year in an update on Tuesday, but said it was optimistic that it would still meet full-year consensus expectations.

The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said trading in the first four months of the year had been subdued compared to last year’s strong performance.

However, chairman Alex Hambro expressed optimism for the second half, anticipating a stronger performance to see the company meeting full-year market expectations.

Current market consensus for Judges Scientific for the year ending 31 December were for adjusted profit before tax of £34m, and adjusted basic earnings per share of 384.6p.

“At the time of our final results, we stated that we were still envisaging another coring expedition during the course of 2024, however, Geotek had not contracted for this expedition and there was uncertainty regarding its timing and the amount of any related revenue to be recognised in 2024,” Alex Hambro said.

“We can confirm that the next Geotek contract is now in negotiation, and specifies an expedition starting at the very end of 2024, implying no recognisable revenue in the current financial year.”

At 1016 BST, shares in Judges Scientific were down 7.3% at 10,800p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.