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EKF Diagnostics Holdings

EKF.L
49
Medical - Devices · Healthcare
Price
25.40 GBp
+0.40 (+1.60%)
Market Cap
£109.3M
Exchange
London Stock Exchange
Winston Score
49
Winston is serious
Mixed quality — meaningful strengths and weaknesses.
Data as of Aug 23, 2026 · filings through Dec 31, 2025
How the score breaks down
Quality
Good
Growth
Weak
Cash Flow
Exceptional
Stability
Good
Valuation
Good

Share count falling — buybacks

2.7% over 4y

The company has reduced its share count over this period, returning value to shareholders through buybacks.

Diluted shares outstanding: 461.0M (2021) → 448.5M (2025)

Winston Score History

The full picture

EKF Diagnostics is a UK-based medical device company that makes small machines and test kits used to measure things like blood sugar, hemoglobin, and other markers in a patient's blood. Its products are used by hospitals, clinics, and point-of-care settings — meaning tests happen right where the patient is, not in a big lab. The company also makes fermentation monitoring equipment used by life science and biotech customers.

EKF earns money by selling both the testing devices and the consumable reagents and test strips that customers need to keep using those machines — this repeat-purchase model provides a steady revenue stream. It operates across the UK, US, Germany, and other international markets, and its installed base of instruments creates some switching costs since customers tend to stick with compatible consumables. The main growth opportunity lies in expanding point-of-care testing in emerging markets, while the key risk is competition from larger diagnostics companies with greater scale and distribution reach.

Growth Profile

When traditional metrics don't capture the full picture, these are the signals growth stock investors use instead.

Revenue Growth

+5.4% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Slow revenue growth

EPS Growth

-95.7% YoY

YoY Growth Rate

Earnings declining

R&D Spend

£1M/ year

Rising (+7% vs prior year)

2.8% of revenue

Below sector average (18%)

R&D investment increasing — building for the future

Insider Activity

18.4%ownership

Flat

Insider ownership roughly steady over the past year

Cash Position

Cash flow positive

£16M cash & investments

Quarterly Free Cash Flow

↓ Burn rate worsening

Company generates more cash than it spends — no dilution risk from fundraising

Growth context

EKF Diagnostics Holdings is growing revenue at 5% year-over-year. The Winston Score measures business quality today — these growth metrics show what could matter tomorrow.

The Winston Score above measures business quality today. Growth stocks often score lower because they invest in the future rather than maximising current profits. These metrics show what matters most for evaluating that future.

Score breakdown

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Quality

Profit per sale
Gross Margin
52.5%
Healthy — 52.5% gross margin
Profit after running costs
Operating Margin
12.4%
Healthy — 12.4% operating margin
Return on the money invested
ROCE
9.8%
Below par — 9.8% return on capital

ROIC between 5% and 15%. They earn 5 to 15 cents back per year on every dollar invested.

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Growth

Sales growth
Sales YoY
+2.7%
Nearly flat sales (+2.7% YoY)
Profit growth
EPS YoY
-65.9%
Earnings shrinking (-65.9% YoY)

Earnings per share down more than 10%. Either a bad year, or a real decline.

How steady the profit is
EPS Consistency
3/8 quarters
Earnings rarely grow — volatile business

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Cash Flow

Profit that turns into cash
Cash Conversion
457%
Turns 457% of profit into real cash
Spare cash per sale
FCF Margin
15.9%
Converts sales into free cash efficiently (15.9%)

FCF margin between 10% and 20%. Every $100 in sales becomes $10 to $20 in real cash.

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Stability

What it owes vs what it owns
Debt / Equity
N/A
Data not available
Covers its interest
Interest Cover
43.81x
Comfortably covers interest (43.8x)

Interest coverage above 8. Profits cover interest many times over.

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Valuation

Price vs profit
P/E Ratio (TTM)
54.0x
Expensive — P/E 54.0

P/E over 35. The market is pricing in heavy, sustained growth.

Cheaper or dearer next year
P/E vs Forward
+40.4
GROWING
Earnings expected to grow meaningfully — cheaper on forward P/E (54.0 → 13.7)

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Dividends

Not applicable for this business.
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