Judges Scientific lowers expectations as US weakness persists
By Josh White
Date: Thursday 22 Jan 2026
(Sharecast News) - Judges Scientific said in an update on Thursday that challenging market conditions in 2025, particularly in the United States, weighed on performance and were continuing to cloud the outlook for 2026, prompting it to guide to lower earnings than previously expected.
The AIM-traded firm said uncertainties around US federal funding for scientific research had persisted since the middle of 2025, and resulted in no recovery in its largest market.
While trading in the rest of Europe and China was described as satisfactory in the 12 months ended 31 December, that was more than offset by weakness in the US, alongside reduced investment in offshore wind during the second half, which had previously been a key growth driver.
Organic order intake weakened progressively through the year.
After a positive first quarter, like-for-like orders excluding Geotek's coring expedition were up 4% in the first half, but momentum faded, leaving intake flat by the end of August and down 6% for the full year.
The decline was driven mainly by a 23% fall in US orders, with additional softness linked to offshore wind-related demand.
Judges said it now expected adjusted earnings per share for 2025 to be around 275p, about 6% below current market expectations of 292p.
The board said cash conversion remained a core strength of the business and would be at least in line with the group's normal performance.
Looking ahead, the group said it entered 2026 with a lower-than-desired order book, with organic order cover reduced to 15.7 weeks of sales at the year end, compared with 18.7 weeks a year earlier.
The next Geotek coring expedition was now unlikely to take place until early 2027, and uncertainty remained over the timing of any recovery in US research spending, despite reported congressional support for restoring funding.
Judges said it had taken steps to reduce its cost base and to improve geographic expansion, market penetration and new product launches across its subsidiaries, while addressing product-specific challenges.
However, given the ongoing headwinds and broader macroeconomic uncertainty, the board said it was prudent to guide to adjusted earnings per share of 200p to 250p for 2026, assuming no coring expedition and no recovery in US trading.
The company said it would publish its full-year results for 2025 on 31 March.
At 1207 GMT, shares in Judges Scientific were down 11.85% at 5,060p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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