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Q1 revenue up 15.8%

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Shares hit record high

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Analysts say company set to benefit from new political

realities

(Recasts, with performance detail, share move, analyst comment)

By Chandini Monnappa and Shanima A

Nov 13 (Reuters) - British engineering company Smiths

Group ( SMGKF ) upgraded its annual organic revenue growth

outlook on Wednesday after demand for its next generation

scanning and explosives detectors drove first-quarter revenue

higher, sending shares to a record high.

Demand for airport scanner upgrades led organic revenue at

Smiths' detection unit, which accounts for 28% of the group's

total revenue, to grow by 15.8%.

"We expect the rollout of our advanced threat detection

systems to continue, the rollouts at airports are not even 50%

through and we are seeing strong benefit from it," CFO Clare

Scherrer told Reuters in an interview.

Smiths expects full-year organic revenue growth of 5%-7%, up

from its previous forecast of 4%-6%, and anticipates its

operating profit margin to increase by 0.40 to 0.60 percentage

points.

Early on Wednesday, shares soared 21% to a record high of

1,845 pence, recovering from a selloff that meant they were

down about 14% this year by Tuesday's close.

We consider this an impressive update, which should be

clearly positive to a share price that has been languishing,

analysts at Stifel said in a note.

Stifel also said Smiths looked well-placed for new

geopolitical realities due to factors such as its limited

presence in China.

Scherrer said in the U.S, a region that accounts for 45% of

the company's annual sales, demand from safety and security

sectors were high.

Smiths is also resuming its share buyback programme and has

increased the amount to 150 million pounds($191.03 million) from

100 million pounds.

($1 = 0.7852 pounds)