AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Stock Price Down 1.2% – Here’s What Happened

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB) shares dropped 1.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as GBX 420.50 ($5.24) and last traded at GBX 442.50 ($5.51). Approximately 1,641,711 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 39% from the average daily volume of 2,676,921 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 448 ($5.58).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AJB. Shore Capital reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of AJ Bell in a report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 565 ($7.03) price objective on shares of AJ Bell in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut AJ Bell to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the company from GBX 450 ($5.60) to GBX 390 ($4.86) in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th.

AJ Bell Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of £1.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 2,212.50, a PEG ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44, a quick ratio of 7.16 and a current ratio of 3.75. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 455.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 448.67.

AJ Bell (LON:AJB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported GBX 20.46 ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. AJ Bell had a net margin of 33.20% and a return on equity of 49.62%. As a group, analysts expect that AJ Bell plc will post 23.8118812 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of GBX 8.25 ($0.10) per share. This is a boost from AJ Bell’s previous dividend of $4.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. This represents a yield of 1.66%. AJ Bell’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6,000.00%.

Insider Transactions at AJ Bell

In other AJ Bell news, insider Peter Birch sold 25,853 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 459 ($5.71), for a total value of £118,665.27 ($147,740.63). Corporate insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

AJ Bell Company Profile

Established in 1995, AJ Bell is one of the largest investment platforms in the UK, operating at scale in both the advised and direct-to-consumer markets.

Our purpose is to help people invest by providing them with easy access to Pensions, ISAs and General investment accounts, great customer service and competitive charges.

Our two core platform propositions are AJ Bell in the D2C market and AJ Bell Investcentre in the advised market, which both provide access to a broad investment range including shares and other instruments traded on the major stock exchanges around the world, as well as all mainstream collective investments available in the UK and our own range of AJ Bell funds.