AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Shares Down 1.8% - Time to Sell?

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) was down 1.8% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as GBX 425 ($5.39) and last traded at GBX 426.50 ($5.40). Approximately 530,118 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 1,935,266 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 434.50 ($5.51).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on AJB shares. Shore Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AJ Bell in a report on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a GBX 565 ($7.16) target price on shares of AJ Bell in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded AJ Bell to a "sell" rating and cut their target price for the company from GBX 450 ($5.70) to GBX 390 ($4.94) in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th.

AJ Bell Trading Up 1.8 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 444.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 449.40. The stock has a market capitalization of £1.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.10, a P/E/G ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 7.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.46.

AJ Bell (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported GBX 20.46 ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter. AJ Bell had a return on equity of 42.30% and a net margin of 33.14%. On average, analysts expect that AJ Bell plc will post 23.8118812 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th were paid a dividend of GBX 8.25 ($0.10) per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 9th. This represents a yield of 1.66%. This is a boost from AJ Bell's previous dividend of $4.25. AJ Bell's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 ($5.82), for a total transaction of £118,665.27 ($150,361.47). 29.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.