AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Shares Down 1.2% - Here's Why

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) shares fell 1.2% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as GBX 420.50 ($5.17) and last traded at GBX 442.50 ($5.44). 1,641,711 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 2,676,921 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 448 ($5.50).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AJB. Citigroup downgraded shares of AJ Bell to a "sell" rating and reduced their price target for the company from GBX 450 ($5.53) to GBX 390 ($4.79) in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Shore Capital reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AJ Bell in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 565 ($6.94) price target on shares of AJ Bell in a research report on Friday, December 6th.

AJ Bell Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 3.75, a quick ratio of 7.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44. The firm has a market capitalization of £1.84 billion, a PE ratio of 2,235.00, a PEG ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99. The stock's 50 day moving average price is GBX 454.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is GBX 449.75.

AJ Bell (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported GBX 20.46 ($0.25) EPS for the quarter. AJ Bell had a net margin of 33.20% and a return on equity of 49.62%. On average, equities analysts expect that AJ Bell plc will post 23.8118812 earnings per share for the current year.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at AJ Bell

In related news, insider Peter Birch sold 25,853 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 459 ($5.64), for a total transaction of £118,665.27 ($145,798.34). 29.60% of the stock is owned by company 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.