AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Shares Up 1.1% - Here's What Happened

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) was up 1.1% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 501 ($6.78) and last traded at GBX 500 ($6.77). Approximately 592,088 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 1,858,665 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 494.40 ($6.69).

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Shore Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of AJ Bell in a research report on Thursday, April 24th.

AJ Bell Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.46, a current ratio of 3.63 and a quick ratio of 7.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 438.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 440.04. The stock has a market capitalization of £2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a dividend of GBX 11.40 ($0.15) per share. This represents a dividend yield of 4.11%. This is a positive change from AJ Bell's previous dividend of $8.25. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. AJ Bell's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.37%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Leslie Michael Platts sold 9,494 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 419 ($5.67), for a total transaction of £39,779.86 ($53,843.88). Corporate insiders own 29.60% of the company's stock.

About AJ Bell

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.