AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Shares Up 1.8% - Here's What Happened

Shares of AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) shot up 1.8% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as GBX 519.50 ($7.13) and last traded at GBX 506.54 ($6.95). 1,427,939 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average session volume of 1,732,696 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 497.80 ($6.83).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Shore Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of AJ Bell in a 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of GBX 467.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 442.01. The stock has a market capitalization of £2.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.29, a P/E/G ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of GBX 11.40 ($0.16) 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 of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. AJ Bell's dividend payout ratio is presently 61.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AJ Bell

In other AJ Bell news, insider Leslie Michael Platts sold 9,494 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 419 ($5.75), for a total transaction of £39,779.86 ($54,575.20). 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.