AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Shares Down 1.1% - Here's Why

Key Points

• AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB) experienced a 1.1% decrease in share price during mid-day trading, with the stock trading at GBX 509 ($6.90) and a significant drop in trading volume of 76% compared to its average.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings for AJ Bell, with one "sell," two "hold," and two "buy" ratings; the average target price stands at GBX 495 ($6.71).
• The company has a market capitalization of £2.10 billion and reports a high debt-to-equity ratio of 6.46, indicating financial leverage concerns.

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB - Get Free Report) fell 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as GBX 509 ($6.88) and last traded at GBX 509 ($6.88). 359,036 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 1,482,297 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 514.50 ($6.95).

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AJB. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on AJ Bell from GBX 440 to GBX 460 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Berenberg Bank increased their price objective on shares of AJ Bell from GBX 420 to GBX 490 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of AJ Bell from GBX 395 to GBX 410 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Shore Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 550 price target on shares of AJ Bell in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of GBX 495.

AJ Bell Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 7.16, a current ratio of 3.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.46. The stock has a market cap of £2.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99. The company's 50-day simple moving average is GBX 512.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 460.52.

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.