Hays' (HAS) Underperform Rating Reiterated at Jefferies Financial Group

Key Points

• Jefferies reaffirmed its “underperform” rating on Hays and maintained a GBX 45 price target, implying approximately 23% downside from the current share price.
• Analyst views remain mixed: Hays has two Buy, two Hold, and one Sell rating, resulting in a consensus “Hold” rating and a GBX 64.60 average target price.
• Hays reported a quarterly loss of GBX 3.64 per share, alongside a negative net margin and return on equity. Insider James Hilton also sold 63,122 shares for approximately £42,292.

Hays (LON:HAS - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "underperform" rating reissued by analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a report released on Monday, Digital Look reports. They presently have a GBX 45 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group's target price would indicate a potential downside of 23.01% from the company's current price.

HAS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Hays from GBX 60 to GBX 85 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a GBX 33 price target on shares of Hays in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Hays from GBX 33 to GBX 65 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Hays from GBX 60 to GBX 95 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Hays currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of GBX 64.60.

Hays Price Performance

HAS opened at GBX 58.45 on Monday. Hays has a 12-month low of GBX 28.68 and a 12-month high of GBX 78.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 60.68. The business's fifty day simple moving average is GBX 66.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is GBX 47.41. The company has a market capitalization of £919.49 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.06, a PEG ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.77.

Hays (LON:HAS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 20th. The company reported GBX (3.64) earnings per share for the quarter. Hays had a negative net margin of 0.91% and a negative return on equity of 13.31%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Hays will post 4.10 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Hays

In other news, insider James Hilton sold 63,122 shares of Hays stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 67, for a total value of £42,291.74. Corporate insiders own 0.76% of the company's stock.

About Hays

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