St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• St. James’s Place has a “Moderate Buy” consensus from seven analysts, with five buy ratings and two holds. The average 12-month price target is GBX 1,721.86, substantially above the stock’s reported GBX 1,127.66 price.
• Recent analysts largely maintained buy ratings, with price targets ranging from GBX 1,700 to GBX 2,050; Berenberg raised its target to GBX 1,945, while Citigroup reduced its target slightly to GBX 1,820.
• Insider Evelyn Bourke purchased 2,374 shares for approximately £24,998. St. James’s Place reported quarterly earnings of GBX 43.30 per share, while analysts forecast full-year earnings of about GBX 67.99 per share.

Shares of St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the seven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is GBX 1,721.86.

Several equities analysts recently commented on STJ shares. Berenberg Bank increased their price objective on shares of St. James's Place from GBX 1,800 to GBX 1,945 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a GBX 1,700 target price on shares of St. James's Place in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Citigroup dropped their price target on St. James's Place from GBX 1,830 to GBX 1,820 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating and set a GBX 2,050 price objective on shares of St. James's Place in a report on Thursday, July 30th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Evelyn Bourke bought 2,374 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The stock was purchased at an average cost of GBX 1,053 per share, for a total transaction of £24,998.22. Corporate insiders own 1.22% of the company's stock.

St. James's Place Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of LON STJ opened at GBX 1,127.66 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.04. The company has a market cap of £5.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.01. St. James's Place has a 12 month low of GBX 1,038.75 and a 12 month high of GBX 1,575.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 1,155.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 1,202.32.

St. James's Place (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported GBX 43.30 earnings per share for the quarter. St. James's Place had a net margin of 1.25% and a return on equity of 37.02%. As a group, analysts forecast that St. James's Place will post 67.9947461 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About St. James's Place

We plan, grow and protect the financial futures of over one million clients across the UK by providing holistic advice-led wealth management, delivered exclusively by the Partnership, our group of more than 4,900 highly skilled advisers. We offer an integrated client proposition, through which we provide financial advice, investment product wrappers such as pensions, investment bonds and ISAs, and offer our own range of investment funds and portfolios.

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