St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have a “Moderate Buy” consensus on St. James’s Place, with five buy ratings and two holds. The average 12-month price target is GBX 1,721.86.
• Recent analyst targets range from GBX 1,700 to GBX 2,050, including an upgrade from Berenberg to GBX 1,945 and a Deutsche Bank target of GBX 2,050.
• The stock opened at GBX 1,043, near its 52-week low of GBX 1,026.55, while insiders purchased 6,000 shares worth approximately £64,790 over the past 90 days.

St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat 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 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is GBX 1,721.86.

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Berenberg Bank raised their price target 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 report on Friday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 1,700 price target on shares of St. James's Place in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of St. James's Place from GBX 1,830 to GBX 1,820 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a "buy" rating and set a GBX 2,050 price target on shares of St. James's Place in a report on Thursday, July 30th.

St. James's Place Stock Performance

LON STJ opened at GBX 1,043 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of £5.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.78, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of GBX 1,127.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 1,175.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.04, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a current ratio of 0.39. St. James's Place has a fifty-two week low of GBX 1,026.55 and a fifty-two week high of GBX 1,575.50.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul Manduca purchased 3,624 shares of St. James's Place stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 1,098 per share, with a total value of £39,791.52. Also, insider Evelyn Bourke acquired 2,374 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 31st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of GBX 1,053 per share, with a total value of £24,998.22. Insiders have bought 6,000 shares of company stock worth $6,481,224 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.22% of the company's stock.

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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