St. James's Place (LON:STJ) Shares Up 11.9% - Here's Why

Key Points

• St. James's Place plc shares surged 11.9% during mid-day trading, reaching GBX 1,308.50 ($17.29), with trading volume increasing by 28% compared to the average daily volume.
• A series of analysts have raised their price targets for St. James's Place, with Deutsche Bank setting a target of GBX 1,750 ($23.12) and Citigroup increasing theirs to GBX 1,400 ($18.49), both giving the company a "buy" rating.
• The company's last reported earnings showed a loss, posting a negative return on equity of -0.63% and a negative net margin of -0.02%.

Shares of St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) traded up 11.9% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as GBX 1,308.50 ($17.39) and last traded at GBX 1,308.50 ($17.39). 6,267,668 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 28% from the average session volume of 4,886,323 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 1,169.50 ($15.54).

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on STJ shares. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of St. James's Place from GBX 1,025 ($13.62) to GBX 1,075 ($14.29) and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of St. James's Place from GBX 1,200 ($15.95) to GBX 1,750 ($23.26) and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of St. James's Place from GBX 1,210 ($16.08) to GBX 1,400 ($18.61) and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an "overweight" rating and set a GBX 1,410 ($18.74) price objective on shares of St. James's Place in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th.

St. James's Place Trading Down 0.3%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 55.10, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 3.85. The firm's 50 day moving average price is GBX 1,159.67 and its 200-day moving average price is GBX 1,056.94. The stock has a market cap of £7.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,131.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23.

St. James's Place (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported GBX 52 ($0.69) EPS for the quarter. St. James's Place had a negative net margin of 0.02% and a negative return on equity of 0.63%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that St. James's Place plc will post 67.9947461 earnings per share for the current 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.