St. James's Place (LON:STJ) Shares Up 11.9% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• St. James's Place plc stock surged by 11.9% during mid-day trading, reaching a high of GBX 1,308.50 ($17.29), significantly above its previous close of GBX 1,169.50 ($15.45).
• Several financial analysts have raised their price targets for the stock, with Deutsche Bank increasing it from GBX 1,200 ($15.85) to GBX 1,750 ($23.12) and issuing a "buy" rating.
• The company reported an earnings per share of GBX 52 ($0.69) for the last quarter, with analysts projecting an EPS of approximately 68 for the current year.

Shares of St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) traded up 11.9% on Thursday . The company traded as high as GBX 1,308.50 ($17.37) and last traded at GBX 1,308.50 ($17.37). 6,267,668 shares changed hands during mid-day 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 ($15.53).

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a GBX 1,410 ($18.72) target price on shares of St. James's Place in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Citigroup increased their price target on St. James's Place from GBX 1,210 ($16.07) to GBX 1,400 ($18.59) and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on St. James's Place from GBX 1,025 ($13.61) to GBX 1,075 ($14.27) and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on St. James's Place from GBX 1,200 ($15.93) to GBX 1,750 ($23.24) and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th.

St. James's Place Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of GBX 1,154.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 1,053.81. The company has a market cap of £7.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -1,121.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 55.10, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 3.85.

St. James's Place (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The company reported GBX 52 ($0.69) earnings per share for the quarter. St. James's Place had a negative return on equity of 0.63% and a negative net margin of 0.02%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that St. James's Place plc will post 67.9947461 EPS 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.