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

Key Points

• St. James's Place received a consensus analyst rating of "Moderate Buy", with seven analysts covering the stock: five buy ratings and two hold ratings.
• The average 12-month price target is GBX 1,675.43, with several firms recently reaffirming buy ratings while trimming or adjusting targets, including Citigroup and Jefferies.
• The stock was down 2.9% and opened at GBX 1,181.50, well below its 52-week high of GBX 1,575.50; the company also reported strong recent profitability metrics, including 37.33% return on equity.

Shares of St. James's Place plc (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the seven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is GBX 1,675.43.

Several research firms have weighed in on STJ. Citigroup lowered their target price on St. James's Place from GBX 1,810 to GBX 1,790 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 30th. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a GBX 1,475 target price on shares of St. James's Place in a report on Friday, January 16th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 1,700 price objective on shares of St. James's Place in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Berenberg Bank restated a "buy" rating and issued a GBX 1,800 price objective on shares of St. James's Place in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a GBX 1,400 price objective on shares of St. James's Place in a research report on Thursday, April 30th.

St. James's Place Stock Down 2.9%

St. James's Place stock opened at GBX 1,181.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 36.73, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a current ratio of 3.80. The firm has a market capitalization of £6.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.01. St. James's Place has a fifty-two week low of GBX 1,018 and a fifty-two week high of GBX 1,575.50. The stock's fifty day moving average is GBX 1,262.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is GBX 1,336.77.

St. James's Place (LON:STJ - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported GBX 99.90 earnings per share for the quarter. St. James's Place had a return on equity of 37.33% and a net margin of 1.76%. Analysts predict that St. James's Place 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.

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