Wickes Group (LON:WIX) Insider Sells £491,552.60 in Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Director Mark George sold 223,433 shares on April 8 at an average price of GBX 220, for a total of £491,552.60.
• Wickes shares traded around GBX 227.75 (market cap ~£512.53m, P/E 13.89) and carry a consensus "Moderate Buy" from analysts with an average target of GBX 249.17 (4 Buys, 1 Hold, 1 Sell).

Wickes Group plc (LON:WIX - Get Free Report) insider Mark George sold 223,433 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 220, for a total value of £491,552.60.

Wickes Group Price Performance

Shares of LON WIX traded up GBX 2.75 during midday trading on Friday, hitting GBX 227.75. The stock had a trading volume of 702,543 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,141,871. The company has a market capitalization of £512.53 million, a PE ratio of 13.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of GBX 227.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of GBX 226.39. Wickes Group plc has a 1 year low of GBX 172.60 and a 1 year high of GBX 255. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 551.57.

Wickes Group (LON:WIX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 17th. The company reported GBX 17.40 earnings per share for the quarter. Wickes Group had a return on equity of 29.52% and a net margin of 2.35%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Wickes Group plc will post 16.2278978 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on WIX shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Wickes Group from GBX 275 to GBX 278 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Wickes Group from GBX 200 to GBX 227 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Shore Capital Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Wickes Group in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Berenberg Bank reissued a "buy" rating and set a GBX 280 target price on shares of Wickes Group in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on Wickes Group from GBX 250 to GBX 265 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Wickes Group currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of GBX 249.17.

Wickes Group Company Profile

Wickes is one of the UK's best known home improvement retailers. Having opened our first store in 1972 we now have 228 stores across the UK, employing 7,400 colleagues and offering products ranging from kitchens and bathrooms, to paint, tools and timber. Wickes is a successful, growing, cash generative and profitable business, operating in the large and growing £27 billion UK Home Improvement market. Over the past few years Wickes has consistently outperformed the market, growing share and delivering a CAGR growth rate double that of the market. At Wickes, we have a clear purpose, which is to ‘help the nation feel house proud', and we do this by focusing on our three customer segments - Local Trade, Do-it-for-me and DIY retail.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.