Wickes Group (LON:WIX) Reaches New 1-Year High - Should You Buy?

Wickes Group plc (LON:WIX - Get Free Report) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as GBX 225 ($3.05) and last traded at GBX 225 ($3.05), with a volume of 360266 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at GBX 221 ($2.99).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WIX. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on shares of Wickes Group from GBX 198 ($2.68) to GBX 250 ($3.39) and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Shore Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of Wickes Group in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th.

Wickes Group Price Performance

The business's fifty day moving average price is GBX 196.20 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 173. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 456.98, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The stock has a market cap of £531.55 million, a P/E ratio of 18.15, a PEG ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.78.

Wickes Group (LON:WIX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The company reported GBX 14.10 ($0.19) EPS for the quarter. Wickes Group had a net margin of 2.01% and a return on equity of 19.39%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Wickes Group plc will post 16.2278978 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wickes Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 24th will be given a GBX 7.30 ($0.10) dividend. This represents a yield of 4.01%. This is a positive change from Wickes Group's previous dividend of $3.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th. Wickes Group's payout ratio is presently 88.93%.

Insider Activity at Wickes Group

In other news, insider David Wood sold 58,445 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 172 ($2.33), for a total value of £100,525.40 ($136,231.74). 7.16% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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 over 230 stores across the UK, employing 8,500 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 £25 billion UK Home Improvement market.