Citigroup Downgrades AJ Bell (LON:AJB) to Sell

Citigroup lowered shares of AJ Bell (LON:AJB) to a sell rating in a research report report published on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has GBX 390 ($4.87) target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of GBX 450 ($5.61).

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Shore Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of AJ Bell in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 565 ($7.05) price objective on shares of AJ Bell in a research note on Friday, December 6th.

AJ Bell Stock Performance

Shares of AJB stock opened at GBX 421.50 ($5.26) on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of GBX 460.26 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 443.32. The stock has a market capitalization of £1.74 billion, a PE ratio of 2,107.50, a P/E/G ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 7.16, a current ratio of 3.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44. AJ Bell has a 52 week low of GBX 280.60 ($3.50) and a 52 week high of GBX 529 ($6.60).

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of GBX 8.25 ($0.10) per share. This is a boost from AJ Bell’s previous dividend of $4.25. This represents a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. AJ Bell’s payout ratio is 6,000.00%.

Insider Activity at AJ Bell

In related news, insider Peter Birch sold 25,853 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 459 ($5.73), for a total transaction of £118,665.27 ($148,035.52). 29.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AJ Bell Company Profile

Established in 1995, AJ Bell is one of the largest investment platforms in the UK, operating at scale in both the advised and direct-to-consumer markets.

Our purpose is to help people invest by providing them with easy access to Pensions, ISAs and General investment accounts, great customer service and competitive charges.

Our two core platform propositions are AJ Bell in the D2C market and AJ Bell Investcentre in the advised market, which both provide access to a broad investment range including shares and other instruments traded on the major stock exchanges around the world, as well as all mainstream collective investments available in the UK and our own range of AJ Bell funds.