AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Time to Sell?

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB) shares dropped 1.7% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as GBX 400 ($5.18) and last traded at GBX 413.50 ($5.35). Approximately 21,694,963 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 689% from the average daily volume of 2,749,159 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 420.50 ($5.44).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 565 ($7.31) price target on shares of AJ Bell in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup cut AJ Bell to a “sell” rating and reduced their target price for the company from GBX 450 ($5.83) to GBX 390 ($5.05) in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Shore Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of AJ Bell in a research report on Friday, December 6th.

AJ Bell Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.46, a quick ratio of 7.16 and a current ratio of 3.63. The business has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 431.03 and a 200-day moving average price of GBX 446.12. The company has a market capitalization of £1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.15, a P/E/G ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were paid a GBX 8.25 ($0.11) dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 9th. This is a positive change from AJ Bell’s previous dividend of $4.25. This represents a yield of 1.66%. AJ Bell’s payout ratio is 61.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Peter Birch acquired 557 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of GBX 413 ($5.35) per share, for a total transaction of £2,300.41 ($2,978.26). Company insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

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.