AJ Bell (LON:AJB) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Here’s What Happened

AJ Bell plc (LON:AJB)’s stock price was down 1.7% 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 traded 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 Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Shore Capital restated a “hold” rating on shares of AJ Bell in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 565 ($7.31) price target on shares of AJ Bell in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of AJ Bell to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from GBX 450 ($5.82) to GBX 390 ($5.05) in a report on Tuesday, January 7th.

AJ Bell Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is GBX 430.42 and its 200 day moving average price is GBX 445.99. 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 company has a market cap of £1.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.28, a P/E/G ratio of 5.73 and a beta of 0.99.

AJ Bell Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were given 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%.

Insider Transactions at AJ Bell

In other AJ Bell news, insider Peter Birch acquired 557 shares of AJ Bell stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of GBX 413 ($5.35) per share, with a total value of £2,300.41 ($2,977.49). Company insiders own 29.60% of the company’s stock.

About AJ Bell

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.