J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) Board Declares Stock Repurchase Program

J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, October 23rd, RTT News reports. The company plans to buy back £100 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the grocer to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Share buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Shore Capital Group restated a “house stock” rating on shares of J Sainsbury in a report on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a GBX 375 target price on shares of J Sainsbury in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price target on J Sainsbury from GBX 330 to GBX 346 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a GBX 310 price objective on shares of J Sainsbury in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 390 price objective on shares of J Sainsbury in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 360.17.

J Sainsbury Stock Up 1.1%

SBRY traded up GBX 3.90 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching GBX 353.10. 1,384,014,375 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,096,709. J Sainsbury has a 1 year low of GBX 293.70 and a 1 year high of GBX 380.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 115.36, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market capitalization of £7.69 billion, a PE ratio of 20.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of GBX 337.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 333.35.

J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The grocer reported GBX 9.50 EPS for the quarter. J Sainsbury had a net margin of 1.15% and a return on equity of 6.39%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that J Sainsbury will post 25.72 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at J Sainsbury

In other J Sainsbury news, insider Katie Bickerstaffe bought 5,732 shares of J Sainsbury stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of GBX 347 per share, with a total value of £19,890.04. Also, insider Simon Roberts sold 346,154 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 333, for a total value of £1,152,692.82. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

J Sainsbury Company Profile

J Sainsbury plc is one of the UK’s leading food, general merchandise and clothing retailers.

Offering delicious, great quality food at competitive prices has been at the heart of what we do since we opened our first store in 1869. Today, inspiring and delighting our customers with tasty food remains our priority. Our purpose is that driven by our passion for food, together we serve and help every customer.

Our focus on great value food and convenient shopping, whether in-store or online is supported by our brands – Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar and Sainsbury’s Bank.