Paragon Banking Group (LON:PAG) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results

Paragon Banking Group (LON:PAG) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported GBX 52.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, Digital Look Earnings reports. Paragon Banking Group had a net margin of 21.40% and a return on equity of 12.75%. The firm had revenue of £259.20 million during the quarter.

Here are the key takeaways from Paragon Banking Group’s conference call:

• Paragon delivered a strong first-half performance, with underlying operating profit of GBP 146 million, EPS up 2.9%, and return on tangible equity at 17.4%, supported by loan growth, tight cost control, and resilient margins.
• The company upgraded guidance, saying full-year net interest margin should be around 300 bps and cost guidance has also been raised despite a competitive funding environment and inflationary pressure.
• Paragon emphasized strong capital generation, generating CET1 at a 2.4% annualized rate in H1 and announcing a further GBP 50 million share buyback, while maintaining capital ratios above regulatory requirements.
• Loan growth remained solid, especially in commercial lending (+9.2%) and underlying buy-to-let growth (+6.7%), while the company continued to diversify funding through repo, covered bonds, and platform deposits.
• Impairments increased due mainly to the pre-September 2022 development finance cohort, and management acknowledged those workouts are taking longer than expected, though the rest of the portfolio was described as performing well.

Paragon Banking Group Price Performance

Shares of PAG opened at GBX 737.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of £1.36 billion, a PE ratio of 8.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 120.17. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 753.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 813.16. Paragon Banking Group has a 1-year low of GBX 695.50 and a 1-year high of GBX 981.

Insider Buying and Selling at Paragon Banking Group

In other news, insider Richard Woodman sold 67,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 777, for a total value of £525,788.13. Also, insider Zoe Howorth acquired 1,869 shares of Paragon Banking Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 798 per share, with a total value of £14,914.62. In the last 90 days, insiders bought 2,751 shares of company stock worth $2,184,450. 2.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 1,035 price objective on shares of Paragon Banking Group in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 1,000 price objective on shares of Paragon Banking Group in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of GBX 1,028.20.

Paragon Banking Group Company Profile

Paragon is a specialist banking group. It offers a range of savings accounts and provide finance for landlords and small
and medium-sized businesses (‘SMEs’) and residential property developers in the UK. Founded in 1985 and listed on the
London Stock Exchange, it is a FTSE-250 company. Headquartered in Solihull, it employs more than 1,400 people.
Its operations are organised into two lending divisions and lending is funded largely by retail deposits.