St. James’s Place (LON:STJ) Trading Down 13.4% – Should You Sell?

St. James’s Place plc (LON:STJ) dropped 13.4% on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 1,243 and last traded at GBX 1,255. Approximately 9,472,512 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 29,336,307 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 1,449.

St. James’s Place News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting St. James’s Place this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Some market commentators argue the sell-off looks overstretched and that STJ’s fundamentals and valuation (PE ~13.4) offer downside protection — suggesting any pullback could be buying opportunity. St. James Place share price dives amid AI disruption jitters
• Neutral Sentiment: News of Altruist’s AI launch is a clear industry development — it raises strategic questions for advisers but is early-stage; incumbents like STJ could adopt similar tech or differentiate on advice quality. St James’s Place, AJ Bell and other financial services giants hit by Altruist AI launch
• Negative Sentiment: Immediate market impact: STJ and peer European wealth managers have tumbled as investors price in higher competitive risk, potential fee compression and faster client acquisition by low-cost AI platforms — a near-term hit to sentiment and stock performance. St. James’s Place Leads European Wealth Managers’ Tumble on AI Threat

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on STJ shares. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a GBX 1,475 target price on shares of St. James’s Place in a research note on Friday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on St. James’s Place from GBX 1,725 to GBX 1,726 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on St. James’s Place from GBX 1,350 to GBX 1,375 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on St. James’s Place from GBX 1,160 to GBX 1,600 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of St. James’s Place from GBX 1,590 to GBX 1,790 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of GBX 1,645.14.

St. James’s Place Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of GBX 1,432.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of GBX 1,343.35. The firm has a market capitalization of £6.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.41, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 55.10, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a current ratio of 0.60.

About St. James’s Place

We plan, grow and protect the financial futures of over one million clients across the UK by providing holistic advice-led wealth management, delivered exclusively by the Partnership, our group of more than 4,900 highly skilled advisers.

We offer an integrated client proposition, through which we provide financial advice, investment product wrappers such as pensions, investment bonds and ISAs, and offer our own range of investment funds and portfolios.