St. James’s Place (LON:STJ) Shares Down 13.4% – Time to Sell?

St. James’s Place plc (LON:STJ)’s stock price dropped 13.4% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . 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.

Key Stories Impacting St. James’s Place

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

• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage questions whether the sell-off is an overreaction, noting short-term price volatility may reflect investor fear of AI disruption rather than immediate revenue impact; suggests longer-term fundamentals and client flows will determine outcomes. St. James Place share price dives amid AI disruption jitters: is this an irrational sell-off?
• Negative Sentiment: Reports that Altruist, a low-cost AI wealth-platform entrant, has launched offerings that increase competition across advisers and platforms — the article lists St. James’s Place among established players at risk of margin and flow pressure if advisers or clients shift to cheaper, automated alternatives. St James’s Place, AJ Bell and other financial services giants hit by Altruist AI launch
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage highlights a broader sell-off across European wealth managers led by St. James’s Place after AI-threat headlines — investors are marking down incumbents on fears of disrupted distribution, fee compression and accelerated tech-driven disintermediation. St. James’s Place Leads European Wealth Managers’ Tumble on AI Threat

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

St. James’s Place Stock Down 13.4%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 55.10, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 3.85. The firm has a market capitalization of £6.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is GBX 1,434.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 1,343.98.

St. James’s Place Company Profile

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.