Hays (LON:HAS) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Hays plc (LON:HAS)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as GBX 70.70 and last traded at GBX 69.83, with a volume of 1641600 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at GBX 69.40.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on HAS. Jefferies Financial Group reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a GBX 28 price objective on shares of Hays in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Citigroup lowered their target price on Hays from GBX 90 to GBX 75 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a GBX 33 price target on shares of Hays in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a GBX 60 price target on shares of Hays in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of GBX 57.20.

Hays Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 65.55. The company has a market cap of £1.06 billion, a P/E ratio of -102.01, a PEG ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s fifty day moving average is GBX 49.57 and its 200 day moving average is GBX 40.96.

Hays (LON:HAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 20th. The company reported GBX (3.64) earnings per share for the quarter. Hays had a negative net margin of 0.16% and a negative return on equity of 2.24%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hays plc will post 4.0966184 EPS for the current year.

Hays declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, June 1st that permits the company to buyback 0 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hays

In other news, insider Joe Hurd purchased 5,672 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of GBX 35 per share, for a total transaction of £1,985.20. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Hays Company Profile