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

St. James’s Place plc (LON:STJ) was down 13.4% during trading on Wednesday . The stock 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: St. James’s Place remains a large, established UK wealth manager with a market cap of ~£6.5bn and a P/E around 13 — metrics that could help it absorb competitive shocks and reduce long‑term downside risk.
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentators argue the recent sell‑off may be an overreaction, calling today’s drop “irrational” given the company’s fundamentals and the time it will take competitors to scale AI offerings. St. James Place share price dives amid AI disruption jitters
• Negative Sentiment: Altruist’s launch of an AI-driven wealth platform is being viewed as a direct competitive threat to traditional managers (including STJ), prompting investor fear about fee pressure and client outflows. St James’s Place, AJ Bell and other financial services giants hit by Altruist AI launch
• Negative Sentiment: St. James’s Place is leading a sectorwide decline among European wealth managers as markets reassess how quickly AI can displace parts of advisory and distribution, increasing near‑term volatility for STJ shares. St. James’s Place Leads European Wealth Managers’ Tumble on AI Threat

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

St. James’s Place Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of £6.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 1,432.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 1,343.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 55.10, a quick ratio of 3.85 and a current ratio of 0.60.

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.