Hays (LON:HAS) Shares Up 19.6% – Still a Buy?

Hays plc (LON:HAS)’s stock price shot up 19.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as GBX 43.10 and last traded at GBX 42.90. Approximately 11,017,554 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 18% from the average daily volume of 13,380,871 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 35.86.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on HAS shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on Hays from GBX 90 to GBX 75 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a GBX 33 target price on shares of Hays in a report on Friday, July 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a GBX 28 price target on shares of Hays in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of GBX 64.20.

Hays Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 65.55. The firm has a market capitalization of £673.52 million, a P/E ratio of -65.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 0.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average of GBX 33.49 and a 200-day moving average of GBX 39.04.

Hays declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, June 1st that permits the company to buyback 0 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hays news, insider Mark Dearnley acquired 485,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of GBX 30 per share, for a total transaction of £145,650. Also, insider Joe Hurd acquired 5,672 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of GBX 35 per share, for a total transaction of £1,985.20. Insiders bought 491,224 shares of company stock worth $14,765,184 over the last quarter. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Hays