St. James's Place Share Discussion Threads

[chatterbox] 23/5/2013 17:30

Can someone explain why the share has gone down so badly

[tonysss13] 22/5/2013 16:45

lloyds placing 15%

[tommy ten chins] 16/5/2013 08:56

Moving on up! Now 618p
Why?

[tommy ten chins] 25/4/2013 08:12

Excellent interim statement. Heading for ATH share price?

[tommy ten chins] 26/3/2013 13:01

Just bought some at 507p
These look excellent based on the numbers
yield 2.5%
Growth this year 70%
PER 12

[hardupfedup] 01/11/2012 07:17

long term hold for me, regards

[andrewbaker] 31/10/2012 17:49

A forgotten thread; shame. STJ will profit from the retail distribution review (RDR), with so many financial advisers deciding to quit, leaving orphaned clients, and so many more leaving the independent sector to join a restricted adviser who will look after the compliance for them: a double bonus for St. James Place.

If you are reading this before the price has jumped much further than where it got to on 31 October 2012, buy in to this sure thing.

Oh, I almost forgot: those advisers joining will be buying shares too, pushing the price up more.

[jamesgkenny] 26/7/2011 13:53

2nd quarter new business figures due out Thursday 28th july

[hectorp] 08/6/2011 14:21

Long STJ /short LLOY? LLOY seem to own this by 60%.

[hectorp] 08/6/2011 14:14

Done very well, beating markets all of 2011.. is there much more to come.

- eg, how can they be doing so well with the markets weak?
H.

[rampmeister] 21/2/2011 09:18

Could be more to come with results due Wednesday :-D

RM

[stoaty1] 17/2/2011 17:45

A 3year closeing high , looks very good.

[stoaty1] 17/2/2011 17:45

A 3year closeing high , looks very good.

[d0ubtf1re] 30/1/2011 21:05

Like the look of this one - chart is saying it all here. Onward and upward.

[rampmeister] 26/1/2011 23:35

Must be tempting for Lloyds with share price breaking out towards 3 year high.

RM

[jamesgkenny] 25/1/2011 15:03

27bn under management. Many partners well advanced on 2012 deadline diploma qualification. Partner numbers up. 12 broker recommendations currently all BUY. Lloyds must cash in? Like GB with the gold reserves..

[stoaty1] 13/1/2011 16:12

Old joel, great find. Biggest problem, lloyds overhang. F T online today, lloyds mulling selling all or half of stake!!! Could be great news.

[old joe1] 12/1/2011 22:48

Keep an eye on this one tipped tonight over the road, featured it here before....

STARlight: St James's Place
Wed, 12/01/2011 - 00:00 | John Mulligan

Recent price: 279p | Actual PER: 34.0 | Ind Div Yield: 1.8%

Business background

This week, the STAR filters have thrown up the wealth management group St James's Place (STJ) as appearing attractive in terms of medium-term earnings growth combined with a low valuation.

I have to say that the appearance of an insurance-based share creates problems from the viewpoint of analysis, as insurance companies manage to get away with producing extremely opaque results that make it very difficult for outsiders to get behind the headline figures.

The difficulty is that none of the listed insurance companies provide any readily usable data on turnover, the geographical split of their businesses or any detailed breakdown of their investments and borrowings.

As the performance and allocation of their investment portfolios is a key aspect of their business model, this absence of information impedes a full assessment of business potential although some enterprise value information can usually be estimated.

St James's Place is a provider of insurance products, financial services and general wealth management services that are focused on higher net worth clients. The group was set up some 20 years ago as the J Rothschild Assurance Group by Mark Weinberg, Lord Rothschild and his colleague from Hambro Life, Mike Wilson.

In the early days of the company, Weinberg and Wilson recruited top selling financial advisers from their old company and from elsewhere within the UK financial services field. The selected sales people, preferably known as advisers within the group, formed the key St James's customer management partnership team.

In 1997, within some six years of establishment, the group, which was then known as St James's Place Capital, floated on the LSE main market. In 2000, HBOS took a share stake of approximately 60% in the group and this interest has been retained by Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY).

Annual results for 2009

The company's financial year is the same as the calendar year, so the last full-year results relate to 2009.

It is impressive that, in a difficult year, St James' Place managed to raise total funds under management by just over 30%, from £16.3 billion to £21.4 billion and to increase the net inflow of funds by some 35% from £1.7 billion in 2008 to £2.3 billion in 2009. It seems that financial problems at the global and national level combined with increasing market volatility increased the number of clients seeking to shelter under St James's wealth management umbrella.

Growth in new business was also aided by the rise of some 9% in the number of St James's partners advising clients.



However, despite these encouraging business statistics pre-tax profits for the full year actually fell by almost 40% and earnings per share dropped by a trifle more.

Recent results

The most recent results from St James's Place relate to those for the third quarter, released on 2 November 2010.

The company's statement on that date indicated that the third quarter reflected another excellent trading period for the group with the combination of the global recovery in markets added to new business raising the total value of funds under management to £24.8 billion. This represented an increase of approximately 10% in the three month period.

The company also reported the value of single investments in the period amounted to some £1.1 billion, an increase of 32% over the previous year although the growth in single premium pensions was slightly less at 27% in the period.

As at 30 September 2010, the European Embedded Value (EEV) of the group was approximately 320p per share against a share price at that time of 273p.

Outlook for 2011 and beyond

The sustained recovery in equity markets in conjunction with a significant level of global economic and financial uncertainty provides a perfect environment for a wealth management group such as St James's Place.

The group's ability to retain around 95% of their existing clients combined with the growth in sales and advisory staff operating in an environment of equity market recovery suggests that St James' Place will in all probability continue to grow profits and EV over the next year or two.

It seems likely that the EV for the year just ended will nearer 330p than 320p when the next preliminary announcement is made on 24 February. The current relatively low market rating of the group does seem to undervalue the potential given the group's impressive record at building and retaining investment business.

Pros and cons

It is obvious that St James's Place has built up a quality wealth management business over the past couple of decades. However, the stockmarket is not enamoured with insurance based businesses as can be seen by reference to the ratings for the larger groups such as Aviva (AV.), Prudential (PRU) and Standard Life (SL.).

One other aspect is the probability that Lloyds Banking Group will, in due course, be required to sell its 60% stake in the company. To a certain extent, this possibility may have acted as a brake on the St James's Place share price although, on the other hand, the announcement of a decision to sell this large holding would focus attention on the underlying value of the business.

[mechanical trader] 12/1/2011 15:59

RTT
05/01/11 07:37 St James's Place PLC (STJ) St James's Place started with buy rating at UBS, target price 334p

[stoaty1] 06/1/2011 09:20

It has had another upgrade today, JPM, again at 334!

[nellie1973] 05/1/2011 12:36

Broker note out-upgrade

[brain smiley] 03/12/2010 14:16

old joel

Nice timing...nice timing by the director to buy at 2.44 :)

[peterbill] 23/11/2010 09:15

I don't see how they can maintain this growth ... is it all on commission charges???

Lloyds inherited 60% stake from HBOS so has a vested interest in promoting STJ

Could all end in tears, or am I missing something?