Jefferies cuts Aviva to hold with GBX 637 target — Legal And General
Jefferies Financial Group cut Aviva to a hold rating and set a GBX 637 target price, while the shares opened Tuesday at GBX 627.30. The move leaves legal and general out of this specific note, but it places Aviva within a mixed broker picture that also includes a GBX 760 target from Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft and an average rating of Hold from six firms.
Aviva analyst coverage
Jefferies’ call is the latest change in a review group that has already produced one sell rating, two hold ratings and three buy ratings. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that issued a report on Aviva in the last year was GBX 698.83, above both Jefferies’ target and the opening price on Tuesday.
Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Wednesday, January 7th with a buy rating and a GBX 760 target price. That gives Aviva two current reference points at different ends of the analyst range: Jefferies at GBX 637 and Deutsche Bank at GBX 760.
Aviva trading and earnings
Aviva had a market capitalization of £16.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.63. Its 50-day moving average stood at GBX 633.31, and its 200-day moving average was GBX 650.16.
The company last posted quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 5th and reported GBX 26.90 EPS for the quarter. Analysts expected Aviva to post 46.4942529 EPS for the current fiscal year, leaving the stock’s broker debate tied to both valuation and earnings expectations.
Recent Aviva insiders
Insider trading activity has also been mixed. Charlotte Jones sold 222,480 shares on Friday, March 20th at an average price of GBX 610, while Pippa Lambert acquired 227 shares on Wednesday, April 15th at an average cost of GBX 639.
Over the last ninety days, insiders bought 686 shares of company stock worth $435,599, and company insiders own 0.17% of Aviva’s stock. For investors, the practical readthrough is simple: Jefferies now sits below the current share price, while the broader analyst average still points higher than Tuesday’s opening level.
