Insider Selling: J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) Insider Sells £1,960,000 in Stock

J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY) insider Simon Roberts sold 560,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 350, for a total value of £1,960,000.

Simon Roberts also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, August 18th, Simon Roberts sold 346,154 shares of J Sainsbury stock. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 333, for a total transaction of £1,152,692.82.

J Sainsbury Price Performance

LON:SBRY traded down GBX 8.20 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting GBX 345. 33,181,211 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 24,489,809. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 115.36, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.59. J Sainsbury plc has a 1 year low of GBX 293.70 and a 1 year high of GBX 380.30. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 337.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is GBX 333.35. The company has a market cap of £7.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.00.

J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The grocer reported GBX 9.50 earnings per share for the quarter. J Sainsbury had a return on equity of 6.39% and a net margin of 1.15%. Sell-side analysts expect that J Sainsbury plc will post 25.72 EPS for the current year.

J Sainsbury announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, October 23rd that permits the company to repurchase £100 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the grocer to purchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on SBRY. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and set a GBX 310 target price on shares of J Sainsbury in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of J Sainsbury from GBX 330 to GBX 346 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a GBX 375 target price on shares of J Sainsbury in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 390 price target on shares of J Sainsbury in a research note on Friday. Finally, Shore Capital Group reissued a “house stock” rating on shares of J Sainsbury in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of GBX 360.17.

About J Sainsbury

J Sainsbury plc is one of the UK’s leading food, general merchandise and clothing retailers.

Offering delicious, great quality food at competitive prices has been at the heart of what we do since we opened our first store in 1869. Today, inspiring and delighting our customers with tasty food remains our priority. Our purpose is that driven by our passion for food, together we serve and help every customer.

Our focus on great value food and convenient shopping, whether in-store or online is supported by our brands – Argos, Habitat, Tu, Nectar and Sainsbury’s Bank.