Lufax (NYSE:LU) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Lufax Holding Ltd (NYSE:LU – Get Rating)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after HSBC lowered their price target on the stock from $3.00 to $2.50. The stock had previously closed at $1.51, but opened at $1.46. Lufax shares last traded at $1.42, with a volume of 2,473,554 shares changing hands.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on LU. Citigroup lowered shares of Lufax from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $3.52 to $2.04 in a research note on Monday, March 13th. Macquarie raised shares of Lufax from an “underperform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Lufax has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $2.51.

Institutional Trading of Lufax

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Lufax by 49.2% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,327,236 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 437,431 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Lufax by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,794,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,108,000 after buying an additional 265,637 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in Lufax by 15.2% during the 1st quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 170,617 shares of the company’s stock worth $348,000 after buying an additional 22,490 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Lufax by 48.7% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,597,739 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,341,000 after buying an additional 1,506,015 shares during the period. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Lufax by 565.8% in the 1st quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp now owns 126,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $258,000 after purchasing an additional 107,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 15.24% of the company’s stock.

Lufax Stock Down 6.6 %

The stock has a market cap of $3.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $1.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.10.

Lufax (NYSE:LU – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Sunday, March 12th. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Lufax had a net margin of 8.18% and a return on equity of 4.32%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Lufax Holding Ltd will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Lufax Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 7th were issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 9.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 5th. Lufax’s payout ratio is 36.00%.

About Lufax

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Lufax Holding Ltd operates a technology-empowered personal financial services platform in China. It offers loan products, including unsecured loans and secured loans, as well as consumer finance loans. The company also provides wealth management platforms, such as Lufax (Lu.com), Lu International (Singapore), and Lu International (Hong Kong) to the middle class and affluent investors to invest in products and portfolios; retail credit facilitation services platform that offers small business owners with lending solutions; and technology empowerment solutions for financial institutions.