Peel Hunt Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for NEXT (LON:NXT)

NEXT (LON:NXT)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reissued by stock analysts at Peel Hunt in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a £130 target price on the stock. Peel Hunt’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 7.26% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Shore Capital lowered NEXT to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the stock from £140 to £147.50 in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Berenberg Bank raised their target price on NEXT from £147 to £178 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of NEXT from £108 to £116 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of NEXT from £117 to £130.30 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a £142 target price on shares of NEXT in a research note on Friday, September 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of £140.63.

NEXT Stock Performance

Shares of LON:NXT opened at £140.17 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 76.08, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The business’s fifty day moving average price is £132.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is £126.30. NEXT has a fifty-two week low of GBX 9,028 and a fifty-two week high of £146.40. The stock has a market capitalization of £16.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 1.37.

NEXT (LON:NXT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, September 18th. The company reported GBX 324.20 earnings per share for the quarter. NEXT had a net margin of 13.77% and a return on equity of 55.99%. As a group, analysts predict that NEXT will post 660.7526882 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Wolfson Aspley Guise sold 50,000 shares of NEXT stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of £145.20, for a total transaction of £7,260,000. Also, insider Richard Papp sold 2,518 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of £140.44, for a total transaction of £353,627.92. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

About NEXT

Founded as a tailoring business in Leeds in 1864 by Joseph Hepworth and Son, today, the company offers clothing, footwear, accessories, beauty and home products to our UK and International customers.

NEXT has over 500 stores in the United Kingdom and Eire, and over 180 franchise branches across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.