Numis highlights 'resilience' of St.James's Place's business model, keeps as 'top pick'

Analysts at Numis reiterated their 'top pick' recommendation for shares of St.James's Place, emphasising the resilience of the business model to the full range of market scenarios.

The wealth management outfit had never had a year of net flows or organic growth of less than 7% of its opening assets under management, they pointed out.

So while their model was based on annual growth of 7-8.0%, under favourable conditions could be even higher.

And while not immune to market risk, the majority of its AuM wasn´t exposed to fluctuations in the value of sterling.

Furthermore, management's commitment to keeping controllable cost growth at reasonable levels meant that St.James's Place was positively geared in more favourable markets.

Their estimates were for St.James's Place to achieve earnings growth of 21% per annum over fiscal years 2022-25, alongside dividend per share growth of 21%.