Shares in Jupiter Fund Management PLC (LSE:JUP) jumped 14% on Thursday morning while wealth manager St James's Place PLC (LSE:STJ) fell 15% as expectations were confounded for both.
Jupiter, whose shares at the start of this week had fallen over 20% in the year to date, oversaw 2% growth in assets under management (AUM) and delivered a 56% rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £46mln for the first half of 2023.
This was 13% better than consensus forecasts, driven by better revenues and lower expenses as new fund flows were slightly positive.
Jupiter also declared a special dividend of 2.9p per share, giving a total dividend for the period of 6.4p per share.
SJP, on the other hand, had seen its stock rise 6.5% so far this year so when it came in short on fund flows - despite being a pretty positive £3.4bn - disappointed investors.
Also, despite delivering a small beat on underlying cash, there was guidance cut of four basis points to 0.55-0.57% for funds under management margin, with a decision to cap annual management charges on client bond and pension investments with a duration longer than 10 years.
Analysts at UBS said a negative reaction was likely "given the flow miss and negative margin guidance".