AJ Bell PLC (LSE:AJB) shares continued their recovery from a recent 10-month low after the investment platform operator published a trading update for its second quarter, which analysts said was a bit of a mixed bag on flows.
Assets under administration topped £90 billion for the first time by the group's half-year stage, up 13% over the last year and 1% in the quarter, as customer numbers rose 18% in the year and 6% in the quarter to 593,000.
Net investor flows in the three months to the end of March totalled a positive £0.4 billion, the same as a year ago.
Flows into the Advised segment were up 67% compared to the first quarter but down 17% year on year, while flows into the Direct to Consumer segment were up 27% on the quarter and 40% year on year.
Since the end of March, CEO Michael Summersgill noted “global trade tariffs and broader macroeconomic uncertainty have created significant market volatility", which he said has led to increased D2C trading activity, where more than three-quarters of these trades were buys with the net investment totalling more than £300 million.
There was no change to the full-year outlook.
UBS said the £96.2bn AUA was 2% below the consensus due to more negative market impact than anticipated, but "importantly, AJB continues to see strength on the D2C platform".
Analyst James Allen at Panmure Liberum said flows were a "mixed bag" and "worse than the flows reported by peers elsewhere this week and last.
"Management mentions some of the peers being more aggressive on pricing. As a result, the company intends to tweak its pricing structure to make it more competitive going forward," he said.
Allen added that he does not expect to make any significant estimate changes, given transactional activity has picked up significantly in April, with higher margins.
Analysts at Shore Capital said the "weak quarter for markets" will entail a low single-digit reduction to its earnings per share estimate,
They noted that the shares fell sharply amidst market sell-offs in the wake of Trump’s tariff turbulence, but have recovered sharply, further helped by today’s "strong flows".
The shares rose 1.5% to 430p.