London, May 2, 2026, 22:02 BST
- St. James’s Place bought 249,168 shares for cancellation after shareholders backed its buyback authority.
- The move comes after first-quarter funds under management fell to £216.94 billion.
- Shares last closed at 1,209.50p in London on Friday, down 0.74%.
St. James’s Place Plc bought 249,168 of its own shares for cancellation on April 30, extending a capital-return programme that has become a fresh test for the UK wealth manager after a volatile week for its stock and client assets. The company paid an average 1,204.0052 pence a share, with prices ranging from 1,169.0000p to 1,225.5000p, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.
This matters now because SJP is trying to keep the investor story on capital discipline intact while markets question the strength of its flows under a new charging structure. A buyback can shrink the share base and support earnings per share if profits hold up, but it does not by itself fix weaker markets or softer client activity.
The latest purchase followed an annual meeting on Thursday at which shareholders approved a final dividend of 12.00p a share and backed the authority for the company to buy its own ordinary shares. The vote to approve own-share purchases passed with 99.99% support, the AGM filing showed.
SJP said the latest shares would be cancelled and that, after cancellation, the number of ordinary shares in issue would be 517,948,122. In a separate voting-rights filing for the position as of April 30, the company put total voting rights at 518,929,393 and said it held no shares in treasury, giving investors the denominator used to judge whether holdings need to be disclosed under UK rules.
The buyback is part of a programme of up to 122.6 million pounds that began on March 2 and is due to end no later than Aug. 31. SJP said in March that Morgan Stanley & Co. International Plc would run the purchases and that the sole purpose was to reduce the company’s capital.
The pressure point is still flows. SJP said on April 29 that gross inflows rose to 5.23 billion pounds in the first quarter from 5.14 billion a year earlier, while net inflows — new client money after withdrawals — slipped to 1.53 billion pounds from 1.69 billion. Funds under management, or FUM, the pool of client assets it oversees, closed at 216.94 billion pounds, down from 220.01 billion at the end of 2025. Chief Executive Mark FitzPatrick called it “a good first quarter” but said a decline in global markets had hit FUM. St. James’s Place
Analysts were split more on the market reaction than the numbers. Jefferies analyst Julian Roberts said the selloff looked excessive and that a sharp fall in the shares “cannot be explained” by a 1% miss on FUM, while Panmure Liberum’s Abid Hussain said retention remained strong with no sign of faster outflows despite the fee changes. UBS analyst Nasib Ahmed said the FUM miss was the main drag on sentiment and warranted only a “small negative reaction.” Proactiveinvestors UK
Shares closed at 1,209.50p on Friday, down 0.74%, after heavy trading around the results and AGM. Sharecast data put the company’s market value at about 6.28 billion pounds at the close.
The competitive read-through is important. UK wealth managers are being judged on whether they can keep money coming in while markets swing and clients test fees; RBC recently said investors would attach the most weight to flow updates from SJP and Brooks Macdonald, while it kept positive ratings on Quilter and Rathbones.
The risk is plain: buybacks and dividends can soften the blow for shareholders, but another leg down in markets, weaker pension flows or lower-margin business mix could keep pressure on FUM and earnings. SJP’s own analyst consensus, compiled from Visible Alpha estimates, points to 2026 net inflows of 6.4 billion pounds and FUM of 234.4 billion pounds, leaving the next trading updates to carry much of the burden.
