Saga share price: Numis points to ‘good early progress’

Numis has its rating and target on the Saga share price (LON:SAGA) ‘under review,’ after the troubled cruises-to-insurance group for the over-50s showed ‘good early progress’ from new products, Citywire reports. The comments came as the FTSE 250 lifestyle company issued a statement yesterday, saying that it  was making progress with its strategy, “despite challenging trading conditions in both insurance and travel markets”.

Saga’s share price, which slumped in the previous session as investors digested the update, has recovered some losses in morning trade this Thursday, having gained 7.50 percent to 35.54p as of 09:40 BST. The shares are outperforming the mid-cap FTSE 250 index which currently stands 0.71 percent higher at 19,382.88 points.

Numis places Saga ‘under review’

Numis placed its rating and target on Saga’s share price ‘under review’ yesterday, in the wake of the company’s annual general meeting statement, with the lifestyle group warning that its Tour Operations business was “being impacted by current political uncertainties”.

“Trading is described as broadly in line with expectations, with good early progress from newly launched insurance products and cruise bookings broadly in line with targets,” the broker’s analyst Nick Johnson commented, as quoted by Citywire, adding that the company’s tour business was “seeing challenging conditions although this is relatively small in the group context”.

The analyst reckons that Saga remains “on track for an outcome within the previous target range of £105 million to £120 million, albeit the worsening in tours probably means it is now more likely profit will be towards the lower end of the range”.

Other analysts on lifestyle group

Peel Hunt reaffirmed the mid-cap cruses-to-insurance group as a ‘buy’ earlier this week, without specifying a target on the Saga share price. According to MarketBeat, the lifestyle company currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average price target of 116.40p.