Royal Mail share price subdued as group updates on trading

Royal Mail Group’s (LON:RMG) share price has fallen into negative territory In London this Thursday even as the privatised postal operator reported performance in line with expectations. The update comes after the mid-cap company said in May that it was targeting operating profit margin of over four percent in 2021-22, increasing to over five percent in 2023-24.

As of 08:48 BST, Royal Mail’s share price had given up 0.64 percent to 218.30p, underperforming the FTSE 250 benchmark which currently stands 0.24 percent lower at 19,566.91 points. The group’s shares have given up more than 53 percent of their value over the past year, as compared with about a 6.8-percent fall in the Footsie.

Performance in line with expectations

Royal Mail issued a short statement ahead of its annual general meeting later today, saying that overall, its performance in the  first three months of the 2019-20 financial year had been in line with expectations, without providing further details. The postal operator further reiterated its outlook for the year, and noted that all its other targets and ambitions set out in its results statement also remained unchanged.

Proactive Investors quoted analysts as commenting that today’s brevity of Royal Mail’s statement was expected.

The postal operator said that it will update the market on its half-year performance on November 21.

Analysts on privatised postal operator

The 14 analysts offering 12-month targets for the Royal Mail share price for the Financial Times have a median target of 240.00p, with a high estimate of 325.00p and a low estimate of 150.00p. As of July 12, the consensus forecast amongst 17 polled investment analysts covering the mid-cap group advises investors to hold their position in the company.

According to MarketBeat, Royal Mail currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating, while its average price target stands at 250.46p.